The fine vessel you see pictured here was worked on by David Mahler, the president of TCS Marine Services in Bellmore, New York, and his crew. David reached out to us recently to share his experience with installing a thermal barrier from Heatshield Products in the engine room. The high-performance Caterpillar Marine C-12 diesels powering the yacht had a special heat-resistant painted applied to their turbo lead pipes at the Caterpillar factory. After time, the paint had begun to chip off and was an eyesore, otherwise pristine million-dollar, ocean-going vessel. Plus when anyone had to work around the running engines or reach across them (something that happens frequently), the result was often painful burns to the arm and chest area, or, at the very least, some singed skin and hair.
As David told us, “Marine engines need much more ‘hands on’ and literal laying-on-top-of care than with a car engine. So, keeping them clean and as cool as possible is critical.”
ABOVE: Cobra Skin™ Exhaust Wrap can withstand continuous 1,350 degrees Fahrenheit of heat and intermittent temps of 2,000 degrees. When installed on the yacht’s Caterpillar C-12 diesel engines, the ambient engine-room temps decreased by 25 degrees. It also reduced the chances of the crew getting burned on the hot exhaust-feed piping, too.
Looking for a solution, David turned to Heatshield Products and installed Cobra Skin Exhaust Wrap on the turbo system’s lead pipe. The results were extremely positive. First, the ragged appearance from the chipped paint was gone, replaced by the clean look of the Cobra Skin™ Exhaust Wrap. Second, ambient heat in the engine compartment was reduced by 25 degrees. Let that soak in for a moment…a 25-degree cooler work environment in the engine compartment! And lastly, thanks to the properties of keeping more heat in the turbocharger-feed piping and the resulting increase in exhaust gas temperature that increases turbo performance, the ship saw a 2-knot increase in top-end speed—a big increase for a vessel of this size and tonnage.
“We find that the Cobra Skin™ exhaust wrap and other products from Heatshield Products are the best for marine applications, and use them often. With the new Heatshield Products Cobra Skin™, installed, it’s now not only perfect and looks great, and when you reach across the engines (which we need to do all the time), there are no hot spots to burn your arms, chest, and so on. It’s been a lifesaver. We love this stuff!”
ABOVE: With the Cobra Skin™ Exhaust Wrap installed, exhaust gas temperatures increased, which cut turbo lag while also increasing turbo spooling. The result was a 2-knot improvement in top-end speed. On the cosmetic side, covering up the feed piping eliminated the eyesore of the flaking factory coating on the pipe.
