I noticed the above which appeared to have been situated between the exhaust manifold and closely situated rubber tubing on my 2005 XKR X100, see pics. There was nothing left once I had fished out the fibreglass straw, so, imagining it served a purpose, I have improvised by stuffing plumbers soldering fire protection matting in the same vicinity. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated.

Old shield material before extraction

Some of the matting in situ, looking down between supercharger and windscreen.

Old fibreglass material extracted

improvised matting before placement

 

Maybe a good quality fire blanket will do.. you know one of thoose you can buy to your home and cut pieces from it to fit... they are not expensive...

/E

 

Yes, less cumbersome than plumbers heat shield.
Does anyone know the exact purpose and location.
Looks to me at though the rubber hose immediately above upper manifold branch is most at risk. Maybe wrap around this rather than the manifold itself?

 

On a non SC XK there is supposed to sit a cover/heat shield on top of the water heater valve, a blanket/cover thing on the metal tube to the EGR valve and a wrapped blanket on the plastic tube above that.. i believe water hoses are quite ok since they are kept cool with the water.. but for sure, over time...

/E

 

I just replaced my XK8 thermal insulation with items from TEMU. As much as I hate buying from TEMU, I couldn't find the same stuff in USA.

 

Thermal protection is most important when the engine is shut down. No H2O flowing and no air flowing.

 

I raise the hood / bonnet whenever I pull the car into the garage. If nothing else it helps the hoses longevity. If a particularly hot day, I’ll run a fan down on the engine. Anything to get those hoses to last longer .

Z

PS / the first thing I did when I bought this 2002 XKR eight + years ago was to remove the under hood insulation panel. I don’t mind the extra engine sound, in fact I enjoy it, and the engine is happier not baking under that insulation.

the exterior paint has not been impacted at all by the insulation removal. And why should it be ? Millions of cars are doing just fine with a bare steel bonnet side inside the engine compartment.