Engine Compartment - Reflective liner?

[Longsnowsm]

Searching the forums a lot of the MPG mods revolve around getting the engine warm, and retaining that warmth to keep the engine running a lean as possible. One thing that comes to mind that I haven't seen here is a modification that puts a reflective liner under the hood to reflect the heat back into the engine bay. Has anyone done a mod like this to see if there is any benefit to doing something like this? I was thinking about the material called Reflectix or something like that which could be placed under the hood. Thoughts?

Longsnowsm

[joecvt]

There are two people (I believe) that wrapped nearly the entire engine in a blanket from some type of material that can withstand heat. I know at least one person did this several years back and I think another person did this afterwards. There were pictures included in the post...

JoeCVT = Just your average CVT owner

[Cobb]

I believe the metal liner was done in some exotic sport cars to keep engine bay heat from melting the composit materials they were made of. I dont think using metal to insulate metal would do anything productive.

[Kevin Dougherty]

Randall's Insight - MIMA Honda Insight Modified Integrated Motor Assist

[Longsnowsm]

I know back in the old days they used to have padded liners under the hood on vehicles. What I was thinking was something like that with a reflective material to reflect the heat back into the engine compartment. I know from playing with emergency space blankets and reflective barriers that this could be a very effective way to redirect some of the heat in the engine bay. So I was curious if anyone had tried anything like this yet. Maybe some velcro to use as the attach point and line the underside of the hood with a reflective barrier. I am not sure how heat resistant that reflectix stuff is, but some sort of reflective barrier that can handle the heat, and ridge/flexible enough that you can work with it. Thoughts?

Longsnowsm

[faxe]

This winter i have had one of those rescue blankets, - thinn alu-foil thats
silver one side & gold the other, mounted covering my engine, to make it more durable i folded it so it was 4 layers, and put some strips of ducape on it.

It goes all the way down in front of the engine, and is held in place at the firewall using 2 zip ties.

Easy to put on and take off.

[TRI]

I did it like faxe (except for the tape ) with the same rescue mat. Easy to put on/off, durable, cheap, safe (the radiator still works) and the engine gets 18 F higher intake temps. It can be used up to 68 F outside temp.

[Longsnowsm]

Very interesting guys... I was thinking along the lines of putting the reflective material under the hood, but you guys are literally wrapping the engine with it! Any concerns with it somehow getting loose or getting caught up in the moving parts?

I think I would like to do some monitoring of my water temps, intake temps, and get an idea of actual numbers from the Insight and then try experimenting with this a bit. I think this make a lot of sense given the measures everyone is taking to increase temps and lean out the burn of the engine. This is great stuff! Thank you for the pics and explanations. This gives me something to go by as I start to play over the next few weeks with the various mods.

Longsnowsm

[TRI]

Originally Posted by Longsnowsm

I think I would like to do some monitoring of my water temps, intake temps, and get an idea of actual numbers from the Insight and then try experimenting with this a bit.

From the beginning, I used a scangauge to monitor IAT and WT. First, I started with a simple cardboard and got overheating after running up our hills in Switzerland for only 1 mile. With the reflective material wrapping the wt never got past 205 F wt even with 68 F outside temp. I'm running 62 mph on the highway, no problem. Please remind that only the front area of the engine is wrapped, the exhaust side is open to cool things down.
I'm going to remove it above 68 F outside temp as the inside temps with the warm air intake go higher than 100 F.
The rescue mat only costs a few $ and it's installed within a few minutes.
One thing to note: The belt of the engine which drives the waterpump is quite close but it never touched. I didn't even fix the mat and it remained in the same position even after 3000 miles. faxe fixed it with tape to keep it away from the belt.

[Longsnowsm]

Well tonight was my first drive with the cardboard/radiator block in place. I was only going 1.75 miles, but the car was already warming up by the time I arrived at my destination. I was in the store for about an hour, when I came back out and started for home the car was already warm so the radiator block seemed to be quite effective for this little experimental run. Normally I would have to drive about 5-6 miles before the car would start to warm up so that is progress.

I live in CO so we have similar problems here with "little hills" that could pose a problem for the radiator block. So I will have to give that some thought when I take the car on a longer drive that exposes it to some inclines.

I have to give it some thought on how I am going to setup the control runs so I can get a baseline for the car temps. I work from home presently so I don't drive the car that often at present. So I will have to look at some drives, times, temps, and gather some data before I start playing with the other mods. I will be playing with the grill block next I think, then start making some variations of the reflective liners to try. I will just take them one mod at a time so I have a reasonable idea what each mod does to the car. I have a fairly simple route in mind to drive that would be about a 12-14 mile round trip. So I will have to give that some more thought.

I was wondering what you were doing to keep the wrap clear of the belts, hot parts, and moving parts. That would be my concern is the liner getting lose and ending up wrapped up in something moving. Sounds like this is working pretty well.

Longsnowsm