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Old Apr 2, 2008 | 07:35 PM
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Default heat shield material

what would be the better heat shield material and why? aluminum, stainless steel, or titanium? this is for my airfilter. i'm moving it from the turbo to where the stock air box used to be. all of these are readily availible to me. just not sure which would be better.
i figure aluminum would heat soak faster but cool off faster when air is moving. stainless would heat soak slower but would take for ever to cool. i see titanium is would be the slowest to cunduct the heat but doesn't that mean it would take the longest to cool? i'm learning here so please don't flame me.
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Old Apr 2, 2008 | 08:58 PM
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Aluminum conducts heat the least of your options and is the cheapest next to carbon steel. Its a no brainer. The only issue you have is warping under extreme heat. Fortunately, its light enough to run double thick material, while still being plyable enough to form. That would be my bet all day long.
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Old Apr 2, 2008 | 09:30 PM
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If you were to use some Alum like mentioned I would try to get some of this stuff.... http://www.crracing.com/racing_perfo...flective.shtml I have seen it used to insulate oil tank boxes.. as well as floor boards from exhaust heat...
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Old Apr 3, 2008 | 12:40 AM
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Originally Posted by xfactor_pitbulls
Aluminum conducts heat the least of your options and is the cheapest next to carbon steel. Its a no brainer. The only issue you have is warping under extreme heat. Fortunately, its light enough to run double thick material, while still being plyable enough to form. That would be my bet all day long.
Aluminum actually is much more conductive than copper or steel. Double thick materials would be worse for a heat shield than anything else.


Here's the real deal on heat shields. You want them to be a fairly good conductor but also to be as thin as possible. I ordered a 4'x4' sheet of .020 aluminum just for making heat shields. Yeah, it'll probably bend to **** if you manhandle it but there's reasons why you want it like that.

The thinner the material the faster the heat shield itself will heat soak, that means it won't be absorbing much more heat and do more reflecting of heat. Also, the more conductive it is the faster it will heat soak, it will also dissipate heat faster so there is the problem. What I'm going to be doing is getting some of that trick sticky back gold foil to be used on the "cold" side of the heat shield and possibly ceramic coating the "cold" side as well. Doing either thing to the "hot" side will make your heat shield ineffective.
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Old Apr 3, 2008 | 08:35 AM
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so thin sheet of aluminum, polish the hot side and paint the cold side black.?.
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Old Apr 3, 2008 | 10:28 AM
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Originally Posted by 4.8T
so thin sheet of aluminum, polish the hot side and paint the cold side black.?.
Yeah, when I was posting that last night I was thinking about what I'm going to be doing for my turbo y-pipe passing dangerously close to many things. I would either A.) polish both sides before bending to make it much easier or B.) polish the hot side and paint the cold like you said.
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Old Apr 3, 2008 | 04:30 PM
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that seems to be the cheapest easiest way. i'll give it a whirl this weekend.
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Old Apr 6, 2008 | 01:46 PM
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well i started on my intercooler shroud and my air box/heat shield. not done yet but i took some pics anyway. what do ya think?

i'm going to put some foam along the top to meat the hood. then put some foam on top of the intercooler to keep air from going over it.







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