[Matthew Huffman]

So. Turbo heat shields and blankets! I'm looking at doing one or the other. What everyone's opinion on which they prefer?

With a blanket, I'm having a tough time finding a K04 blanket, but finding g a lot of T4's and T3's that look like they might fit. Does anyone know if these are similar in size?

 

[wspohn]

There is a stock heat shield. If yours is gone, buy a new one and leave it at that.

 

[dnile0815]

There is a stock heat shield. If yours is gone, buy a new one and leave it at that.

There are pretty blatant performance/ longevity pros to putting a blanket on. I have one on my duramax. It significantly reduced under hood temps and also came with a factory heat shield.

To the question, I'm also looking at different blankets and will report here what I find.

 

[rjgramps]

I remember in my Fiero days, the thin piping of the V6 exhaust manifold would glow red hot under high rpm. Some people wrapped them with what resembled a medical bandage. I always wondered if wrapping them was good or bad. The Fiero manifolds had a history of cracking without the wrap.

 

[Matthew Huffman]

There are pretty blatant performance/ longevity pros to putting a blanket on. I have one on my duramax. It significantly reduced under hood temps and also came with a factory heat shield.

To the question, I'm also looking at different blankets and will report here what I find.

If I had a PC I'd Google search a T4 and K04 and put them side by side in photoshop to compare them as best I could. But I only have my phone, and a laptop dedicated to work only usage.

I'd like to reduce heat in the compartment.

I've seen the thermal wraps for manifolds. They come in a wide variety of colors.

 

[wspohn]

I remember in my Fiero days, the thin piping of the V6 exhaust manifold would glow red hot under high rpm. Some people wrapped them with what resembled a medical bandage. I always wondered if wrapping them was good or bad. The Fiero manifolds had a history of cracking without the wrap.

The Fiero exhaust was a high alloy steel but still subject to eventual corrosion. I ran a turbo on mine for c. 20 years with no wrap and no problems. People using wrap on regular steel headers often trash the pipes in a year or so - the better steel in the Fiero obviously paid off but might have lasted less long wrapped.

 

[rjgramps]

On the Fiero-GTs I kept for myself, I had a shop reinforce-weld the flanges to the pipes on the outside, then port the insides.

What was critical during the welding process (learned later) was to have the pair bolted to a 1/2" thick steel plate, back-to-back to stabilize them to eliminate warping.

Back in the day before home computers and "digital", this is how I shared some of this information.

 

[wspohn]

I was fortunate in having a 1988 which had part of the work done by the factory on the exhaust flanges but I still had to optimize them.

This was another example of GM 'don't give a crap' thinking. They made the exhaust by the odd shaped hole cut in the main tube alone after welding instead of spending the extra buck or whatever to add one more machining operation and cut the edges back to the port size. Simply doing that operation on the exhaust results in an additional 8 bhp!

Below is a before and after on the exhaust I customized when I was fitting a 3.4 into an MG - the lower one is stock 1988 and the upper one has been machined out so that the port lines up with the manifold (there is still an edge showing on the left as the holes were punched by GM in oval rather than round shape). BTW, there was another point in the crossover pipe that joined the two sides of the exhaust where it necked down to around 1" from the 2" primaries - another huge bottleneck that was cured by the aftermarket with collector pipes that were 2" all the way through. See below.

The other (and bigger) idiocy was with the Solstice GXP. When they released that model they were a;ready finalizing the GMPP tune that added 30 bhp and 30 Tq. just by a simple retune. If you research the performance figures in the various comparison road tests done at that time, you'll find the GXP in mid pack, getting a decent but not uncritical review.

If GM had standardized the GMPP tune on all turbo cars sold, it would have cost them zero, most people who never drive hard would neither have cared nor noticed, and the boost in performance would have put the Solstice at the top of all the comparison road tests! A very big miscalculation in my opinion.

 

[JohnWR]

.........

The other (and bigger) idiocy was with the Solstice GXP. When they released that model they were a;ready finalizing the GMPP tune that added 30 bhp and 30 Tq. just by a simple retune. If you research the performance figures in the various comparison road tests done at that time, you'll find the GXP in mid pack, getting a decent but not uncritical review.

If GM had standardized the GMPP tune on all turbo cars sold, it would have cost them zero, most people who never drive hard would neither have cared nor noticed, and the boost in performance would have put the Solstice at the top of all the comparison road tests! A very big miscalculation in my opinion.

What would have been gained by this, other than bragging rights? The reviews still would have been crap for a variety of reasons, and until the cancellations were announced they were selling every car they built, and could have sold more.

 

[wspohn]

Are you saying that they shouldn't bother improving a car when it costs very little because it might not result in more sales....?

Heck if they had a crystal ball they could have just ceased operation in 2008 and saved themselves the bother of designing future model changes.

 

[JohnWR]

Are you saying that they shouldn't bother improving a car when it costs very little because it might not result in more sales....?

Heck if they had a crystal ball they could have just ceased operation in 2008 and saved themselves the bother of designing future model changes.

I am saying that they produced a car that was perfectly acceptable to the vast majority of buyers and that had a realtively cheap and easy path to enhancement for those who wanted more. This applies to the power as well as the suspension issues that you like to complain about.

This wasn't a case of maybe or maybe not increasing sales, since production capacity was maxed out. Increased sales were impossible without an increase in production that was impossible without a significant capital investment.

 

[rjgramps]

I was fortunate in having a 1988 which had part of the work done by the factory on the exhaust flanges but I still had to optimize them.

This was another example of GM 'don't give a crap' thinking. They made the exhaust by the odd shaped hole cut in the main tube alone after welding instead of spending the extra buck or whatever to add one more machining operation and cut the edges back to the port size. Simply doing that operation on the exhaust results in an additional 8 bhp!

Exactly! Just a little more effort on GM's part.........but then us enthusiasts would have nothing to do, ha, ha.

 

[Matthew Huffman]

Heard back from one company that says they believe a T4 would fit over a K04.

I'm going to give it a shot once I pick out a blanket.

 

[TxSkyREDLINE]

Heard back from one company that says they believe a T4 would fit over a K04.

I'm going to give it a shot once I pick out a blanket.

Let us Non-Fiero 🤪 owners know how the T4 blanket works out. At 120k+ miles my 3rd factory heat shield cracked & I broke the bolt that goes to the turbo, off in the turbo. Currently nothing in the turbo.

Plus my Exhaust Manifold heat shield is finally cracked and rattles like 20 tin cans in the engine bay. DEFINATELY pulling that and the turbo... wrapping the exhaust manifold, but have the same question as you do about the Turbo Heat Blanket🤔

 

[Matthew Huffman]

I'm going to buy a cheap blanket to test fit. If it works, I'll ne pulling the trigger on a nice blanket.

 

[IFlyMe]

Stupid skeptic here, so forgive my ignorance. But if one wraps the turbo, that holds heat in, yes? And if the turbo isn’t meant to be that hot, could it not result in premature failure?
also, if you’re trapping heat on the turbo, will that not result in hotter intake air, thus taxing your intercooler or depriving your car of cooler air (ie: denser air which is better for performance)?
Just curious. Seriously wondering, so please be nice in your replies if I’m way off base.

 

[dnile0815]

Stupid skeptic here, so forgive my ignorance. But if one wraps the turbo, that holds heat in, yes? And if the turbo isn’t meant to be that hot, could it not result in premature failure?
also, if you’re trapping heat on the turbo, will that not result in hotter intake air, thus taxing your intercooler or depriving your car of cooler air (ie: denser air which is better for performance)?
Just curious. Seriously wondering, so please be nice in your replies if I’m way off base.

Questions are definitely okay on last time I checked when you're on a forum lol.
To your question, yes, the blanket will hold in heat like it is designed to do (just like you use at night!). The blanket is wrapped around the hot turbine side where all the exhaust gasses are coming in. The exhaust gasses then spin the turbine which rotates a shaft that connects to the compressor side of the housing. After the exhaust gasses do their job of spinning the turbine, they promptly leave through your catalytic converter and out your exhaust.

The compressor side is spinning at the same rate as the turbine while all this is going on and drawing in nice, cool, clean air and as the name suggests, compresses it (boost). After that I'm sure you get the idea of where the air goes.

For the blanket, we want that turbine to hold onto as much heat as you can reasonably allow. This results is significantly less heat soak of electronics, coolant (waterpump!), and the overall temperature of the engine bay. You will actually get denser air because the compressor side is cooler with the blanket over the turbine side. Also, the hotter the turbine gets, it will actually spool faster resulting in you getting your peak torque faster.

As for longevity of the turbo, I'll say any mod you do to your car, you do at your own risk. The turbo is made to handle a tremendous amount of heat however. Unless you're pulling stupid power and squeezing every last drop of hp from the stock turbo, you wont see any noticeable decrease in life expectancy. I've been running one on my duramax for years and I recently pulled the turbo off to delete the egr on it. That thing is still in tip top shape after 230k miles and absolutely no shaft play. A duramax could be just a little bit different though so I suppose results may vary. My engine temps are significantly lower though and I've been very happy with it.

 

[tchr49]

I'm going to buy a cheap blanket to test fit. If it works, I'll ne pulling the trigger on a nice blanket.

Keep us posted on what you bought?

 

[Matthew Huffman]

Amazon.com: Gator parts T4 Titanium Turbo Blanket Heat Shield charger Cover Wrap for T4 GT40 GT42 GT45 With Locking Springs,Cover Fiberglass Turbo Charger Heat Shield Barrier Fiber Turbo Blanket Turbocharger : Automotive

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I bought that one. $23 to do a test fit seemed like a good way to go. And if the fit is good, I'll be ordering something nicer in quality and look.

 

[dnile0815]

[I bought that one. $23 to do a test fit seemed like a good way to go. And if the fit is good, I'll be ordering something nicer in quality and look.

it mostly just needs to not interfere with the wastegate arm