If we are successful with keeping the heat in the exhaust pipes and preventing it from dissipating in to the chassis, the tailpipe heat should be substantially hotter. I’m more of a function over form kind of person and racecars tend to have metal panels bolted around the exhaust pipes to prevent burning the bodywork. I don’t really want to bolt metal to this pristine car, and I don’t want to wait until the paint is discolored to see if we were successful in keeping the heat in the exhaust and finding out too late that there’s an issue.
To kill two birds with one stone, and to add a carbon fiber look to the car (which I really do not mind at all), we used the LavaShield Mat to protect the paint around the exhaust tips. Worst case if we don’t need or like it in the future, we can peel it off.
After sticking the LavaShield to the car, Will trimmed the exhaust opening.
As a carbon-obsessed person, I was very happy with the result. From above, the reflection of the carbon pattern off of the chrome Corsa Performance Exhaust tips actually gives the appearance of carbon fiber exhaust tips, which is kind of neat.
Now that the car is back together with its new Corsa Performance Exhaust, high flow Kooks “Green Cat”, and HeatShield Products HP StickyShield, Armor, and LavaShield, we were ready to test the results. Back at the track after 2 hard hot laps and 5 minutes of heat soaking while idling, the results were:
 |  |
Measuring the same points on the side sill, we got 221.2*F and 183.0*F. That’s a 55.0*F and 72.2*F reduction!
 |  |
In the catalytic converter area, the heat shielding and high flow cat was recorded at 117.5*F and 142.2*F for a 47.1*F and 56.7*F reduction!
 |  |
The middle of the side sill in the middle of the muffler and the end of the sill which should be hotter due to keeping heat in the exhaust more resulted in recordings of 123.3*F and 113.1*F which were 37.5*F and 15.5*F lower.
Unfortuantely we didn’t record the top of the side sill temps in our baseline measurement, but after all of the work we have done, the hottest the side sill got was this point at 98.0*F, which will not burn you.
Just to verify, we waited close to 10 minutes to re-check the temperatures just in case the insulation delayed the equilibrium and to our pleasure, the temperatures did not climb and actually started to fall. The 5 minute test seemed to be the highest temp the side sill got to.
2 comments
I have a 09 gen IV viper that I’m getting ready to add ARH headers to along with some other mods. Will be needing heat shielding for multiple items. If you happen to have a list of all heat shielding necessary for a gen IV that would be great.
I’m getting ready to put ARH headers on my 09 Gen. 4 Viper, as well as several other mods as well as a tune. It would be a big help if your company had a list of all heat shielding needed for a gen 4 viper, as I understand there are quite a few parts as well as wiring that will need shielding.