[Diy_efi] Thermal barrier coatings

Gerard gerard at poboxes.com
Tue Jan 21 03:39:58 GMT 2003


It's phenolic, but not the common type. Phenolic is usually stuffed full
of some sort of filler, usually wood shavings or something. Pure
phenolic is a good insulator and some folks use it as a intake manifold
gasket to reduce transfer of heat from the head to the manifold, thereby
reducing intake air temps.

I don't think phenolic is that expensive, but the money probably goes to
machining to the shape of the gasket.

I'm not sure how much performance benefit there is. There is an article
online somewhere where someone did this and then claimed quite a
performance increase. They seemed to forget that they port matched and
smoothed the intake ports on the inlet manifold and head in order to
match the phenolic gasket. That probably helped more.

Then again, the article also indicates that whereas the inlet could not
be touched before, now it could because the reduction of heat transfer.

I looked into this as well for my car, but unfortunately a mere 5mm move
of the inlet manifold causes the bottom end of it to run into the
exhaust manifold. Darn non-crossflow head!!!!

G.

Allyn wrote:
> 
> some of the vw aftermarket companies are making a 1/4" thick gasket that
> appears to be made of some kind of fiber/epoxy mix (it looked like melamine,
> the electrical insulating type). it is sandwiched between 2 stock gaskets.
> the idea is to shield the entire intake manifold from heat that would
> normally be conducted from the head. while i have not seen any numbers on
> this, it should work well enough. i would try it myself, but like most
> aftermarket companies, they are charging through the nose for it.
> 
> Allyn Malventano, ETC(SS), USN
> 87 Rieger GTO Scirocco 16v (daily driver, 180k, rocco #6)
> 86 Kamei Twin 16V Turbo Scirocco GTX ('it has begun', rocco #7)
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <"Raymond Brantley"@avalon.siteprotect.com>
> To: "DIY-EFI" <diy_efi at diy-efi.org>
> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 4:20 PM
> Subject: [Diy_efi] Thermal barrier coatings
> 
> > While doing some reading (Accel EMIC doc) I came across a statement that
> > putting a thermal barrier coating on the bottom of a dry flow efi
> > manifold could improve performance. The obvious <cough>assumption<cough>
> > is that doing so would decrease intake air temps.
> >
> > Has anyone here experimented or had experience with this ?
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Raymond
> >
> >
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> >
> 
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