Okay, I am giving some thought to removing the dirty oily black fuzz that is on my firewall. I removed the stuff around the wheel wells years ago and removed all of it in an 84 I had. I don't remember any huge change in noise or temp. Will it be different with a V-6? I know some guys replace it with the new silver stuff but I am not excited about that stuff.

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I just removed mine. Good riddance. If you add some insulation behind the heat shield, you won't get any increase in temp from the CAT so far as I can tell. Of course my forward exhaust manifold and Y pipe were wrapped when I had them on, and the present headers are wrapped. I think it is a bit subjective. If you put your hand on the rear glass after a run, that same heat is on the firewall. Your liner in the carpet absorbs allot of heat, so you may find it ok. It kind of depends on the engine, the cooling you have, and the climate you live in. Hope this helps.

Arn

Thanks, I think it will be a barely noticable difference too but am looking for more input.

i havent noticed much more noise from removing it. i believe its there for temperature reasons but i could be wrong

Have you ever felt the rear glass while driving? It gets quite toasty on my V6. GM put a lot of insulation on both sides of the firewall, and a big heat shield. Personally, I wouldn't eliminate it. Have you considered replacing it with some other insulation?

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'88 Formula. 2800/automatic. Undergoing sunroof addition.

The rest of the garage:
'92 LeBaron sedan: 3.0V6/5sp
'77 Camaro: 350/4sp
'71 Fiat Spider: 1800/5sp
'71 Mercedes 220D: 2.2L/4sp
'70 DeVille: 472ci/TH400
'62 DeVille: 390ci/Hydramatic Jetaway

The biggest issue is heat from the CAT. I went to a friend who is an HVAC contractor and he got me some scraps of the 2000* insulation they use on boilers. I put that behind the firewall heat shield. It worked well.

On my new system I am wrapping the pipes, so the firewall insulation is not an issue for me. You have to remember that most cars have no firewall insulation. The insulation is on the inside of the passenger compartment. Even with big block engines. I don't believe the Fiero firewall insulation does much, other than dampen noise, and not much at that.

Arn

Mine got hot without the insulation. 4.9 swap puts the exhaust manifolds a bit closer to the firewall. I also had a cat is the stock position. I bought the stuff WCF sells to add insulation back in. Quieted it down a bit also. Then I found out you can get the same stuff everywhere for 1/2 the cost. $50 dollars over at JCwhitney.com. Either way it works great and is very simple to install... when the cradle is out of the car. Just clean the area with brake part cleaner, then peal and stick. Been there for a few years now.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 07-08-2010).]

1st time I ran my arm down back of engine. I was thinking. What the hell is this S***. Eww made my arm itch. Was like rubbing a cactus
Mine looked to be in good shape. But it just fell apart when I pulled it off. It was like turning to
dust. Just something to catch on fire after it got oil soaked. No wonder Fiero's had car fires.
Nothing like a fiberglass wick to make a car burn down.

If I need Insulation.. I will put in the inside.

quote Originally posted by Fieroseverywhere: Mine got hot without the insulation. 4.9 swap puts the exhaust manifolds a bit closer to the firewall. I also had a cat is the stock position. I bought the stuff WCF sells to add insulation back in. Quieted it down a bit also. Then I found out you can get the same stuff everywhere for 1/2 the cost. $50 dollars over at JCwhitney.com. Either way it works great and is very simple to install... when the cradle is out of the car. Just clean the area with brake part cleaner, then peal and stick. Been there for a few years now.

What does the WC stuff look like? I don't want the Apollo 13 look in my engine bay.

Mine got a little bit noisier.
I don't know if it made huge difference in temperature or not, but after I removed the insulation, the ECM used to go into limp mode if I was stuck in traffic for a long time.
As soon as I got underway again, and it cooled down a bit, it would recover. (I was blaming the chips that I was using, but it might have been the ECM itself.)
I have since moved the ECM to the wall behind the passenger seat. No more issues.

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Raydar
88 4.9 Formula IMSA Fasback..........................88 3.4 coupe -soon to be something other than red

Read Nealz Nuze! Praise the Lowered!

I removed mine during the 3.4 swap and replaced it with the peel-n-stick stuff for ducts from Home Depot. Not wild about the look but at least its cleaner.

I put on two layers and I can't say I notice a difference (noise or heat) from when the old stuff was on there.

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Bob T.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Mine got a little bit noisier. I don't know if it made huge difference in temperature or not, but after I removed the insulation, the ECM used to go into limp mode if I was stuck in traffic for a long time. As soon as I got underway again, and it cooled down a bit, it would recover. (I was blaming the chips that I was using, but it might have been the ECM itself.) I have since moved the ECM to the wall behind the passenger seat. No more issues.

Raydar, that is something I hadn't thought of. I was thinking only about comfort. I wonder if that did affect your ECM, there isnt alot of insulation around the spot where the harness passes through the firewall.

quote Originally posted by 1MohrFiero: What does the WC stuff look like? I don't want the Apollo 13 look in my engine bay.

Here is a link to a pic on their site...
http://www.westcoastfiero.c...ment_insulation.html

Mine...


Apollo 13 look?

quote Originally posted by Fieroseverywhere: Here is a link to a pic on their site... http://www.westcoastfiero.c...ment_insulation.html Mine... Apollo 13 look?

Oh, yeah! Houston, we have a problem... Given time I guess I could learn to like it. It is a very clean look.

[This message has been edited by 1MohrFiero (edited 07-09-2010).]

quote Originally posted by 1MohrFiero: Raydar, that is something I hadn't thought of. I was thinking only about comfort. I wonder if that did affect your ECM, there isnt alot of insulation around the spot where the harness passes through the firewall.

Hard to say. I know that it did get pretty hot inside the console. Too hot to even press my hand on the ECM and leave it there.
I was thinking about just insulating the back wall, inside the console, but I was doing a lot of chip changes anyway.
Just made sense to relocate it.

As for the comfort aspect, it never got to the point that I was conscious of the extra heat. Maybe a little more out of the console side grills.
It was never enough that the A/C couldn't keep up with it, though, except when the refrigerant got low and it was 90+ outside.

quote Originally posted by 1MohrFiero: Given time I guess I could learn to like it. It is a very clean look.

1Mohr's is what mine looks like, and to be honest I don't even notice it any more when I look in there. It's just cleaner.

[This message has been edited by fyrebird68 (edited 07-10-2010).]

quote Originally posted by 1MohrFiero: Oh, yeah! Houston, we have a problem... Given time I guess I could learn to like it. It is a very clean look.

Shiney stuff works well. It reflects the radiant heat away from the firewall in addition to limiting heat soak off the manifolds. That being said you could always paint it black after its installed or just install you insulation inside under the firewall carpet. I used the rest of the roll there myself.

I have a roll of that shiny buble wrap looking stuff I use it inside the car and works great for heat, I got it at menards its like 12 bucks a roll in the roofing /insulation section they sell it their as a solar barrier u put between your trusses in the attick

quote Originally posted by jetsnvettes2000: I have a roll of that shiny buble wrap looking stuff I use it inside the car and works great for heat, I got it at menards its like 12 bucks a roll in the roofing /insulation section they sell it their as a solar barrier u put between your trusses in the attick

I was going to say, it looks like the bubble/foil insulation home depot sells for under $20, though I wasn't sure if it was meant to handle <b>that</b> much heat. Also used for hot water tank and furnace ducting insulation...

quote Originally posted by Stubby79: I was going to say, it looks like the bubble/foil insulation home depot sells for under $20, though I wasn't sure if it was meant to handle <b>that</b> much heat. Also used for hot water tank and furnace ducting insulation...

Ya that stuff is plastic based like bubble wrap so for that reason alone I use it inside the cabin as a secondary water/heat barrier under the carpets, it holds together verry well with plain old duct tape and the last four corvettes I have done have had zero issues with it and my 87 fiero as well once again the main benifit is the water barrier it gives if u have a leaky sunroof wich they all do just make a pan out of it under your carpet and save your floor! plus it will block alot of heat! if you use it just bond it to the carpet pad with spray adhesive it will bond to it great!

quote Originally posted by Stubby79: I was going to say, it looks like the bubble/foil insulation ...

The stuff I used came from Lowes. It's not bubble stuff inside, more like medium-density foam.

over 700 miles in two days, to Carlisle and back to Va Beach. No insulation anywhere in the engine bay, just POR-15 paint. No extra heat in the cab, but with the 95' temp outside, sun beating down on my head for 6 hours each way, I would not have felt it anyway.

Rob

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88 Coupe, CJB T-TOP, 1996 3.4 DOHC and a GT clip