All pictures are thumbnails. Click on them for a larger version.
Firewall radiant barrier, version 2
There are two things to note in this pic. One is that I've tried to seal the rear tunnel opening using a product called flue putty. The intent is to prevent hot engine bay air from entering the tunnel and then getting into the interior. See below for other changes intended to keep the tunnel as cool as possible. The second thing to note is that I've added more radiant barrier. Much of the original tunnel opening is now covered.
Protect cables, hoses from exhaust heat
There is a bunch of cables, hoses, and wires that spend their day close to the very hot exhaust from the front cylinder bank. This is a high boost turbo car, so the exhaust pipes get cherry red hot. That means a lot of radiant heat energy that is looking for something to melt. Therefore, everything in the neighborhood is now covered with radiant heat barriers. Throttle cable, shifter cables, steering fluid lines, a/c lines, coolant hoses, e-brake cables, everything.
Tunnel insulation with 1 inch foam
As mentioned on the first insulation page, I quickly learned that the tunnel in these cars can get HOT. REALLY HOT. And if you open the windows, hot engine bay air gets sucked into the interior. This had to get fixed asap! I bought a 4 x 8 sheet of high "R" value rigid insulation foam from McMaster and spent a weekend cutting it and moving tunnel hoses around so I could insulate the tunnel walls. There are a lot of hoses running through that tunnel, and most of them carry hot (or at least warm) fluid. Since I had most of the engine systems taken apart, I could reroute all the hoses to remove twists and braids. Then I insulated the hottest ones with foam pipe jackets.
Fitting foam around heater water valve
Two of the bigger challenges with this insulation job were cutting the foam for heater valve clearance, and cutting it for shifter clearance. But it's all done, and now my tunnel gets just slightly warm to the touch on long drives. And I can open the windows without causing engine bay air to flow through the tunnel and into the interior. Much better!
"Tunnel mod", bringing in outside air
Probably every Noble owner that's ever been knows about the tunnel mod. This is the easy first step towards decreasing tunnel temperature and preventing engine bay air from flowing into the interior. The Noble has a forward facing air scoop in front of each front tire. Each scoop feeds two flex hoses, for a total of four flex hoses. The factory routes all four of those hoses to the HVAC system. Noble owners steal one or two of those hoses and reroute it/them to the front of the tunnel. I used one hose and riveted an adapter to the tunnel block-off plate that accepts flex hose. This pic is looking at the tunnel side of the front block-off plate.
Improving tunnel access for future work
I was in the tunnel many times during my first two years of Noble ownership. Normally, you must remove most of the floor to get access to the tunnel. That sucked, so I cut the floor into smaller pieces and added brackets so that I could expose just the tunnel. Then, instead of the factory RTV and rivets, I used super thin, self-adhesive foam strip and screws. No more drilling out rivets and scraping RTV for me!
But wait! There's More!
You're on page 2 of a two-page set. Click the buttons below to switch between the two pages of intercooler upgrade descriptions.
