So I drove spirited this morning on the way in and when I got out I could smell some plastic… OEM carbon fiber rear diffuser seems to not appreciate the heat… Will see how it goes over the weekend, but just wondering if anyone had an idea for a cosmetically appealing solution, or if I should just deal with it and hope my diffuser doesn’t melt?
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/408957379.jpg
Aluminum duct tape on the edge facing the diffuser? Maybe a few layers with some ceramic header wrap sandwiched between? Ideal solution would be a fabbed heatshield with standoffs, but I can’t really tell how much clearance you’ve got in there. Since it’s a pretty rare carbon piece, I’d also be inclined to put some ceramic header wrap on the backside of the heatshield as well…
I just cant get past how sexy that exhaust looks.
ok so a few things.
Your exhaust can grow or expand quite a bit when it heats up. Generally it will expand length wise. So what I usually do when I help install exhaust systems is to take and before I bolt down the exhaust I expand the exhaust back about an inch to see what might hit under expansion. Doing this will let you know if your hot exhaust tips will hit anything. If I do find the tips hit I try to make adjustments or do a small bit of trimming on the defuser
So my tips would be. Check the range of the exhaust expansion and consider doing some trimming on the rear defuser. Its also a good idea to put a swing lock on your rear exhaust mounting arms. This helps stop the side to side swing of the exhaust.
If you dont want to do any rear trimming then you can consider putting exhaust heat tape on the spots on the body that come in contact. From there paint those sections of heat tape the approperate color to match the trim.
Also compugeek had some real solid suggestions that would work as well.
yeah im guessing it was due to expansion. i havent really smelled anything plastic since that day so i guess it solved itself. it’s going back into the shop tomorrow for the intake manifold and spacers, so i’ll have them look when it’s up on the lift.
Good to hear. Probably was just something small that worked itself out. You have to be hoonin on the car pretty good to get to the point where the rear tips are hot enough to melt anything.
yeah i was lol… they get crazy hot at times… a bit better since the spacers and new manifold