Rodding USA

THE INS AND OUTS OF PERFORMANCE THERMAL INSULATION

Good car building includes every detail of every aspect. The right parts, in the right places, doing the right job - and looking just right, too. One area that may not have the impact and pizazz of say, a polished blower or a tricked-out IRS, is insulating a car or truck during its build. Right off the bat, you need to know what you are insulating and why before you can get to how. It’s clearly time for answering questions. When driving your Hot Rod, do you feel like a baked potato even on cooler days? It’s the heat, right?

Heat is created as your engine produces power. All engines generate heat. It’s a basic law of physics, and it doesn’t matter how much power is produced. Heat or thermal transfer is one good reason to insulate. In our case of building Hot Rods, we often take a vehicle that was initially equipped with a little four-cylinder engine. Then, we replace it with one that may have more than double the pistons and triple the cubic inches. And almost instantly, you’ve got some heat to take care of.

We chatted up our friends at Design Engineering Inc. (DEI) in Avon Lake, Ohio, to find out

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