Went out for a brisk drive the the Plus 4 today (just under 1,000 miles on the clock). Sunny but quite cold (the first decent day in Cornwall for a while). Despite the cold weather, opened the bonnet on my return and couldn't believe the heat wave which came out. Bonnet and bonnet stays too hot to touch (despite the louvres) and the "cold" air intake actually a hot air intake since the pipe also really hot. The culprit is obviously the catalyst which, since being "close-coupled" on the GDI is actually inside the engine bay. There is a bit of heat shielding over it but it's clearly not effective. Shudder to think how hot everything will get in high summer. When I get round to it I'll fit some properly designed Duratec manifolds I have (same bolt pattern) and fit a 200 cel metal substrate cat further downstream outside the engine bay and under the wing. Pending that I'll insulate the air intake. Grtfl any thoughts?
