Got a little bored one day and had some cash burning a hole in the old back burner so i mosied on down to the local B&Q and picked up:

1x roll of heat reflective material (designed to be placed behind household radiators to reflect the heat back into the room for a bit more efficiancy)
1x tin of spray on glue

All coming to about 12 quid

And set about creating this:









We all know the benifits of colder dence air getting into the engine, so im constaintly trying to figure out ways to keep this area as cold as possible. Reflecting the heat away from the intake seemed like a good place to start. I was a little worried about it looking like something you might leave floating in the bog pan but function over form is one of my fave sayings ha ha, and tbh i think it looks okay!

The whole box has been wrapped front back top and bottom, the snorkle as well (slight overkill to do the WHOLE thing but the area where it runs over the top of the rad is a cruicial "hot spot" to takle) almost cxertainly "placebo effect" but i thought the throtle responce seemed a ball hair sharper, i guess its better having it there than not and like i say.... i was a bit bored ha ha! Maybe i should mention that i have also gutted the intake box, blocked off the resonator chamber and there is a Spoon Sports filter instaled, also this is a DBW vehical (no VSA).

Next up i'd like to try and get the rubber intake arm wrapped up. Its full of bloody ancilerys and the like though so getting round them is going to be something of a pain in the tits watch this space for an update soon though

 

Nice always liked DIY style mods for cheap lol

 

is the spoon filter better than any other filter like the k&n?

 

I see no real reason to foil wrap you air intake to prevent heat from penetrating through. As you know, plastic does not conduct electricity therefore is a good insulator. But who knows, maybe what you did is an invention that will become popular. Good luck

 

Dbw with an air pump. Never knew that they made them that way.

 

That's great workmanship. I've always been concerned about insulation mods though, I'm thinking once you run for a while, radiant heat is less of an issue than conductive heat. At that point wouldn't the insulation act like a blanket and keep heat in?

 

Thanks bud, i was thinking the same thing about heat soaking into the stuff after a period of running. Unfortunaitly i think its just something id have to deal with, i suppose the standard plastic would do the same as it heated up. I don't know its effective time period before that would become an issue but i dont do any endurance stuff anyway. I was also worried about the heat being bounced back off the stuff and into the bay ultimaitly rasing under hood temps. I did however do the work at a friends house and the drive home from his is about 45 mins on the motorway at a constant 4000(ish)rpm. Popped the hood when i got home and the stuff seemed to be at a decent temp to the touch. Didnt check inside the box, thats something im planning to do.

Tbh i know its not going to be a huge improvement on performance, i just thought id give it a go for the hell of it, i cant seem to help myself when it comes to "tinkering" Lol


Oh and whoever asked about the Spoon filter? I didnt really notice any performance diference. I've no doubt there is though as it looks as though air can pass through the foam like filter material far easier than the OEM paper model. Plus the surface area of the cone is a bit larger than OEM. Plus its Spoon, I honestly think you cant go wrong with anything they make for any Honda model.

 

I did the exact same thing minus the snorkel a while ago. Since I didnt have a snorkel I made a mat of the reflective material to cover the top of the radiator like those CF kits do. At first it looked and felt great. I cant say for sure if there were any notable gains. But I felt that the bogging from a stop light takeoff situation was slightly better than normal.

After 2-3 years the stuff started peeling off and looking crappy. I hope you did a better job than I did.

 

Very interesting looking. Great job.

 

Well got round to doing the intake tube the other day so i just thought id let folks see how it turned out.





I also decided to see how much of an advantage this stuff would be if any. So i filled 2 identical containers with the same amount of same temp cold water, put the lids on them and wraped one compleatly in this foil material and left the other as was. Stuck them both in a hot oven (about 130c which is waaaaaaaaaay hotter than the engine bay will ever get ) for 5 mins. Took them both out and the one that was wraped up was still pretty much freezing where as the one in the open was good and hot! Lol. The foil had stood up to the heat quite well also!

I've bought a cheepo digi thermometer with probe so i plan on sticking it in the air box and seing just what the temps are in there, as apperently for every 3deg you lose 1% of the engines power?

If you dont mind your engine bay looking like a NASA progect then i would seriously recomend doing this! I also stuck my hand down the snorkal to the portion over the rad after a damn good run....... it was still cold inside! The foil outside however? Different story

Im planing to leave it like this until i can get a bang on the head big enough to allow me to shell out 1000 pounds on either the Mugen or the Js racing Tchukeino(sp?) intake ha ha ha.