I had an idea and was wondering if anyone has tried it yet. Most the aftermarket CAI kits are metal(be it aluminum, stainless steel, or whatever) and absord alot of the ambient heat from under the hood. This heated metal tubing in turn will warm the intake air(even if it is a little bit). What about wrapping the CAI with heat shielding material? I know there is stuff to wrap the exhaust manifold and other stuff that looks like insulated Reynolds Wrap. So if we could shield the CAI from absorbing heat, which transfers that heat to the intake air, would it be enough to make it more efficient? Has anyone tried this and gotten positive results?

 

Hey good idea mang, I'm not too sure what effect this would have, but sounds like a concept to look into. Do you know where to get that insulation wrap? Maybe we can try this out.

 

There has been plenty of people who have wrapped their CAI in heat reflective tape.

 

Spoon offers heat reflectant tape..

 

It's been done before, normally on turbo cars. It works fairly well.

 

Yo Kai...wassup in VA?
I'm guessing you'd recommend wrapping both the CAI and EM? That would drastically decrease the overall air temp under the hood, I would think.

 

Hear about the massive flooding in Richmond, VA the other day? That. :chuckles: If you do one, you might as well do the other. I would only wrap a stainless steel manifold/header though, because heat wrap has been known to trap moisture and rust out normal steel manifolds.

I don't see much of a point to do it on non-turbos and street cars though, that's why I never bothered.

 

Yea that sucks, I've been hearing bad things about hurricanes over that way, too.
Well I'll give it a shot. I found some 2"X50' in JCWhitney online. I'll wrap the CAI first then use the rest up where ever it makes a little sense to do it. My CAI is polished aluminum and seems to absorb alot of heat. It kinda seems like my gas mileage went down after I installed it. I wonder if the extra heat issues are the cause? Guess we'll have to see. I'll post it after it's done with trial feedback.

 

the piping on my turbo vw is wrapped in that heat tape.
I have it wrapped from the I/C to the Throttle body.

 

What kind of quality wrap should I be looking for? I found some heat wrap and was wondering if this is the kind of quality heat wrap I should be looking for. I don't want to spend $ and find out it's sh*t.
Heat Wrap(click here)