Steve,
The heat shields arrived and look very nice. They are soft aluminum and
seem easy to form. It will be a few weeks before I actually have time to
fit them but I slipped one on to the dynomax muffler in the car
expecting to have to reshape it a bit and to my pleasant surprise it is
a perfect fit with the shield extending over the front and back about
the distance of the muffler inlet/outlet pipe. I may need to trip the
drivers side unit a bit due to the proximity of the leaf spring as my
installer got it a bit close so each car will have it's own challenges.
I promise to do a photo write up of the Installation. The shields come
with mounting straps and at $26 each are a REAL bargain. Over the
Passenger side muffler shield I plan to rivet a Reflecta Shield mat as a
way to further protect the pump which is 3 inches from the muffler. I
truly believe most of the problems will be related to the muffler
pre-heating the fuel by roasting the fuel pump. My fuel line is wrapped
from the pump forward with one of the heat shielding wraps for wiring
from summit. I still want to go get a laser thermometer to measure the
difference in temp before and after. Hope to get one this week.
Based on all investigation so far this really looks like the no-brainer
fix we may have all overlooked but actual scientific measurement will be
the real determinant.
Best Regards,
Tim Ronak
Services Consultant
Akzo Nobel Coatings
23961 Via El Rocio
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
Bus: 949-305-5393
Fax: 425-955-6268
Cell: 949-289-3357
email: timothy.ronak@crna.akzonobel.com
Personal email: timronak@cox.net
Hello Tim:
Any progress on your heat shield project? This is definitely something I
want to do too and I want to see how you go about it.
As I mentioned, what I've done so far this winter is just to Thermotec
heat shield wrap the fuel line all the way from the tank outlet in the
back, to the carb. I won't know until it gets hot out again if this
helps the vapor lock issue. The heat shield on the muffler idea is good,
to protect the pump and also to hopefully keep some of the heat out of
the passenger compartment. That would make for a cooler Tiger drive, and
help my AC to work better too.
Thermotec makes heat shield "blankets" that just wrap around the
mufflers (about $50 each) and they claim this directs a lot of the heat
out the pipes and not up into the car. If this works, the advatage would
be that you don't have to worry about the heat creeping around the edges
of a heat shield and up onto the pump and into the car anyway. Have you
thought about this possible solution? I've got Flo Master mufflers and
they make those shields that sit over the mufflers too. I have been
skeptical of that route for the same reason mentioned in the discussion,
regarding what's to keep the heat from just being directed around the
shield and up into the car? That would probably help the fuel pump
situation a bit but not the heat into the car issue.
Steve Sage
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