what is this stuff, kinda like dynamat made by nasa to help cooling???
 

my friend had this stuff on his evo that was i guess made by nasa to help cooling. it is kinda like dynamat, you just put it on stuff to make it cooler, it absorbs heat. he had it under his hood, on a few hoses, and a couple places in the wheel wells, he said it helped keep his engine a lot cooler. just wondering if anybody knows what this stuff is called, trying to do a few things to keep my engine and engine bay temps down before i get my supercharger put in.

Sounds like unobtainium.....

There are thermal barriers that can prevent heat from spreading from a source. Or there are materials to conduct heat away from a source. You cannot just put a liner in a engine and have the heat "absorbed".

ok so what's the stuff that conducts heat away? that seems like it'd be a good thing to put on some hoses and piping maybe. also, do you know of anything that would be good to make the engine compartment cooler? also, anything that you could possibly line supercharger intercooler piping with to make the air cooler and shielded from engine heat? want all the cold air i can get!

open a superstreet and find one of those civics with the gold engine bays.

yes! the stuff he had was gold too, any idea what that stuff's called and if it actually works?

it's probably gold foil. it's an insulator, will reflect ambient heat away from the components you're wrapping, but it's not a heat collector.

if it was a heat collector, you could draw energy out of that thing.

gold is the best insulation, but its expensive. There are new, much cheaper alternatives that reflect about 95% as much as gold foil does. Unfortunately, its silver.

I wouldnt be surprised if NASA had come up with better stuff though. Probably some sort of layered mix of aluminum and fibers... I remember they came up with a crazy insulation for the space station and other missions, but that stuff is crazy expensive.

well there is carbon-carbon ceramic think space shuttle heat sheild. i belive there was a company producing a paint additive consisting of vacuum microspheres of ceramic that is like a fine dust you mix with paint, that provides insulating effects. and it is not technically correct to say gold or silver is the best insulation as they are really crappy insulators when it comes to contact. they merely are very reflective to infra red radiation. meaning a throttle body spacer made of gold foil would work like crap, but if you cover your engine bay in it, it will keep heat trapped in your engine bay( which is a bad thing unless your turbo is right next to the frame rail and your afraid of starting your car on fire). Or at least thats the way it was explained to me. It's more of bling thing anyway, besides i hear JDM stickers work better anyway.

^ not exactly. They aren't crappy and they reflect radiant heat up to like 90something% efficiency. As in they make excellent heat barriers. Do you know who Gordon Murray is? He seems to disagree with you as well. Respectfully of course.

You're not meant to wrap your engine with it, you're meant to use it to isolate components that will work more efficiently (or at all for that matter) from radiant heat. Things like cam sensors, intercooler piping, firewalls, etc. can benefit from gold foil covering.

I don't think JDM stickers work better than the gold foil used on the McLaren F1 for example....definitely not bling haha
http://www.whatonemillionbuys.com/wp...ompartment.jpg

gold is really only good for insulating against thermal radiation. There are better things to use on an engine bay...

I think you're referring to the MLI used on the ISS. Here's a layman's explanation of MLI: Staying Cool on the ISS - NASA Science
The gold color you are referring to is likely the kapton film. NASA uses many types of thermal blankets though. But like others have said it doesn't magically absorb the heat, it either reflects radiation or limits conduction or both. If you really want to blow the bank you can coat the inside of certain key engine and exhaust components with TBC's (thermal barrier coatings) and low friction coatings.

what i meant is what i said, it's a great reflector of infra red (heat) but if to parts are touching putting gold between them does crap. (laymans terms) as for insulating your engine bay like the mclaren, they do it on the mclaren because the engine gets so hot the radiant heat could start the car on fire so they use the gold to protect the car from the engine and the ventilate the heat using ducts. or engines are not starting our cars on fire so it isn't needed. turbo guys might see a benefit if they wrapped the frame that is 1/4 inch away from the turbo, and maybe made a shroud for the cold side to keep heat away from it, and maybe wrapped the pipes in it, other wise the only use i could see would be wrapping the intake and maybe the fuel lines.

so where would i get this stuff? nasa doesn't have a store close by haha

LOL, you mean Pep Boy's/Autozone/Napa don't have ceramic/gold space shuttle insulator?