turbo blanket? whats the deal?
01-18-2009, 08:22 PM
#16
1st Generation Admin
To further elaborate on what others have said:
- As most of us know, there is about an average of a 300*F temperature drop across the turbochargers' turbine (pending fueling, WOT or not, etc). That being seen as Per-Turbo, and Post Turbo, Before, After, what ever . . .
That temperature drop represents the Thermal energy that's being converted to Mechanical energy. The heat (energy) of the exhaust gas is being converted to the rotational force (energy) of the turbine shaft.
That mechanical energy is what provides the power to spin the compressor's impeller (the spinny thing)
Cooling of the exhaust gases by losses through the plumbing or otherwise results in less power for the compressor.
The upside in insulating the hot stuff will mean more power to the compressor (which is more air, not necessarily more HP at the crankshaft).
The downside is that the plumbing will run hotter than that not insulated. If the plumbing components aren't able to withstand the typical loading at an elevated temperature, then early failure can occur.
If one reads the fine print of most of the common header wrap seen in Summit or Jegs, you'll notice a disclaimer about the headers rusting out VERY early for example. Iron, steel, etc, corrode at a higher rate at elevated temperatures. Most metals also become weaker at elevated temperatures (see a lot of fine print).
When installing the twins on my heap, I went ahead and had all the hot stuff silver-coated to keep as much heat in the exhaust gases as possible. On the flip-side, I painted all the cold-piping satin black so as to help Dump heat from there (Colors like white and silver tend to reflect heat like a mirror whereas dark colors like black tend pass heat such as is seen on a solar panel or a heat-sink on a high power stereo).
Oops. I'm yammering.
As Wanna has said, you'll most likely not notice any seat-of-the-pants improvements with that by itself.
If you were to include wrapping the exhaust manifold as well perhaps you'll notice a faster spooling turbo.
The fly in the ointment is the fact that we're dealing with cast iron which is much heavier. It's gonna be slow in soaking up heat like in a drag race setting, and equally slow in releasing it. In a more realistic setting such as a work truck, I think it'd still be of benefit in the long run.
Things such as this have a much greater impact on thin-wall exhaust plumbing.
- As most of us know, there is about an average of a 300*F temperature drop across the turbochargers' turbine (pending fueling, WOT or not, etc). That being seen as Per-Turbo, and Post Turbo, Before, After, what ever . . .
That temperature drop represents the Thermal energy that's being converted to Mechanical energy. The heat (energy) of the exhaust gas is being converted to the rotational force (energy) of the turbine shaft.
That mechanical energy is what provides the power to spin the compressor's impeller (the spinny thing)
Cooling of the exhaust gases by losses through the plumbing or otherwise results in less power for the compressor.
The upside in insulating the hot stuff will mean more power to the compressor (which is more air, not necessarily more HP at the crankshaft).
The downside is that the plumbing will run hotter than that not insulated. If the plumbing components aren't able to withstand the typical loading at an elevated temperature, then early failure can occur.
If one reads the fine print of most of the common header wrap seen in Summit or Jegs, you'll notice a disclaimer about the headers rusting out VERY early for example. Iron, steel, etc, corrode at a higher rate at elevated temperatures. Most metals also become weaker at elevated temperatures (see a lot of fine print).
When installing the twins on my heap, I went ahead and had all the hot stuff silver-coated to keep as much heat in the exhaust gases as possible. On the flip-side, I painted all the cold-piping satin black so as to help Dump heat from there (Colors like white and silver tend to reflect heat like a mirror whereas dark colors like black tend pass heat such as is seen on a solar panel or a heat-sink on a high power stereo).
Oops. I'm yammering.
As Wanna has said, you'll most likely not notice any seat-of-the-pants improvements with that by itself.
If you were to include wrapping the exhaust manifold as well perhaps you'll notice a faster spooling turbo.
The fly in the ointment is the fact that we're dealing with cast iron which is much heavier. It's gonna be slow in soaking up heat like in a drag race setting, and equally slow in releasing it. In a more realistic setting such as a work truck, I think it'd still be of benefit in the long run.
Things such as this have a much greater impact on thin-wall exhaust plumbing.
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rshelton88
Performance and Accessories 2nd gen only
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01-10-2003 08:12 PM