# heat barrier tape on stock intercooler piping? thoughts?



## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

looking for thoughts from anyone that might be a little well versed in the science behind this. the other day i opened my hood touched the cold side of the intercooler piping and burnt my hand. i know its been pretty hot but ****. im thinking about wrapping it in that thermal insulating tape like whats used for wiring. this is my first turbo car but im not new to turbo cars at all a lot of experience with wrxs and a little with evos. in theory it should help with the heat a little. i know the cruze doesnt have the most ideal intercooler set up. the only time ive seen it in a a way similar to what im thinking about doing was on a buddy of mines evo. he had it wrapped on his intake piping. my heavy modifying days are over so i dont want to be pulling apart my car to do a different intercooler set up, but im always looking for ways to improve what i can.


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## hificruzer226 (Mar 27, 2013)

So if you are getting to the max limit of your intercooler flow rate its efficiency will drop so this may help depending on your set up. I have been under the impression that our intercooler are pretty good. But I haven't checked temp drops. You can always try the asbestos tape and see if your intake air temps drop. This would be a good write up. If you are gonna do it I always recommend the scientific method.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Yes, heat wrapping the pipes leaving the IC will help keep them from heat soaking like that at a stop. Once moving down the road, the cold air temp will come down to around ambient temp once it passes through the intercooler, but it's not an ideal setup for city driving (nor is a Subaru's).


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

if i do it im for sure going to take a very scientific approach to it as far as testing goes. most likely ill be using the cxracing intake kit for it. hopefully it is worth while. if i can gather enough data to give a write up. hopefully i see positive results because it would be an easy diy project for someone like me who doesnt want to modify too heavily. id love to hear from someone who has attempted something similar or has any experience with the matter.


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## iTz SADISTIK (Apr 6, 2014)

Well, I have a CXRacing intake and I just bought blue thermal wrap for it. Wrap comes with 50ft so I'm sure I could do the same part you're talking about. Take a pic with a red circle showing the pipe in question and I'll wrap it and tell you what I'm experiencing


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

iTz SADISTIK said:


> Well, I have a CXRacing intake and I just bought blue thermal wrap for it. Wrap comes with 50ft so I'm sure I could do the same part you're talking about. Take a pic with a red circle showing the pipe in question and I'll wrap it and tell you what I'm experiencing










on my computer at work cant really go take a good one but thanks to the inter webs i got this. the cold side from the intercooler to the throttle body. i was checking out your build very nice gave me a few ideas on things to do with mine.


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## iTz SADISTIK (Apr 6, 2014)

Rickyt11010 said:


> View attachment 95034
> 
> on my computer at work cant really go take a good one but thanks to the inter webs i got this. the cold side from the intercooler to the throttle body. i was checking out your build very nice gave me a few ideas on things to do with mine.


That's what I thought.... I've been wondering what makes it a chrome pipe and I'm going to guess it's the ZZP intercooler. In anycase, I'll throw some of my wrap on there unless it's sticky as **** and tell you what I think too. I may pickup a thermo reader from Harbor Freight.


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

iTz SADISTIK said:


> That's what I thought.... I've been wondering what makes it a chrome pipe and I'm going to guess it's the ZZP intercooler. In anycase, I'll throw some of my wrap on there unless it's sticky as **** and tell you what I think too. I may pickup a thermo reader from Harbor Freight.


cxracing has a kit too that uses the chrome pipe. yeah let me know what you come up with if you do it ill be ordering some when i order my intake friday.


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## iTz SADISTIK (Apr 6, 2014)

Will do, the wrapping should arrive today or tomorrow. I'm going out of town this weekend but I'm sure I'll be taking it with me if I don't do it Thursday night when I change out my oil.


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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

CX Racing kit comes with the polished charge pipes, my ZZP kit came with a flat black, im debating on wrapping the pipes however with just the intercooler alone i've dropped 10 degrees, my water temperature is even down for some reason ( 4-8 degree drop ).I actually met up with greasemonkey (username lol) at a car meet in Toronto and the cx kit looks nice as well! I just always go with the brand name but that's me, cheers


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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

I had some extra heat wrap and did my injen intake a while back, but my intake temps remained as usual just a heads up, intercooler pipes might be a different story


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Sure it will help, it has to, but it probably won't help enough to make much difference.

As others said, it may make a difference after sitting stopped for a while when there's little flow through the pipe and under the hood, but once you're moving and flow rates are higher I doubt it will do much.


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

the main effect im looking for is slowing down heat soak. i dont expect to see much while in motion but im sure it might help slightly keeping general under hood heat off the piping


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

CHEVYCRUZE RS said:


> I had some extra heat wrap and did my injen intake a while back, but my intake temps remained as usual just a heads up, intercooler pipes might be a different story


my evo buddy swears by it on the intake but he also has a lot more under hood heat. 500awhp tends to generate a lot of heat in a car that already has problems with heat.


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

everything is all ordered up so hopefully with in the next 2 weeks or so ill be able to start collecting data


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## WhiteAndBright (Mar 4, 2013)

With my Ultra Gauge I never see the intake temps rise above 150* (on a 100* day) but as soon as I take off from the light it starts to drop like a rock. About a mile down the road its back to 3-4* above the outside temp..


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## SportBilly (Nov 25, 2013)

WhiteAndBright said:


> With my Ultra Gauge I never see the intake temps rise above 150* (on a 100* day) but as soon as I take off from the light it starts to drop like a rock. About a mile down the road its back to 3-4* above the outside temp..


Mind that that temp sensor "IAT" is reading from the maf sensor..


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

gotta love waiting for parts to start something. :whacky028::disgust:


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## iTz SADISTIK (Apr 6, 2014)

Will be installing mine this weekend on the intake. May consider the intercooler pipe as well but not sure. I'll post pics or a how to when I get to it on Monday or Tuesday


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## Rickyt11010 (Jul 3, 2014)

ok intake is in and on the car because i didnt even wait for the car to cool down to install lol. just waiting on getting a new filter and the tape had to re order because well ebay first time i ever had a problem though. at least the one im getting now lists inter-cooler piping as one of the main uses. hopefully this will cut down on heat soak like i want. ill probably start getting base line data here soon.


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