Wrapping stock intake with tinfoil bubble and then heat resistant wrap?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by h1ph0panonymous, Jul 11, 2025 at 3:11 AM.

  1. h1ph0panonymous

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    Any decrease in thermal related wear on anything within the engine or engine bay is a plus, I wouldn’t mind prolonging the cars life as my daily driver until I die, it’s a nice car.
     
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Some people think they'll live longer by never leaving their house except for food and doctor appointments and if they don't take any risks they be able to "thrive" longer than people who make the most of life and have fun because they take risks.
     
  3. h1ph0panonymous

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    Actually was driving close to 3k miles a month a year ago (before my cleaning contract with my client halved because they couldn’t sell all their electric cars on their lot LOL because “Biden and Market”) according to the trip savings data screen, worked 7 days a week and coparented 3 days of those weeks. I’d out endure you any day of the week. Get less butt hurt and stop creating imaginary narratives to cope with the butt hurt.
     
  4. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    The inverter pump stays on.

    The engine water pump turns off immediately with the engine if the system is not fully warmed up (eg in the op's desired temperature range).

    When the engine is fully warmed up the water pump follows engine off after ~10 seconds.

    The above is with the latest ecu code, the system in Ready, with or without ac.
     
    #84 rjparker, Jul 12, 2025 at 12:33 AM
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2025 at 12:47 AM
  5. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I'd love to know how you drive 3K miles a month at below 188 degrees consistently? That's a hilarious claim to make...
     
  6. h1ph0panonymous

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    My average temp was 188, not 188 constantly. By exhausting heat through cabin means, which was discussed on how to exactly in this thread a couple comments back. What I haven’t disclosed was, semi-hyper miling for MPG because I was driving 45 miles round trip for work 7 days a week, +100 the days I coparented. Not that I was avoiding highways, but county roads (55 miles per hour speed limit) were my main routes unless it was more than 25 miles one way I would take highways. Highways I get average of 190 degrees temp around 65-70 miles per hour.
     
  7. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Lol, by exhausting heat through your cabin you're forcing your hyrbid battery to run hotter (shorter lifespan) because it's ventilation system is dependent on cool cabin temperatures... You just keep digging your hole deeper and deeper...
     
  8. h1ph0panonymous

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    I’ve only heard the hybrid battery fan click into overdrive once in the 30k miles I’ve driven it, I have my driver side window and rear right passengers side window cracked open all the way down at all times during the summer unless someone I have in the car prefers AC which is only on really hot days for a short drive with that person. What’s the exact temperature the hybrid battery prefers? Do you talk to it?
     
  9. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Batteries, like engines work best at optimum temps... In general if you're running AC and staying cool and relaxing and not stressed, so is your battery.

    Of course your battery could at times be a pet trapped in a parking lot all day in full sun in Summer and cooking too hot before you even start the car to heat it up even more while engine temps stay cool...

    Nickel Metal Hydride batteries are pretty good with their heat dissipation abilities in alot of ways, but everything has limits... Lithium being the biggest baby and need temps near perfect to avoid a shortened lifespan. Sodium Ion on the other hand... It pretty much solves temperature problems because of a much greater operating range. It's one of the few things you can do to be certain you've improved your car's lifespan and performance at the same time.
     
    #89 PriusCamper, Jul 12, 2025 at 2:06 AM
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2025 at 2:16 AM
  10. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Also the hybrid battery fan isn't a primary battery system, it's a backup protection cooling systems when temps get too extreme. Usually the only time most people hear their battery fan is when they get warning lights and hybrid system shuts down and fan defaults to full speed.
     
  11. h1ph0panonymous

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    I have the Model 4 which uses solar power to fan the inside of the car. I also have 2 layers (2 different materials) of filters for the battery vent to the right of the back passengers seats and still only heard the fan click on once, no clue what the variables of the cause were that day, think it was 100 degrees outside and humid but those days I’m blasting the AC which rarely happens in Minnesota so might have been a combination of that outside heat and the air flow restriction of having two layers of filter on a day like that. The fan only ran high or audibly for a minute or so when that did happen. Other than that I would never trap engine bay heat in my cabin like that, always have a window cracked open, I mean naturally you will want to crack a window open because that heat transference is toasty without ventilating it out through wind going inside your windows.
     
  12. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    I will check this out using Techstream, hopefully today. I have the latest ECM firmware for my 2011 Prius. I thought that the engine water pump would not stop because it is used to circulate coolant through the heater for the cabin.

    @ChapmanF. Can you please give any insight about this.
     
  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    You’re 37 now? That’s a lofty goal.

    I think the best tack with this thread is to walk away; I’m going to do that.
     
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  14. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If there is a demand for cabin heat (the HVAC setpoint is above the current cabin temp) the engine water pump stays on with the engine stopped, so it can continue delivering hot coolant to the heater (which it can do for a pretty long time, essentially using the thermal mass of the engine materials as a bank of stored heat, and aluminum has a very high thermal mass).

    Gen 1 and gen 2 had a separate electric pump to do that when the engine was stopped, when the main engine water pump was belt-driven, but starting in gen 3 the electric engine pump does the job of both.
     
  15. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    I did that awhile ago, since he's delusional and will be very disappointed IRL - but I'm sure he'll find someone ELSE to blame his troubles on.
     
  16. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    That's a shining example of the kind of empirical question that people use instruments and experiments to answer, exactly because "common sense" has no traction on it at all. Not many people were born knowing, or happened to pick up in random conversations between innings at the game, just how many extra degrees of engine bay heat will be seen above x RPM, or whether that's the same for all engine bays in all cars, or why x=2200 would be more special than x=2150 or x=2500 or any other choice.

    Common sense involves (among other things) not pulling some empirical claim out of the air and then dressing it up with "it's common sense that ...".
     
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  17. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    OP's question asked and answered. Actions speak louder than words. Don't forget to post pictures.
     
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  18. h1ph0panonymous

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    Its already been brought up in these forums, 1800-2200 RPM is it’s sweet spot. Just enough intake suction to keep it at 188 degrees at those RPMs.
     
  19. h1ph0panonymous

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    Pictures of the wrap job or data results?
     
  20. h1ph0panonymous

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    Disappointed with what exactly? Just being here in these forums and reading a majority of the threads is enough to show the people here are here to prolong their vehicle, most people just drive their car and let the professionals deal with repairs but we are here to do more, so why are you here if not to treat your Prius like one of your family members?