When I still had my Corvair (I'll get to Healeys in a minute) and was
on that list, engine heat was a real topic. On an air cooled car, the
heads get 400 degrees on a good car, and much higher if something was
wrong. A real problem on the cars was that the pushrods run through
tubes that also carry oil front he crank to the valves directly under
this heat. (The famous Corvair oil leak came from the failure of the
seals for these tubes)
It is a challenge to keep the oil temps as low as possible as it is
designed to be a secondary cooling element of the engine. A modern
trick to fight this was to paint these tubes with white VHT ceramic
paint which acted as a heat barrier. This act alone dropped the
running temp of my car 40 degrees! I would have thought of this
stuff as snake oil if I hadn't seen it work.
.
I am wondering how effective this would be keeping the heat out of our
Healey. Could coating this on the floorboards, and transmission
tunnel help? It could also coat the backside of the early 100-Six
metal-only heatshield. I also know that there is a similar aluminium
based paint that is used as a radiant heat barrier in homes, maybe
that could be used as well.
Any thoughts?
Patton
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Patton Dickson - '57 A-H 100-Six
Homepage - http://Austin-Healeys.com/
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