I need to remove all the insulation in the engine bay from the strut towers and wheel wells. It's all messed up and coming apart. Is there any reason I should replace it? Or should I just leave it off?
I took all the engine bay insulation out when a 3800 SC swap was done. It cleaned up the engine bay but too much heat goes through the firewall, the AC can't keep up. It is a black car with the Pisa Euro dash that only used the two side vents for AC air flow. I used Mighty Matt insulation with foil on both sides, it worked great, the cabin stays comfortable now during the summer. I installed it with 2 sided carpet tape.
There was no insulation on the firewall when I got the car. It's just on the sides of the engine bay. I can see installing it on the firewall, but can't fathom why you would need it on the strut towers.
Not including the firewall (where it cuts down on heat transfer to the cabin), the main purpose of the insulation elsewhere in the engine bay is to cut down on noise... so it's definitely not critical to have it mounted on the strut towers.
Insulation on towers was likely to kill some engine noise and maybe prevent engine heat getting at suspension parts. Doesn't to much of either and gets a lot of crap.
Front Firewall needs some insulation as said above. Engine and Exhaust heats Cabin and maybe ECM w/o that.
Also See my Cave, ECM Heat to remove some insulation over it.
Many people are missing Heat Shields and won't help many things. Firewall and trunk wall and more has them w/ or w/o insulation.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
I threw out all the nasty insulation in all my engine bays. I never had any passenger compartment heat issues in summer with a/c...froze you out. I dont think I ever ran a/c at max. One of my cars was turbocharged and one was 383 v8 so they were both heat producers.
Another good thing about not having the insulation, the insulation isn't there to get wet and take a long time to dry, potentially causing rust issues.
I stripped everything but the firewall. Once I get it running, and find out if it's gotta be rebuilt, I'll pull the firewall and replace it with better insulation.
