Every bit counts: Heat management
Got sidetracked because I finally also started thinking seriously about heat management. Modern turbo cars don’t have much room in the engine bay and no matter where you put the turbo it’s bound to cause problems, which exacerbate as you dial up boost. The FK8 is particularly problematic in this regard: there’s not much room in the grill to flow air into the radiator, the intake and turbo inlet lies directly over the turbo and the downpipe, and the hood has a tiny vent that was an afterthought and nowhere near up to the job especially on hot days and on track.
As mentioned previously there are several things one can do. They focus on 1) reducing heat trapped under the hood 2) keeping the heat from the hot stuff in that part instead of radiating into the bay 3) keeping the heat out of the not hot stuff 4) improving cooling efficiency
- Reducing heat trapped under hood- I’ve already ordered a vented CF hood and this should, once installed, significantly improve heat escape. This is one of the major factors
- keeping the heat from the hot stuff where it should be- this involves something I’ve not mentioned yet: a turbo blanket
The presumed industry standard brand is PTP (PRL endorses them), but I’ve since discovered that many have commented that Funk Motorsport’s blankets fit better. The material appears to be the same (pulverised lava rock thread). The purpose of this blanket is to keep the hot side of the turbo hot, and the heat away from the cool side of the turbo. This will improve the turbo efficiency, but it will also vastly reduce radiant heat from the turbo which in my case should reduce IATs. The downside is that it’ll increase conductive heat to connected parts, in this case the downpipe.
Speaking of the downpipe, I should get this Cerakoted. Given this is a catted high flow downpipe and it already has to lose the topside heat shield to fit into the bay, I suspect I won’t have room to then apply a blanket on top. But the Cerakote goes a long way. My only concern is that the cat will go bad faster but eh, it is what it is.
- keeping the heat out of the not hot stuff- namely the intake and turbo inlet pipe which pipes the air from the outside. I thought I’d get a little fancy and wrapped the inlet pipe and surrounds with reflective gold tape.
This stuff is designed specifically to reflect radiant heat so it might make a difference now what with all the heat coming off the turbo and downpipe. Once those have been dealt with this will be much less of a factor, but there will still be heat and also coming from the block too. When I get the chance I’ll also wrap the engine side of the airbox.
- Improving cooling efficiency- I’ve already obtained a radiator, though due to inherent other challenges the effect of this will be modest. Still worth a shot. Then there’s the oil cooler, which I haven’t figured out how to get to fit thanks to the radar module.
After all this is done I should at least be able to get one or two hot laps in on a Summer’s day with the big turbo flex fuel tune without boiling the car 