Sounds to me like you answered your own question. I guess insulation is the key word. To keep it from penetrating, in or out. I had stainless headers on my truck for corrosion control. I heard others with coated headers (ceramic or jet hot) could actually touch them 10 min or so after running. I don't think I would have tried that with mine.

 

Deb,

did the vendor make the adjustment to his product for future sales?

 

We brought the fitment issue to CGS (the vendor)'s attention after getting the first shipment in. Their take was that it's impossible to gauge how many 2.2L vs. 2.4L intakes they will sell and since the 2.4L is the larger market share, they will stick with out of the box fitment for that engine only. We do have a how-to we send out to 2.2L HHR owners on modifiying the mounting strut. Perhaps I'll get it up on our site's how-to's after I return from SEMA.

BTW: CGS isn't the only vendor making 2.4L specific intakes; look on K&N's site, they only make their intake to fit the 2.4L engine as well. Having 2 completely different valve covers makes designing a "fit-all" intake for HHR's very difficult.

Hope everyone understands,

 

Thanks Mike...I knew you'd be along before too long to clear this up.

 

thanks DEB

 

oh come on.........................

 

comparing a plastic/aluminum to a painted steel/ceramic coated steel isnt really a fair comparison?? ceramic is a barrier either to keep heat in or out as others have stated! I have burned knuckles on painted headers and brushed knuckles against ceramic headers (vast differance in temp!!!!!!!!!) the price differance in coated versus non coated is not simply a cosmetic one!!!

 

I was not comparing the two, or actually three, but talking about a test comparing two to each other. But since we are tallking about intakes, why would it not be fair? If you are looking into what actually performs better.

The main differance of this particular test was to compare the termal conductivity between aluminum and plastic. Using the old school of though that aluminum would heat up and there for heat up the air going into the intake. That was not the case in this test as the aluminum one was actually cooler slightly. One thing that seems to get "lost" is the fact that air running through an intake tube is moving as a pretty good pace. It doesn't have time to really get heated once it enters the tube.

It's mainly a cosmetic thing. The thermal protection will be so slight, if any, to warrant any power increase. Ceramic coating looks great and should add to any corrosion protection, but not to any performance increase. The test above used controlled dyno testing that measured air temp at the filter and the TB. The differenance was less that .5 HP between the two different types.

 

I agree it would not be a 100 hp increase and i never stated it would be a vast increase in hp just that it may be an increase, the longer you run an engine the hotter the underhood temp will get, in turn heating the intake itself which by common sense would increase the air running through it? If the air was moving so fast that it didnt make any differance in temp to the incomming air, then i guess all the hundreds or thousands of drag racers in the past 50 yrs put the scoops stickin up through the hoods of their cars on simply for looks? or to get a cooler charge of air? so wether it be a scoop or a ceramic coated intake keeping the heat out it will increase performance, It may be as small as 1 or 2 hp but i would still stand by my statement that the ceramic is more than simply cosmetic.

 

Why were there 2 bolts supplied?