I'm currently replacing the head on my 97 accord lx non-vtec. I was thinking about using heat wrap on the my exhaust manifold and intake. Also I was considering cutting the stock intake to make it a semi somewhat poor mans cold air intake and plugging the resonator box on the intake as well as shimming the hood and taking off the seal in the back of the engine bay that seals the engine compartment right before the wiper blades are located. I'm not really looking for a performance gain more so lower hood temps and maybe an slight increase in fuel economy. I figure its all pretty cheap mods and for a slight gain it would be worth it to me. Does anyone think this is worth doing. I forgot to mention that once I take the intake manifold from the head I'll clean it up and maybe rough sand it for better fuel atomization and maybe taking the exhaust head off and cleaning that up and sanding it smooth for better exhaust flow. Any responses are appreciated thanks

 

Wrapping the exhaust will increase the temperature of the exhaust manifold itself & likely promote more corrosion of the exhaust.

More effective to just insulate the intake. I've seen something about when the car is moving down the road, the under-hood temperatures are fairly low because there's plenty of air moving through.

Under-hood temperatures get high when you stop. How's traffic tie-ups where you drive?? You could be better off wiring a switch to run the radiator fans.

You probably want the under-hood air to go down under the car, not to the windshield. Blow a PCV hose & you'll have oil all over the windshield.

 

I appreciate your response and Ill consider wrapping the intake. The traffic by me isn't to bad I only commute 10 miles to work and I live in northeast ohio so the tempatures are pretty cold in winter and pretty hot in summer. I was trying to think of some ways to improve the fuel economy a bit and my theory behind wrapping the exhaust is to prevent some heat soak to the intake and lower intake temps and if the exhaust keeps keeps better heat if will flow a bit better. I suppose I could be wrong but I will definatley think about wrapping the intake thanks again for the input much appreciated.

 

hey sorry to change the subject but would wrapping your headers be a "good idea?"

 

from research i have done wrapping headers is a good idea if your running high performance mods like turbo applications to help prevent heat soak in the engine and wrapping a cold air intake will help if you use the intake wrap and can lower intake temps slightly. I have read that when the intake temp is lowered 5 degrees the air is 1% denser. also if the heat is kept in the exhaust and heat disapation is cut down exhaust will flow better. Its stuff I read on the internet and its hard to distinguish what is fact or fiction online. I say wrap the headers and see what happens it can't really hurt to much to do it as long as the header wrap or intake wrap is on securly. this is all my opinion so take it or leave it it might not all be factual based.

 

alright thanks...just read the original topic post again and you asked about the manifold not the headers so I was jw.

 

Couple things going on here...

Wrapping the exhaust (I don't care whether it's the stock cast manifold or tube headers) will have a tiny benefit for underhood temperatures. But the downside is corrosion of the hot exhaust components.

But with a turbo, there's an additional benefit of keeping the exhaust gas hot before the turbo. More energy going into the turbine means more power for the compressor. Still have the corrosion problem, but the pro/con balance is different.

Either case (turbo or not) the intake air temperature is even LESS influenced by the small difference in underhood temperatures.

 

after searching online for a while I don't think its really worth anything doing for a bone stock application like mine so I'm personally not going to do it.