I just got a new paint job and do not have insulation between my fiberglass hood and 5.0 engine. I really do not want my paint to burn off so I am looking at insulators and found one that I am curious if it will work. http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku This insulation is not meant for hoods, it is meant for firewalls but it can stand 400 degrees and is $40 cheaper than the other insulation. So i am wondering if it will do the trick for my hood.

you won't burn your paint off. without the insulator. The underhood insulation is for engine noise reduction.

the reason I have asked this question is because the old paint that was on the car got stripped off the hood because of the heat.

I doubt that, if your car was made at the van nuys plant in cali, then it's because they used waterbased paint. If it really burned off it would show severe discoloration prior to "flaking off".

haha ok smart one. just tellin you what happened and I am looking for something to protect the paint. I have also been told by several different people in the auto paint business and in the mechanic business that it will wear off. I really care less if you believe me.

Gee a bit hostile aren't we? Actually stroker is right, the paint was crap from the factory and this is a common problem with camaros and firebirds and has NOTHING to do with heat. But I could care less if you believe me........

I have run my Z for 7 years with a Harwood cowl induction hood no insulation and no burned paint as stroker_SS said the insulation was a sound deadening measure. These cars were made in Calif. with their sorry paint and had a bad tendacy to flake and peel.

I got one at Eckler's Camaro for my stock hood a while back. fit perfect.

I dont see why it wouldnt work... Dynamat also has one for hoods.

I would agree that the paint won't burn off. When did they start putting insulation on hoods? I am guessing late 70's early 80's. I know I have a 49 Ford, 68 Dodge, and had an 84 Dodge that didn't have any, come to think of it I don't think my 83 GMC did either.
Bad paint. In the 80's and 90's GM did some @#$@^ paint jobs.

Nah, I had a 1969 Ford Torino that had a hood blanket on it.

drummerdude7_13,
That insulation you linked to says not to use it in door panels because of moisture present. I would think that there would be a good chance of moisture being present under your hood occassionally.

well if you take your hood to get painted by one of the guys you siad, siad that it will burn off then maye it will becuase they dont know what theyre talking about the only way i can see you paint burning off is if it is near your exhuast or you put a torch on it.

Whether the paint burns off or not, if it makes this guy feel better, let's help him out. My brother used the firewall insulation on the underside of his hood, it has been on 6 years now with no problems. Hope this helps.

6 3rd gens, 2 fiberglass hoods, all in MY driveway, and the first thing I did to the cars, was pull the insulation off the steel hoods, and never put any on the fiberglass hoods.

Your paint is peeling because of the crappy GM paint from the late 80's/early 90's, not because of heat.

We're just trying to educate you. No need to get an attitude.

Hmm, I think when I get home ill pull off the insulation!, all it does is choke my xstream air filter.

To try and be a little helpful, you can order some under hood insulation from Classic Industries for under 50 bucks. If you want the molded insulation, plan on picking it up from Huntington Beach, CA or spending 175 bucks to get it delivered (no lie).

Don't forget to order the retaining clips that pop into your hood.

http://www.classicindustries.com/placeorder.htm

Search on "insulation".

Personally, I am still on the look out for some insulation for my car. I want it loud only in the back where the pipes are.

Wear gloves! The fiberglass in the insulation pads SUCK, embedded in your hands, when you squeeze them to get ahold of them. And, the more you scratch, the deeper you drive them in. About all you can is let them work themselves back out, and rinse them off. Rub, and you'll drive them right back in, or into your other fingers you used to scratch.

I got one of those filters There is a company i found that makes stick-on hood insulation they claim that it will protect the heat from your hoods paint (sales gimmick? lol) dynomat makes it and summit carries it. I could understand if you just got a fresh paint job and you want to protect your investment but i wouldnt care if it was a crappy factory paint job.

I wish I could show ya'll some pics of my hood but unfortunately my car is in the shop getting repainted. However I noticed that right after I removed the insulation, I'd say maybe 3 weeks later my paint started to BUBBLE. and this was a Huge bubble, like the size/shape of a pancake smacked in the middle of my hood. I'm not sure what caused this, but i'm almost positive it is due to the high temperatures AT LEAST because it's 90 degrees average here on Guam. It could be anything I guess, I'm not an expert at this kind of stuff. That's just my

Sounds like Texas....I've had 94-96 for a few months now, and had my insualor off since November....No bubbling paint.

So, I'd it isn't your Guam heat. Sounds the same as Texas right now.

I hope it's not caused by the heat. paint jobs are really expensive, and it would kill me if my paint would start to bubble again. btw that wasn't original paint. I'm probably going to buy another insulation on ebay, just to be safe. I need it to cool my engine off anyways.

The day after I bought my 87, 3.5 yrs ago, I pulled my insulation off. As well as the rubber sealing strip along the back.

My 87 hood was wrecked by a deer, so I put on my 89 hood. The insulation was pulled off the day the hood went on.

The rubber strip may not help very much, but if heat can escape through there, so much the better. I've noticed the rear 2 vents on my GTA, do have SOME heat blowing out, when the fans are running, that they might help 0.01%. Hey, every little bit counts ad adds up, huh?

i have an 86 trans am that i had repainted about 2 years ago and had a steel custom hood put on ( didnt pay n e thing for the hood it was given to me .) i would think teel gets hotter them fiberglass seeing how steel is a mettle and i didnt have the insulation on it . and i also live in new mexico where it gets up to 100 derges . and i also used cheap paint and my paint did not fade peel or bubble.

I just bought my IROC who just had the car painted. He removed the insulation and the clearcoat started to peel off (from the heat under the hood). The paint is also flaking off in large chunks, all over the hood. I called a local painter, and he wants $400 to reshoot the hood but says he will not paint it, until I replace the insulation. I found some insulation that will work, out of the JC Wittney catalog. I can purchase it for under $30 and just cut it to fit on my own. Don't listen to anyone that tells you the heat under the hood won't peel your paint away, I have proof that it will !

Stonehenge

You have "proof" of a car with peeling paint & no insulation......

MANY, MANY of us have no peeling paint & no insulation. I'd say the # of successful non-peeling hoods without insulation, GREATLY outnumber your 1 peeling hod without insulation.

Thats WRONG! That insulation is there to keep the engine heat from cracking your hood paint. I know that from experince. if you take it off, especially in the summer time, it will cause star cracks to start forming. then that will lead to your paint cracking and it will eventually come off. i was stupid and took mine off. you should have seen my hood before i repainted it. after i finshed it , i put that thing back on!

YOU are wrong. If your paint peeled or cracked, it had NOTHING to do with the insulation being gone. It had to do with BAD PAINT.

Refer to my post just before yours.....

Well, before I took it off my brand new $3400 paint job was fine. then about 2 to 3 weeks after i took it off it started to star crack. this has happend to 2 previous cars i have had.

Blame your painter, not the lack of insulation.

Every 3rd gen I've had, has had the insulation ripped off, in the first week I owned the car. Never had peeling paint afterwards. Not even on the Maaco paint job, did it ever peel......

The painter said it does cause cracking, I'm going to listen to him. It's a NO BRAINER. If someone wants to listen to someone say it doesn't affect the paint let him find out on his own.. but when a freaking PAINTER (A man that actually PAINTS cars..) tells me it DOES affect the paint, I'm going to listen to him..

Stone

Regardless of if he feels HIS paint can't survive underhood heat (sounds like he needs to go back to school), I'm going to go on PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, of MY CARS, both steel & fiberglass hoods (among MANY others cars) paint jobs surviving without insulation.

How many show cars/Saturday night "shows" cars do you see with underhood insulation? Not very many......Yet they always have good paint.

I just have a real problem with people that say "No insulation = cracked paint" Its NOT TRUE. It MAY cause cracked paint, with a bad paint job. But it isn't AUTOMATIC & DEFINITE.

That's an excellent thought ! I just realized that.. how many show cars DO you see with insulation ! None the less, I'm putting mine back on, but you make an excellent point.

Stone

one of the first things i did when i bought my 91Z was rip the crappy insulation off, ran it like that for about a year and a half before i sold it. never had a paint issue. as mentioned the insulation is for sound deading. there are several cars that come out of the factory without insulation and years later the paint looks great. stephen i believe that seal on the back of the hood is to prevent hot air from the engine compartment to be sucked into the cowl and into your car.

Dunno why you brought those up or singled me out about them.....But I pull those off too, to let the underhood heat out & let the airstream going over the car at speed, act as a kind of "suction", to draw some underhood heat out.

The day after I bought my 87, 3.5 yrs ago, I pulled my insulation off. As well as the rubber sealing strip along the back.

My 87 hood was wrecked by a deer, so I put on my 89 hood. The insulation was pulled off the day the hood went on.

The rubber strip may not help very much, but if heat can escape through there, so much the better. I've noticed the rear 2 vents on my GTA, do have SOME heat blowing out, when the fans are running, that they might help 0.01%. Hey, every little bit counts ad adds up, huh?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thats why i mentioned it. my car was missing it and when i installed one i noticed a lot cooler air coming out of the vents. granted it wasnt a thirdgen but that seal should serve the same purpose.

My car has no insulation and no paint cracks, and we are just at the end of our hottest summer on record, we had a day last month that 47 degrees C (dunno what that is in F) and a week of days over 44 degree C. If that isn't hot enough to crack the paint without the insulation then I doubt that the insulation would make any difference.

117 F & 112 F.....That is kinda warm.

Thanks mate. And yeah it hot allright, we had the worst bushfires in the history of Australia, 230 people died and over 2000 houses lost, not too far from where I live.

Let's see... I live in Phoenix AZ also known as the face of the sun. I had my 92 repainted in 2004 and the painter removed the underhood insulation. It hasn't been replaced and has survived just fine without it with engine heat hitting it from the bottom and 110+ degree heat from the sunlight hitting it from the outside with no cracking, peeling, bubbling, etc at all. I'd worry about the quality of the paint being used as the reason it is peeling on the car, not the engine heat.

Now that a forced induction engine is going into the car, I'm swapping to a fiberglass cowl and will not be using insulation on that hood either.

the insulation is there so people wont bump there heads. i banged my head into it once. got my hair full of dust and dirt and fiberglass. never did it again

Just took mine out today. It was old and ratty

he brought it up because u mentioned it in an earlier post (#24)

My 84 has a oddly hot built 350 in it tore out the insulation befor i even pulled the v6 out never chipped or pealed or bubbled and my 89 formula same deal except it was a 305.

With over 40 replies, I don't see anywhere here where the original question was answered...
I would like to know for myself where I can find a molded insulation pad for my '82 Firebird. I really don't care if you think it is useless or not. All i want to know is where to get one. If anyone can answer me that, please do and thank you. Otherwise, don't reply.

Only place I know to get Underhood Insulators......

http://www.carmotorsports.com

Thank you very much. And forgive me if I seemed irritated. This thread turned into an argument over the effectiveness of the insulation. But thanks for your help.

Yes, you did come across very short & irritated, but I helped you anyways. I was feeling generous.

It is a great item for a show car, but proven thousands of times over, that it is not needed to save the paint.

Bad paint was caused by the Van Nuys (IIRC) plant, not the lack of insulation. Not one of my 3rd gens had insulation on them, more than the 1st week of my ownership.