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Best Metal for Heat Sheild

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TeeWX98GST

15+ Year Contributor
111
0
Jan 13, 2008
Cresco, Iowa
I was planning on fabbing up my own heat shield for my exhaust manifold since it would be cheap and beneficial. What would be the best metal to use for this in terms of keeping the heat in and doing its job the best? Or is there something reasonable thats even better than metal?

Also, I forget who said this but is there any truth to the statement of a properly shielded manifold noticably improving spoolup time and exhaust flow? I was curious about this but I am mostly just doing this because my car did not come to me with one on there and everyone seems to feel they are a must so why not join the crowd.;)
 
SS would work. Polish the side facing the manifold for better heat reflection. And yes, the less heat that is lost to the engine bay, the more energy is converted to spool the turbo.
 
Stainless steel would work best as its resilient (wont warp) and wont tarnish.
The real benefit of a heat shield is keeping the engine bay temps down. An exposed manifold would radiate more heat.

...But thats all a heat shield is good for. You can wrap or ceramic coat the headers to keep the hot exhaust gases contained. Hotter gasses are higher velocity gasses. Hot exhaust clears faster than "cold" does, and helps scavenge the cylinders better, increasing thermal efficiency.

In the end, its all personal preference (in terms of how beneficial)...also gotta factor if street car or all out race
 
Stainless steel would work best as its resilient (wont warp) and wont tarnish.
The real benefit of a heat shield is keeping the engine bay temps down. An exposed manifold would radiate more heat.

...But thats all a heat shield is good for. You can wrap or ceramic coat the headers to keep the hot exhaust gases contained. Hotter gasses are higher velocity gasses. Hot exhaust clears faster than "cold" does, and helps scavenge the cylinders better, increasing thermal efficiency.

In the end, its all personal preference (in terms of how beneficial)...also gotta factor if street car or all out race


+1:thumb:
 
I was wondering this same question the other day. SS is relatively cheap with a high thermal resistance and high melting point. You could also ceramic coat the heat shield you end up fabbing for increased function, too! Out of curiosity, what manifold are you making this for?
 
I made one from that round heater duct piping before. It's easy to work with, the galvanized finish is nice and shiny, and it held up to the elements really well. You can get a piece at any home depot for less than ten bucks.
 
In an application like this, I'm pretty sure the shield doesn't necessarily have to be 'shiny' on the inside or flat black on the top. The thermal energy released by the manifold isn't in the wavelength range of visible light, so the visible properties of the heat shield won't matter, only the molecular.
 
Actually polished materials absorb more heat.

Just buy some exhaust header wrap from summit and wrap the header.
Put whatever heat shield back on if you'd like that look. Polished or painted.
 
You're right. Polished would be better, but polished materials actually absorb heat much worse than rough materials, but that's good here. That would keep the heat in the area of the exhaust manifold. So yes, polishing would be a good idea.
 
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