Finally finished my engine compartment insulation project. Whew! Took about three hours and cost almost forty bucks! :-) My factory insulation was still in pretty good shape but the plastic film covering was going fast. I cleaned up the old stuff and installed the new over the top of it. After reading a number of threads I ended up with all Thermo-Tec products. Here's my list:
Insulation: #14125 @ $58 per roll. (three rolls)
Tape: 13997 @ $21 (two rolls)
Adhesive: 12005 @ $19 (two cans)
Stainless steel washers and 1 5/8" pan head screws.
Couple of notes for future searches:
* Be careful when putting a screws through this insulation. The interior of the insulation tends to wrap around the screw threads and can really mess up your work. I made a pilot hole with a nice sharp punch first.
* I used a utility knife to cut this stuff. It eats up blades quickly. You really need to change blades for each piece. Fortunately, there aren't too many cuts.
* I did away with the two wire runs along the frame rails. The driver side was the engine compartment light. I intend to add some LEDs sometime. The other side was the speaker wires for the bedroom radio. I threw the radio which gives me more room in that cabinet. The three buses I've had all had radios in the bedroom. On each one, I turned it on once to see if it worked. I left the wires in place and labeled them so the next guy can reinstall if he so chooses.
* I eliminated the 120 volt outlet and hard wired the block heater.
Sure is brighter in there.
jor
Looks awesome. It will last too.
Nice job! Keep us posted on how much better the temps are as a result.
Len
Excellent workmanship Jor.
Got a link on where you got that from Jor?
Workmanship looks Great. Want my engine bay to look like that!
Next year.
Bob
Jor,
I went back through and added up your material costs, and came up closer to $240 than $40. Did I misunderstand what you were telling me? Also, what was your source for those products?
Thanks, and again, nice job!
Len
Bob and Len, I got it all on Amazon. Just query Thermo-Tec. For example, the link for the insulation is insulation) (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dautomotive&field-keywords=thermo-tec+14125). Quite a few others have used this same product and there are some good threads on their installations.
Len, I was just kidding about the $40 and three hours. Probably $250 with the other stuff and my labor at the minimum wage would be about $10,000. Re the temps, I've never really noticed any heat back there so I don't expect any change. I just did it to keep the insulation from falling apart. We had a rear radiator 225 and the deteriorating insulation plugged up almost half the radiator. That one was harder to do because of the more limited access.
jor
JOR--We'll give you $50 Cash Money to do ours that nicely. We can come to you? Good work.
Are these "I'll just whip that modification out in 3 hours or are they "coach hours", similar to coach bucks? Just my obviously inept personal experience.
Nice job jor, real clean!
John, You owe yourself a steak dinner (with plenty of champagne)! Ours was done at the same time it was re-painted and striped: 8 hours labor & parts: $820.00. Should have had the front end done, also, that's next! ^.^d