cardboard hood insulation

[arcosine]

I use to stick the cardboard in he hood. Do you have a grill block also?

[chrisgerman1983]

yup, grill block and engine bay pan.

[chrisgerman1983]

The weather is a little different today! yesterday was clear, calm and cold. today is warmer, raining and 90km per hour winds. I will still run without the insulator but no way i am going outside as often I am thinking that because I never got up to full temp and it never got back down to cold after 4 hours, I can probably get away with only a few data points?

[chrisgerman1983]

Here are the numbers side by side. Times are not exactly the same but they are within 20 minutes of the temp they are beside. start and stop time were exactly the same. It was warmer today (without) and I was able to park where I was mostly sheltered from the wind.

with C/B ----- Without C/B

Engine on ----- Engine on
07:55 - 41f ----- 41f
07:57 - 59f
07:59 - 106f
08:01 - 129f
08:02 - 145f
08:03 - 161f
08:05 - 187f ----- 187f
Engine off ----- Engine off
08:17 - 167f
08:31 - 156f ----- 146f
08:48 - 144f
09:12 - 129f ----- 108f
09:43 - 122f ----- 97f
10:19 - 122f ----- 71f
12:12 - 75f ------ 61f

[Quezacotl]

How much this affects to your windscreen?
I was thinking that i make same thing, but i have clear windscreen in mind :P If i insulate the hood, the heat goes more towards the windscreen, when i'm using the block heater.

[chrisgerman1983]

I don't know for sure if it did affect the window defrost? being that warmup times were the same, I assume it doesn't affect it any? The main benefit would be that if you get back in your vehicle within a few hours you have heat stored from the previous trip.

[Frank Lee]

I believe it helps when using the block heater too.

[Sven7]

Someone on here recounted a story of their cardboard "heat blanket" catching on fire. What kind of precautions have you taken to keep it from burning?

[Frank Lee]

No hot bits up top on my Fords = no issues for mine. Anything with hot bits up top should certainly make accomodation for that.

[chrisgerman1983]

nothing hot up top for me either. I feel pretty confident that the cardboard would have to sag down and make contact with the exhaust to combust. With two layer it is pretty rigid. also in a van the hood is like 16 inches long.