On the dyno I was down around 15/20bhp due to the GruppeM heat soak
So, a few drastic measures have been taken. Im having the Aux radiator removed and having cold air intake added, to help cool air enter the GruppeM system.
But that’s not enough, I want to take it one stage further.
After walking the pits at Le Mans last weekend it gave me some inspiration.
I have made 2 heat shields. One is a small shield, its main task it too reflects the radiant heat from the exhaust manifold. The main heat shield is to block the ambient heat from the engine bay and to trap cool air entering the engine bay from the 4 air entry points.
Kit ordered from Demon tweaks, Some Nimbus heat shield (not good heat reflective properties), Gold and silver heat reflective tape, heat proof sealant and rubber edging.
Gold tape will reflect 80% of radiant heat up to 450c
Silver cool tape reflects up to 1000c radiant heat.
The 2 air inlets, above the headlight and the wing snorkel. The other 2 are the cold air feed and the snorkel above the grill.
The exhaust manifold, this is one of the main causes of heat that’s effecting the Air intake temp.
Now the first heat shield, this is to reflect radiant heat. I doubled the Nimbus heat shield to give it double effect.
In place (the bolts was a afterthought, to help secure both plates)
Next step, to make templates out of cardboard, this was quite time consuming.
Templates on the Nimbus plate, ready for cutting.
Templates being washed to get rid of the oil, this is to help bonding of the paste (and tape at a later stage).
..and this is one I made earlier. Note the hole for the 90mm cold air feed that will be added at a later date.
Note front of heat shield is bevelled, to help the air flow upwards
Shield in place, note the cooling tape used on coolant pipes and intake pipe.
Moving onto the GruppeM cooling. First things first, give it a bit of a clean, freeing it up from any grime and oil. (Note it helps being single doing this in the sink) lol.
Start the wrapping process, I run out of tape shortly after so had to order some more. It was the weekend, so had to wait a few days.
The finished product.
I took the car for a aspirated test drive for a good hour, and tested the engine bay temp. Unfortunately I don’t have a heat scanner, so just used the mark one hand. The gold reflective tape was warm and you could rest your hand on it, the Nimbus heat shield was hot and could not touch it. So, the next modification will be to put more wrap on the engine side of the shield. The reminder of the intake pipes was warm and not hot. So there you have it. It works.
Next stage is to have the Cold air feed and the manifold spacers added, I will report back at the end of the month when I have them fitted.
Thanks for reading.
I always thouht CF was supposed to insulate cold air from engine ambient temps but obviously not as good as gold tape.
