Hope you all are having a great day! My wife got me an early Birthday gift, the HTC Clear Engine Cover from Paragon Performance! Now I can finally see who built my engine! www.paragonper...
Great video. I just picked up a 2024 HTC and thinking about snatchng up one of these windows. I haven't hit 500miles yet and saw that you guys are already there... I need to get out more. Again, great video. Keep them coming.
I hate to be "that guy", but I'm going to be "that guy". You'll carefully note the panel you removed from your car had that foil/reflective padding on the underside of it. That stuff acts as a heat shield for two types of heat: convective and radiant. The former is just basically, "warm air", which would be coming up off the headers and cats (and engine, to a lesser degree (ha!)). But the latter is the more important one, because it's just light. Intense light in the part of the spectrum that you can't see but you can feel it. And so will the underside of your convertible top. That radiant heat is "shining", for lack of a better word, up from the headers and cats too, and will pass RIGHT through that clear window you installed. It's the reason the GM window option is blocked off around the outside of it: to keep the radiant heat trapped and reflected back towards the engine. All in all while this looks great, it's putting your convertible top at a pretty big risk for burn marks from the radiant heat. Keep a VERY close eye on that. If you fry that off, GM won't replace it under warranty given this mod right here.
Rapid Rev, the company that produces the clear cover did some temperature tests and noticed little difference between the clear vs stock cover. I hear your concern though. I have 3700 miles of daily driving so far with no issues. If I notice anything I will be sure to let others know.
The question is: how did they measure those temperatures and where? Radiant heat cools off quick and if the temperature sensor isn't in exactly the right spot, it'll be missed. The key point here is that measuring the temps at the actual cover is the wrong place. It has to be measured on the bottom side of the HTC cover which is getting blasted by said heat. And trying to do that accurately is going to be very difficult.
@@JasonVanPatten This past weekend I took a 3 hour trip with the top down the whole trip and did before and after measurements. The temps are surprisingly similar after the trip.I measured inside the headliner pieces as well. I just posted the video results. This suede material GM uses really absorbs the heat well it seems.
Why couldn’t GM offer the intakes in body color for all exterior colors? Same for brake calipers and stitching. So much money left on the table. I want to do this mod eventually, even though I also have the black intakes. The LT6 is a cool engine, and a lot of people will want to see it.
Jeff, that looks great; much better than the OEM option. I saw (Briefly) the name plate for the guy/gal who assembled your engine. I have often thought it would be nice to know something regarding these folks. How many are there, bio’s, how many hours does it take them to assemble….etc What are your plans for the old cover?
I will just keep the old one since it’s a stock part. I actually found my engine builder on Facebook and sent him a Thank you message. It would be cool to have a list of all of the builders. I had reached out to the builder from my 2016 Z06, Todd Browning and sent him an engine cover and he signed it for me. He messaged me several times and my original plan was to do the engine build experience with my Dad and him building the LT6 but they aren’t offering the program yet and I believe he must be in a different position because I haven’t heard from him
Jeff- follow up to our discussion. There is a thread on midengine corvette forum, “who built your LT6”. Lists all of the builders from owners that replied to the thread. You may find a kindred soul.
Sorry I just have to laugh at this, why do I have to look thru a piece of plastic when I can just look at it without it... makes no sense to me but a waste of money.
You make a good point, the main reason I like having a cover is because I drive my car everyday including during the rain. I don’t see much but there is a little dirt etc that is on the under side of the cover after 5k miles of having it on. I haven’t done a test to see how hot the headliner would be without a cover at all but I do know it’s almost the same from the factory cover and the clear cover.