Brainstorming ideas for coolant crossover on Air-Gap intakes

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After thinking about it more I'm going to try one of the electric pads Yellow Duster linked. I found another site selling the same thing but in a 5x15cm size and for $6 it's worth a shot vs. the $40+ and extra time it would be to adapt a small fluid cooler to the intake... thanks for the input guys!
 
I like that the electric heater starts warming up instantly. You don't have to wait for the engine to warm up for an effect. You could even turn the key on for a couple of min before start-up on a really cold day.
 
Yellow Duster said:
I like that the electric heater starts warming up instantly. You don't have to wait for the engine to warm up for an effect. You could even turn the key on for a couple of min before start-up on a really cold day.
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I was thinking about that too although I have a wideband O2 sensor that shouldn't be set warming up for too long or it can burn out, I'm just gonna wire a switch straight to battery although I'll have to remember to shut it off after driving if I don't want to run it dead lol.

JoeSBP I looked at the heated carb spacers but it is the intake that needs heat more to keep the fuel vaporizing as it travels through the manifold. When the manifold is too cold the fuel condenses on the port walls and when the vacuum drops from opening the throttle all the fuel drops out of suspension causing a momentary lean stumble followed by an overrich condition (black smoke) as that extra liquid fuel is sucked into the cylinders. It's a very common problem on modified inline engines, if you check out Clifford Performance and search the web a bit you can find write-ups about the problem.

Also if I was still running my old aluminum Carter a carb heater would be nice in winter but with this Street Demon the plastic body keeps the fuel temps more consistent, only the baseplate would be heated.
 
The electric heater pad. Is there a way to connect it to a rheostat? If so you can regulate how hot you want it to get and fine tune it.
 
moparmat2000 said:
The electric heater pad. Is there a way to connect it to a rheostat? If so you can regulate how hot you want it to get and fine tune it.
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I'm sure I could, it comes literally with just 2 wire leads to connect to whatever you want to power it, and ground (duh). It's super simple, another reason why I'm going for it. They're also pretty dang efficient too, I forget the numbers but with a 12V supply it gets way hotter than I think I'd need it to, depending on the actual amount of heat energy it can put out as the aluminum intake dissipates it away. I'm gonna try it first just full power and see how long it takes to heat the intake and how hot it can actually get with it left on; there may be enough heat transfer going on that it never gets up to full temp.
 
You could prob temp install a thermocouple dead center under the heat blanket, hook it up to a digital readout and see what your getting. Fluke makes a nice digital thermometer that uses plug in thermocouples as a temporary thing to dial it in for the heat output you are looking for. Sometimes heat blankets like this will burn up if not used with a rheostat to choke down the power flow.
 
Like this

2016-09-14-14-08-40--616261226.jpg
 
moparmat2000 said:
You could prob temp install a thermocouple dead center under the heat blanket, hook it up to a digital readout and see what your getting. Fluke makes a nice digital thermometer that uses plug in thermocouples as a temporary thing to dial it in for the heat output you are looking for. Sometimes heat blankets like this will burn up if not used with a rheostat to choke down the power flow.
Click to expand...

Ah I did not know that, thanks for the tip... I'm nowhere near as savvy with electrical stuff as mechanical stuff lol
 
We do composite repairs where i work. The heat blankets are used with output controllers and thermocouples to maintain set programmed temps. The heat blankets we use which are prob not much different than what your looking at. The fluke thermometers we also have here similar to the pic i sent have pre terminated end thermocouples. The wires are approx 4 ft long. You could duct tape the thermometer to your windshield for testing and tuning
 
Alright so it's been a while since this idea came up and I finally made something, can't really say it works all that well though. I bought three of the electric heating pads like Yellow Duster linked. I wired them up with a relay from the parts store and attached them to the sides and bottom of the intake plenum with RTV and thermal paste. They definitely heat up when tested sitting in free air but the aluminum pulls the heat away so fast they never get hot, just warm enough that I can feel they're on. I measured the resistance of each heater element and calculated the current draw it's about 20 amps total with all three added. Oh well, needs more testing and I still need to try out a bit bigger accelerator discharge nozzle on the carb. I'll post up some pics soon.
 
Yeah, I did not think of the energy needed to heat that mass of AL; you are already at 240-260 watts so maybe a coupla thousand watts?!?

This is all why I advised my son to not use an AirGap since he was planning year-round driving. Use the engine's waste heat...
 
You guys/gals crack me up. After you all figure out how to keep the OP's intake warm see if you can figure out how to keep my gas from boiling 365 days a year (without cutting a hole in the hood)!!

treblig
 
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