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5 minute(s) of a 643 minute read
8-13-2012
OK, now onto the new thing that I actually can post about!
MN had some very high heat recently. It was in the 90's F or even over 100F for quite a few days in July. My car felt really sluggish. I figured some of this was from high IAT's and the car pulling timing, but another contribute was surely a very hot turbo, and hot engine bay.
I decided to buy a turbo blanket. I've read many good things about them, and it seemed like an easy enough thing to do. After some research I decided on a premade one. I wanted an easy install, without pulling the turbo. My 20G XTR uses a Subaru style exhaust housing, so it would need a Subaru turbo blanket.
The two options that I found were PTP and Perrin. From what I could tell the Perrin was the exact same thing, but with Perrin written on it and $50 added to the price. I went with PTP. I e-mailed them a few times and they were very helpful. Highly recommended!
I got the turbo blanket today, and this is what it looks like:
Close up:
Badge:
Wategate side:
The blanket appears to be made of very nice materials. It is thick and weighty. The stitching appears to be done by hand. It's not perfect, but it looks like it will hold up fine. The edges are metal mesh. Overall it is easily bendable enough to fit over the turbo, and the round tabs to secure it in place seem to be attached well. PTP includes a small roll of wire to hold it on.
To start, I removed the GrimmSpeed heat shield that I have installed. I did not remove the bracket for the heat shield. I did not remove the downpipe. I was hoping to run the wires from under the car, but with the downpipe and EWG in place, there was absolutely no space when looking up from the bottom!
I decided to try to fish the wires through from the top. I first wrapped the wire around one of the round tabs (rear, passenger). Then I set the turbo blanket in place. Then I fed the wire around the bottom of the turbo, towards the rear, and around the tab on the front, driver side.
After that tab I went straight over (under the turbo, in front of it) to the front passenger side tab. I looped around that and then over to the rear, driver side tab. After that I went back to the rear drivers side.
All along the way I was pulling the wire tight to keep the turbo blanket securely in place. Feeding the wires through was tricky (couldn't see much), but didn't take too long. I didn't remove anything except the heat shield, so it obviously wasn't that difficult. When I was done I twisted the wire around itself and snipped it off.
Once the turbo blanket was installed, I put the heat shield back on over it. The GrimmSpeed heat shield I have fit with no problems at all. Plenty of space. On the stock heat shield it would be very close, and probably wouldn't fit. Once I got that back on I decided to go for a drive.
When the drive started the turbo was quite cool (cool enough that I could work on it to do the install). After driving around and getting into boost for a while the underhood temps are usually pretty warm and the turbo is blazing hot.
I was brave and decided to touch the heat shield. It was definitely warm/hot, but it wasn't blazing hot to burn my hand, like it would have normally been. Everything seemed cooler around it as well.
So far I'm very happy with it. Looks nice, easy install, and it should only help performance. It will help keep the turbo hot (for better spool) and keep everything else cold (for better power). It's like a win-win!