Temperature reduction in the engine compartment

[marcair]

There are some serious enhancements or mods going on now. Last year I removed the 4 screw heat shield common to the fwd surface of the rear bumper. Aligned with the 2 open slots in the bumper, I cut the shield and welded-in mesh material. This allows a small increase in the removal of captured heat from the rear area of the engine compartment. Remember, the heat collects just under the trunk base common to the battery area. Not a big deal, but then it costs a few bucks. Will try to upload pic.

Just a thought.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb21/marcair/heatshield.jpg

[unclejemima]

Very good idea. I will be doing something similar in the next weeks to help reduce engine temp. I even plan on installing a cooling fan to draw the air out. Kind of like...http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn123/cornflakejoe/artega-gt-winter-testing-spy-photo_.jpg
Thanks for the pics! Looks great!:)

[TADO]

nice work as always marcair. love all the details in your car and cant wait to see the story of its transformation.
theres a lot of cool stuff going on here at the moment! :D
nice to see pics of what everyones up to!

[marcair]

Uncle...
do a search for my post last year for my engine compartment exhaust blower system. It consisted of a boat 3" diameter air blower ($20) into a fiberglass garage-made duct. The blower is controlled by an adjustable thermostat ($20) from the local auto parts store. It is set to turn on if stuck in traffic on a warm day and then turns off when the temperature drops. It would always turn-on for a few minutes after shutting-off the engine. Fully automatic and adjustable. I attached the blower to the aft engine compartment bulkhead with strong magnets avoiding any permanent alteration. The 12v wire simply ran to the fusebox at the base of the right hinge of the trunk lid.

The fiberglass duct was made like a surfboard. I assembled and glued pieces of styrofoam, shaped as desired and wrapped with masking tape (the cheap resin I used would eat the foam). A few layers of fabric and done. Next, pour solvent or gas into the foam and the foam dissappears. Final sanding before painting. Note that I adhered a vaccuum rubber belt to the inside of the duct to allow for a snug fit over the blower flange. The duct is shaped like a "Y" feeding the slots in the trunk lid on both sides of the centerline.

[unclejemima]

Uncle...
do a search for my post last year for my engine compartment exhaust blower system.
Will do, i'll search good when I get home tonight from work!

It consisted of a boat 3" diameter air blower ($20) into a fiberglass garage-made duct. The blower is controlled by an adjustable thermostat ($20) from the local auto parts store.
Ah yes, that's an even better idea marcair! Its just I have an B/N Suzuki GSX-R 600 fan in my collection I was hoping to use up...but the duct fan would be WAY easier to rig up!
I'll keep you posted on how I make out!

[marcair]

Initially, I had considered installing 2 motorcycle fans, 1 common to each of the mesh squares I added to the heatshield. Note that typical motorcycle fans are rated at very high CFMs compared to other small fans because they actually push the air fwd thru the radiator, even at high speeds. I found this set-up was excessive and thus, developed the aforementioned boat blower.

If the a boat blower is used, pay attention to the air flow direction. http://www.hodgesmarine.com/Rule-3-In-Line-Blower-p/rul140.htm

[Beatman]

This seems like the right place to post about this sought of thing.

Very nice job with the mesh, I may look into something similar in the future.

Anyone ever poked their head under the engine cover of a MR2? They have a small fan located behind the side inlet vent which to the best of my knowledge is auto controlled purely for the sake of reducing ambient engine bay temps. So in there must be a temp sensor in the engine bay somewhere and any time it gets to a predetermined temp that Toyota must deem as damaging to components it comes on. It has no radiator or anything behind it. It just draws fresh air into the engine bay.
This is a sure fire way to strong arm the result, although I feel passive solutions are always better then active ones.

So you have two main probs when we talk Beat heat.
You have most the heat coming directly out the exhaust manifold. So we wrap it in Thermo tape.
Problem one solved.
However if you sit in any one spot long enough, heat from the rest of the engine bay will soak into the firewall eventually causing the ECU to have to work in destructive conditons anyway.
So we use a different heat resistant product. This one is a self adhesive Thermo blanket which you can cut to shape and apply to the bulkhed on the inside of the firewall.
The bulkhead in question actually comprises of two sheets of metal with a air pocket between them, so its double layered already to help prevent heat soak.
I have tested this and now even after 20 min of stationary idling with engine cover in place the ECU side of the bulkhead remains cool to the touch!

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/7357/005lmz.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/710/005lmz.jpg/)

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http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3843/beat003.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/beat003.jpg/)

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http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5540/beat007.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/831/beat007.jpg/)

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Sorry bout the photos, hard to see what going on, so cramped and dark. Much easier to see in person, but you get the idea.

[Obsessive]

Good work, that should certainly protect your new ECU. Where did you get the thermo blanket from?

[Beatman]

Cardwell racing supplies.

You can get it in a 2 foot squared mat. Cost around $60 NZD.

They hilariously mentioned that it was also available in enormous size rolls, and I'm thinking to myself "These guys have no idea how small the car is I'm using this on!" You could gift wrap a whole Beat in the bigger amount. Hell I still have most of the smaller amount left!

Their normal customers are "Western Springs" style cars with whopping great V8's in them.

[LawrenceHarding]

If the a boat blower is used, pay attention to the air flow direction. http://www.hodgesmarine.com/Rule-3-In-Line-Blower-p/rul140.htm

If I have done my sums right this will shift about 3800 litres per minute whereas at 9000rpm a Beat would consume around 3000 litres (at 100% volumetric efficiency). I wonder what the effect of fitting one in the air intake system would be?

[Beatman]

Not good.

A blower works by there being no resistance against it. It needs to be able to compress air and to do that requires alot more power and heavy duty design.

To my knowledge there has never been a successful electric supercharger.