Modifying your Airaid air box

[DEW]

Originally Posted by BaylorAirForce

Alright so I was finally able to speak with one of our family friends who has been an engineer for 40ish years and has worked on all sorts of cars. I was showing him the intake and explaining the issue with Airaid, he agrees that adding a lot more holes was a good call but also told me that I should get some high temp spray on insulator on the box and tube. He said that it will keep it exponentially cooler. I'm looking into where I can get a small order of the insulator. I'll keep you guys posted.

Are you thinking something like this? If its made to hold heat in an exhaust, it should keep heat from coming into the intake tube.

http://www.heatshieldproducts.com/exhaust_wrap.php

[CFD]

There are ways to bring fresh air from outside the engine compartment into your air boxes. some ideas that may be usefull can be found here. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86759

[VR Baron]

Well spent three hours redoing my shield yesterday just to cleanup the shape and extend the new wall down and along the bottom of the box in the area between the box bottom and the frame rail to attempt to keep some/any hot air from coming into the new openings from below, if that even happens.Also added three new holes in sloped area right above where the snorkel was. No more holes lol!!
Took it out for a short 15 minute drive but didn't notice any difference with the lower wall extenstion in responsiveness,either hot air still getting in(?)or not enough if any to make any difference at this point to tell with all the extra volume of cool air(most likely?)
Took some more air temps and again nothing exact but still shows the same basic differences in the different areas meassured.
Air temp 76-77
Air tube 90 with water temp 200-205
Air tube 94-95 with water temp 215-220
Engine cover 101 to 105 with same water temps as above
Front box wall 84
All holes in front box wall and side wall 82-83
Air filter 83
The area in front of front box wall where cool air coming in and now protected with the shield is 80
Side wall of box with air tube to engine is 88
side wall near fender is 84-87 going front to back
back wall with the curved shape pointing toward engine is 93-101-98

This while engine at idle with possibly some hot air getting in with hood open to throw off the numbers so with car moving and cooler air coming in may make all temps cooler.

[BaylorCamaro]

Originally Posted by DEW

Are you thinking something like this? If its made to hold heat in an exhaust, it should keep heat from coming into the intake tube.

http://www.heatshieldproducts.com/exhaust_wrap.php

That's possible, but a spray on kind is even better.

[Toasty]

Originally Posted by BaylorAirForce

Alright so I was finally able to speak with one of our family friends who has been an engineer for 40ish years and has worked on all sorts of cars. I was showing him the intake and explaining the issue with Airaid, he agrees that adding a lot more holes was a good call but also told me that I should get some high temp spray on insulator on the box and tube. He said that it will keep it exponentially cooler. I'm looking into where I can get a small order of the insulator. I'll keep you guys posted.

I'm not sure that the extra insulation is needed. the air moves through the intake tube fast enough that It likely wouldnt be affected by the extra insulation.... same reason why there are both metal and plastic intake tubes... the air doesnt really spend enough time in the tube for it to be heated by the temp of the tube. lining the ouside of the box with heat blocking dynamat would likely be the best you could hope for.

[BaylorCamaro]

Originally Posted by Toasty

I'm not sure that the extra insulation is needed. the air moves through the intake tube fast enough that It likely wouldnt be affected by the extra insulation.... same reason why there are both metal and plastic intake tubes... the air doesnt really spend enough time in the tube for it to be heated by the temp of the tube. lining the ouside of the box with heat blocking dynamat would likely be the best you could hope for.

That's the plan. I figured I might as well do the tube while I'm at it. Can't hurt.

[kga10734]

With my shield in place, I don't use the inlet tube(snorkel) that runs to the air box. I think insulating the engine side of the air box to keep the heat down is a great idea. I have some leftover Dynomat that I might use if I can't find anything better.

[BaylorCamaro]

Originally Posted by kga10734

With my shield in place, I don't use the inlet tube(snorkel) that runs to the air box. I think insulating the engine side of the air box to keep the heat down is a great idea. I have some leftover Dynomat that I might use if I can't find anything better.

Yeah I have access to some Dynomat too, but I'd really like to get some good spray. I'm still looking around but hopefully I'll get something.

[CFD]

Originally Posted by BaylorAirForce

Yeah I have access to some Dynomat too, but I'd really like to get some good spray. I'm still looking around but hopefully I'll get something.

Not sure if it will help you at all but there is a product called Lizzard Skin. It is a spray on heat barrier sold by some speed shops but I think it may be only available in 1 gallon buckets.

[VR Baron]

Hit about 100 today in SoCal, 91 at 5 pm. Car still felt good in normal driving with the modded Airaid box and shield but the heat did make throttle response more sluggish thats for sure.

[KMPrenger]

it FINALLY dropped down into the mid 80s this week after being in the upper 90s / 100s the last couple weeks....too bad its gonna climb back into the 90s later this week :( Car feels great though! Last thing I want to do is wish the warm months away (I hate winter) but looking forward to driving in cool air.

[kga10734]

I haven't had time to see what all the stores have to make a shield out of yet. I might be able to get by there this weekend. Like I said before in a past post, I want to find something at a local store anybody can buy, if I make a template for people to use. It will take some cutting and bending but it isn't that difficult to do.

I also plan on jacking the car up and pulling the front fender well off so I can see up under the air box. I want to see what gaps are between the sheet metal of the fender and the air box so I know where to fill in the gaps with weather striping. I also want to extend the bottom of the shield out and over the frame area to guard against any hot air coming in from the engine bay. Shouldn't be to hard to do.

[VR Baron]

Originally Posted by kga10734

I haven't had time to see what all the stores have to make a shield out of yet. I might be able to get by there this weekend. Like I said before in a past post, I want to find something at a local store anybody can buy, if I make a template for people to use. It will take some cutting and bending but it isn't that difficult to do.

I also plan on jacking the car up and pulling the front fender well off so I can see up under the air box. I want to see what gaps are between the sheet metal of the fender and the air box so I know where to fill in the gaps with weather striping. I also want to extend the bottom of the shield out and over the frame area to guard against any hot air coming in from the engine bay. Shouldn't be to hard to do.

I did the same last weekend when I extended the shield down about 1" starting about 4" from the front of the car to about 3" down along the side of the box to cover the area your talking about. I still have a gap though because hard to meassure and fit accuratley so did best I could.
I didn't notice any difference at all over the orginal shield as far as driving and mine was revamped to extend all the way forward to the headlights and down to the frame rail and back to where the box front wall starts, similar to your's.
Air temps didnt change either really.The air in front of the box in the new sheilded, cooler area, was still the coolest meassured area. In regards to you extending the shield down like I did, I didn't notice a difference in air temp change at all. The air coming through the rect hole on the lower fender wall where you would think hot air could come in from the engine bay under the box was always cool before the extension and same after so maybe the hotter air just doesn't travel that direction or is blocked enough not to make it there.
Good luck with your mod and maybe you can get it to close off better then I could but I think I am done as I see no better street response at this point and couldn't tell unless the mods were all timed in a 0-60 or somthing to see if anything improved.

[BaylorCamaro]

Originally Posted by CFD

Not sure if it will help you at all but there is a product called Lizzard Skin. It is a spray on heat barrier sold by some speed shops but I think it may be only available in 1 gallon buckets.

Yup thats what I was looking into, but like you said they only sell in 1 or 2 gallons and I don't need that at all. I emailed them asking if it's possible to get half a gallon but no response..