Having a feel for this car, and the nature of the "spool" I am thinking about heat wrapping all of the plumbing. I've searched here and found a bit of info, but would like input from any and all folks who've tried this.

What material did you use? How much?

Which pipes?

Turbo?

And, what were the benefits?

It seems that a couple hundred $$ to improve the response would be well worth it.

 

I have read a lot about wrapping headers. Keeping the heat in the pipe is a good thing for turbo's but unless it is all stainless and well made it will be the death of it from severe overheating.

 

STS: rear mount, stock manifolds. Basically I'm talking about pipes on either side of cats [stock, high quality stainless], Y-pipe, and ceramic coated rear pipe into turbo. Nowhere near the heat of a front-mount system. Just trying to keep the temps up [= higher pressure & velocity to spool turbo].

As I've noted, this system builds boost quite well. Tonight flooring it on the interstate @ 2200 in 6th, it is building boost. >5psi by 2500...just want it to get building boost quicker timewise, not rpm-wise.

Others???

 

Was thinking about this the other day... wondering if anyone has tested to see if a Turbo blanket helps at all in a rear mount.

 

Putting only a turbo blanket on a STS rear mount system is kind of like putting a Band-Aid on an amputated arm!

You have to keep the heat in the pipes BEFORE the turbo to preserve the energy, insulating the turbo itself won't help you (it will just keep the area around the turbo cooler). Because of the long distance from the engine to the turbo, there's only so much insulation will help.

A turbo blanket alone won't do jack!

 

Not to get off topic, but do you have anything scanning the car when you are building boost in 6th gear?? I would imagine there may be some knock??

 

I would love to test some before and after with a blanket. I have all the tools necessary at my disposal to gather some usefull data.

When I am ready to hit the dyno I am going to see if any sponsers want to step up and donate a blanket for testing. If it works I would buy it, if not send it back type of deal is what I would love to find.

 

I agree that the entire system needs to be insulated, not just the turbo. Keeping the exhaust hotter simply requires avoiding heat loss the total distance to the turbo. Decent insulation should make a HUGE difference as I think about it. Air flow under the car produces a great deal of convective cooling to that exhaust.

Think I'm ordering some TODAY!!!

And, FWIW, insulating the pipes BEFORE the turbo should be the most important part. That blanket is also there to keep from cooking the rest of the engine compartment with a front-mount turbo.

 

I think heat wrap will make a big difference to spooling. (That and no leaks of course LOL!)

 

Yeah

 

It will make an improvment, but I don't know if I'd say it will make a BIG difference. No matter how much you insulate the pipes, it still doesn't change the fact that there's a long run back to that turbo.

 

Perhaps, but the distance is covered VERY quickly with higher velocity gases; pressure/temp relationship here is key. Once it's all spooling, the gas is HOT and FLOWING...so the boost is great.

 

Need some more input here, guys!!!

 

I think im going to try and wrap my exaust.
my sts car is a m6 and when I come off the line I see about 3-4psi then when I hit second I see full 8psi.I think its because 1st dosent create enuff load. also anybody ever notice that If your car is not hot or first time you get it into boost after starting it,it doesnt boost as fast as when its hot.

 

I definetly notice that.

 

The better question is why are you guys going WOT on cold engines?

 

no cold engine here. just cold turbo.

car never see's more than 2,000 rpm until ECT hits at least 172.

 

not when the motor is cold after I start it up let it warm up till norm opp temp and then drive it down the street.Im not that dumb!

 

this stuff looks interesting. I emailed and asked more about it.

http://www.jscspeed.com/index.html?/.../thermotec.htm

 

Yeah, that's the stuff I've been looking at as well. It won't be cheap to get a good covering all of the way back, but then again, $2-300 for noticeablly faster spool is not a big deal. Keeping the pipes warm will certainly keep the velocity higher.

I have a brief email w/ my main contact @ STS [not a tech guy] who says that they tried it but didn't see a lot of gain. I suspect they are looking at power, and not spool, however. I have asked for a clarification on that part.

Also, I am hopeful about info from Bob @ EPP. With all of the mods on that Camaro, it would likely be a worthwhile investment. The only caveat is that we need to assess this on the street, not on the dyno, due to airflow differences. A remote thermocouple would be just the ticket. Attach it at a few points on the exhaust, drive around and collect numbers; wrap the pipes and repeat. I toyed with an infrared temp measuring device, but realized that we need dynamic [moving] numbers.

Let's keep moving forward with this.

And, the single-layer w/ 1/4" overlap won't be optimal, as we're not talking about overheated headers, but long exhaust flows that are much cooler. Still, even a thin layer should DRASTICALLY alter the rate of heat loss across these pipes, keeping the velocity higher.