Cary,
Thanks for the input.
All: Ok, so it sounds like the insulation I have will not be adequate for the firewall and tunnel areas. The question then is what heat rating will I need for these areas?
Here's what I have that will be producing the heat. The engine is 5.7 liters, supercharged and should produce somewhere between 550 to 575 horsepower. The headers are 304 stainless and have an air gap of about 3 inches to the firewall panels (at the closest point). The exhaust system is 2.5 inch diameter 304 stainless with stainless mufflers inside the tunnel (next to drivers & passengers thighs) with about 1 inch air gap to aluminum sheet inside the tunnel. Both these areas have 1.5 inches for insulation between the aluminum sheets.
Does anyone have an idea for how much heat will get to the insulation?
I did a quick scan of the McMaster-Carr (
http://www.mcmaster.com/#flexible-ce...lation/=ajw2l7) online catalog and there are several options with different heat ratings.
- Flexible Ceramic Insulation
- calcium magnesium silica ceramic fiber at 1832 degrees
- alumina silica ceramic fiber at 2000 degrees
- Rigid Ceramic Insulation
- Made of alumina-silica at 2300 degrees
Generally, the price goes up with the heat rating. So I'd like to get something adequate but not necessarily beyond what's needed.
Does anyone have first hand experience with how much heat this combination will produce and any of these types of silica-ceramic insulations?