17th Letter

i need to replace my Coolant pump for it is leaking. the question i am asking my self is do i just remove the blasted thing or replace it. I figured since i am gonna have to lift the manifold while i'm in there what can i do? I found the spacers on vast site and i haven't really STFA but i was wondering peoples thoughts on this mod. worth the money or spend it on something else?

Monster-S4

I just figured for around $100 it couldn't hurt to add some cooling to the engine before summer hit.

Flyboy

assuming there are not fit issues. I don't believe the gain is worth much though, here's why. Those spacers insulate against conductive heat transfer only, heat is still being transferred through convection and radiation.

It's like using an insulated cookie sheet to bake cookies in an oven. The cookies still bake, you just don't burn the bottom, in the few minutes that they're in the oven.

The phenolic material only slows down the conductive heat transfer, it's still happens. Phenolic material has a thermal conductivity similar to plexiglas or oak wood. It's not a complete thermal barrier.

I tried searching through the archives on this subject and what I found was that when people did reasonably scientific tests there wasn't any real gain. When people did the 'I could feel a difference' type test, that's when you found positive comments.

I think that over a very short time period having the insulating material may help keep the intake manifold from heating as rapidly, but I think with or without the material it's going to heat up because of the various ways heat is being transferred.

17th Letter

i may just take you up on that