Thermal Spacers?

[thescreensavers]

So I am reading this car forum and alot of them have 5/16" Motordyne ISO Copper Thermal Spacers. What the heck is a thermal spacer and how does it help with performance?

 

[RGUN]

Dont know if its the same, but I have Phenolic spacers below my intake manifold to isolate the heat from the motor heat soaking the intake manifold. It results in a temperature decrease on all incoming air, which is important when you are boosting well over 20 psi.

 

[thescreensavers]

http://www.myg35mods.com/tutorials/spacer/index.html

thats a DIY, I bet you can tell better of what it is now.

 

[RGUN]

Yeah, thats what I was talking about. Just puts a piece of material between the engine block and intake manifold to act as a thermal barrier. Its intent is to reduce the temperature of the incoming air.

 

[sjwaste]

It's not a bad idea, but it's not on the list of "first mods" on just about any car. Generally, you do this when the temperature of your intake charge is an issue. On a turbocharged car, that generally means increased boost, intercooler already upgraded, pipes, etc. A copper spacer seems somewhat pointless to me. It's going to conduct heat very well between the head and the intake manifold, so why bother?

 

[Kadarin]

Back in the day we used to put thermal spacers on top of the intake manifold and below the carburetor. This had the multiple effects of isolating heat, effectively lengthening the intake runners, and allowed for the possibility of modifying the intake plenum shape (the space immediately below the carburetor). The effects were minor, but they were there.

 

[lsd]

I would say those gains are from increasing the plenum volum more so than decreasing charge temps. If you look at the dynos you can see the gains are up top where larger plenums usually give the biggest benefit.

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: lsd
I would say those gains are from increasing the plenum volum more so than decreasing charge temps. If you look at the dynos you can see the gains are up top where larger plenums usually give the biggest benefit.

I agree. Minimal gains from temp reduction.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

On carbureted engines the spacers actually did a bit of good. On EFI engines with a plenum style intake, dyno tests have proven that they don't do squat unless used to mount a nitrous nozzle or keep the printout from the dyno's computer from blowing away when the fan is turned on.