driving a sweat box!

has anyone taken their carpet out and realized that the drivetrain really heats up on the inside and makes the xj a traveling sauna. wondering what to do.
tomorrow i will be putting some por-15 on the inside floor, but i know that wont help to much.

Engines and transmissions get hot??? Wow you learn something new every day. :twak:

:rof:
Hadn't heard about that, eh? That's pretty funny.

You'll find that you hardly notice it after the nerve endings in your feet get numbed up enough.

While I've never been bothered enough to hassle with it, some guys have slipped some sort of insulating material between the floor and the muffler and cat to deflect most of the heat down and away. The later model XJs came with this from the factory in the form of a stamped aluminum panel that looks sorta like a quilted blanket. You could scrounge one of those or simply make something yourself. Just remember nonflammability, airgap, not trapping water against the floorpan, and durability to trail debris.

Coating the inside of the floorpan with Herculiner has worked beautifully in my rig. I can't say whether it helps with the heat transfer at all (I kinda doubt it), but it keeps water away, is easy to clean out, is durable as hell, and looks a whole lot better than painted sheetmetal for a floor. I am convinced that it helps deaden the sound just a bit, too.
Good luck.

I second the Herculiner. I lined mine about 3 months ago and have really like its versitility. The floor still gets really hot, but it's not that bad. If I ever go on extended higway trips I'll just toss a bag of ice under the seat and let the cool water cool me down. Laugh if you want but it really works.

ctavel said:

I second the Herculiner. I lined mine about 3 months ago and have really like its versitility. The floor still gets really hot, but it's not that bad. If I ever go on extended higway trips I'll just toss a bag of ice under the seat and let the cool water cool me down. Laugh if you want but it really works.

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Kind of curious.... do you have an extra drain hole?

In any case I was driving around town for a while now with no carpet while I'm working on my rig and I've been doing some thinking and came to the conclusion that I'll double pad the tunnel and the "hot" areas to cool down my rig. I don't know how much you expect herculiner to cool it down for you without anything in between, but it will not be much. Anyways, you could always line it up from underneath with something to deflect the heat (kind of like what you got above your exhaust)

I used the herculiner and cut some heavy outdoor carpeting to cover the floor area. Easy to clean and muffles the road noise

moneypitxj said:

has anyone taken their carpet out and realized that the drivetrain really heats up on the inside and makes the xj a traveling sauna. wondering what to do.
tomorrow i will be putting some por-15 on the inside floor, but i know that wont help to much.

Click to expand...

I did the rubberized paint stuff...did the fat mat...did the hang my head out the window like a collie trick....and finally bought a tranny cooler, which meant that while it was hot..I didn't take my fingerprints off if I touched the tunnel..