07 Sep FMU’s ’03-’06 Dodge Viper Heat Shield
Back in 2010, we made a friend a heat shield for his third-gen Viper’s brake booster. And it worked well. Now, we’ve got a facelifted production model.
Here’s a shot of the old model, featuring our name and logo sandblasted on the side. His Viper was experiencing fade after a couple sessions, and even high-temp racing brake fluid didn’t work. So we fashioned this one:
According to the owner – this heat shield, which helps protect the brake booster from heat soak coming off the motor – worked wonderfully. So we got to thinking, perhaps we should bring in another third generation (’03-’06) Viper and develop a model for production. After all, if it helps keep temperatures down, it would be great for both spirited driving on the street and the track. So we brought in another Viper…
…And set to work fashioning a new model, with a bit of a facelift. In a couple days, we went from this…
…To this…
…To this, our new production version of the 3rd Generation Dodge Viper Brake Booster Heat Shield. Featuring a construction comprised of 3003 aluminum (for the plates) and 6061 aluminum (for the arms and spacers), this new heat shield also has gold reflective wrap on the back of the shield, and is raised off the surface of the valve cover using the legs underneath. This model only goes up to the heat shielding of the Viper’s headers, but for those with aftermarket headers without the shielding, we’re developing a longer version to reduce the heat soak even further. The piece also works on the passenger side as well, helping to protect the coolant reservoir from additional heat soak. We ran tests, too, and the numbers will be after all the pictures.
Installing this shield is a piece of cake, as well. All it takes is a T30 Torx bit on a very long ratchet extension. Remove the bolts from the valve cover, put the heat shield’s legs over those bolt holes, and torque the bolts back down. Easy as pie, right?
No, not like that, silly, like this…
And now it’s time for the data. We spent some time doing spirited braking with the Viper in order to determine whether or not the heat shield was living up to its previous rendition. Now that we’ve collected the data, we can confirm that it does, in fact, reduce the temperature in the brake booster area by double digits! Here are the numbers, as measured by infrared thermometer:
Cold (Car Off)
— 70 degrees F (Brake Fluid Container)
— 69.9 degrees F (Brake Booster)
Idle
— 89.3 degrees F (Fluid)
— 91.9 degrees F (Brake Booster)
Heavy Braking Testing Without FMU Shield
— 165 degrees F (Fluid)
— 153 degrees (Booster Top)
— 186 degrees (Booster Inside Wall)
Heavy Braking Testing With FMU Shield
— 137 degrees F (Fluid)
— 138 degrees F (Booster Top)
— 158 degrees F (Booster Inside Wall)
Difference/Efficiency
— 28 degrees F (Fluid) – 16% drop!
— 15 degrees F (Booster Top) – 9.8% drop!
— 28 degrees F (Booster Inside Wall) – 15% drop!
We also placed the heat shield on the passenger side to take some measurements of how our heat shield works in relation to the coolant reservoir and its various hoses, as keeping the brakes cool is just as important as keeping the coolant within a desired temperature range. Here are the results:
Cold
— 71.9 Degrees F (Container)
— 70.0 Degrees F (Hose)
With Shield
— 174 Degrees F (Container)
— 180 Degrees F (Hose)
Without Shield
— 198 Degrees F (Container)
— 204 Degrees F (Hose)
Difference
–24 Degrees F (Container) – 12.1% drop!
–24 Degrees F (Hose) – 11.7% drop!
If you have any questions about the heat shield, or would like to inquire about getting one for yourself, just shoot your humble narrator an e-mail at andrew@fluidmotorunion.com.
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