Rotaries produce a ton of heat. We keep cabin temperatures down by covering our transmission tunnel with Sticky™ Shield from Heatshield Products.
Thermal management is a major challenge for rotary powered cars due to the substantial amount of exhaust gasses and temperatures that they produce. Not only is it difficult to keep the engine itself cool, but managing the exhaust heat from the engine to the tail-pipe without burning down the car, melting electronics, or heat soaking the cabin is not always easy and turbocharging makes this even more difficult.
To tackle this problem, we decided to cover the entire firewall, transmission tunnel, and factory heat shield paneling with Heatshield Products Sticky™ Shield to insulate the cabin from the intense heat from the engine, downpipe, and resonator mounted in the transmission tunnel. This will reduce the notoriously hot temperature of the floor of the RX-7s, especially for passengers on the exhaust side of the car, and the air conditioning will be more effective without having to fight the heat created by the exhaust, which will further improve driving comfort.
We have been impressed with the performance and durability of Heatshield Products having used many of their products extensively in Part-7 of Project Viper GTS. Like the RX-7, Vipers are also notorious for generating a ton of heat, baking its occupants in a cabin surrounded by exhaust pipes, and then burning their legs when getting in and out of the car. Heatshield Products greatly reduced the side sill and in-cabin temperature in the Viper and we were looking forward to similar benefits on the RX-7.
Sticky™ Shield has a rugged 3 mil-thick aluminum outer skin which sandwiches a dense layer of 1/8” thick proprietary Kool Core™ (asbestos-free) insulation against the firewall or floor of the car with an adhesive backing.
The metallic skin reflects over 90% of the radiant heat continuously in 1,100*F conditions and up to an incredible 2,000*F intermittently, while the fiberglass insulation prevents heat from transferring to the car like an oven mitt prevents your hands from burning. Sticky™ Shield can be used with less than 1 inch of airspace and is an ideal radiant heatshield for transmission tunnels, mufflers, catalytic converters, DPFs, turbos, downpipes, and exhaust systems.
2 comments
That looks like some good stuff. If it helped the Viper sidepipes so much, it should make even more of a difference for a rotary.
I did the same on my race FD with a similar product. Made a massive difference – more than 30 degrees C cooler on the tunnel.