I think i'll weigh in with my experiences too, but interesting thread.

I started off with a kit that had an in-bay pod filter, long type 3" stainless intake over the headers, and I already had an ACL tin/fibreglass sheet style heat shield. I decided I don't want to intercool as I cbf moving the battery, cutting the bumper or trying to route piping everywhere. I also don't like the concept of the w2a as they are messy under the bay, add numerous parts which can break, and I think in extended city driving it would heat soak and become pretty useless.

I first cut a hole in the inner guard (next to where the airbox normally is) and ran the intake pod into the guard. This made a huge difference to performance, mainly from the amount of timing I could run when the bay was heat soaked.

I next got the intake and JMM race series (very long; cat under drivers seat) extractors coated by Competition Coatings (ph: 03 9354 8021) in Vic. Cost was around $360 iirc. They recommended the regular ceramic coating on the intake to prevent heat soaking inwards from the headers; normally they would use a dispersant coating on intake parts (ala xr6t crossover). This made a big difference to underbonnet temps.

The biggest impact on performance was made by moving the intake to the inner guard, purely as the air it is sucking in is now not as hot as the back of your radiator!

The intake piping over the rocker cover still gets warm from the engine, but short of moving the TB I don't think you'll solve this one.

Jason

Very interesting comments indeed Jason. Thanks very much.

This is something I was looking to do also. I reckon there is some extra power to be found with my air pod in cool air. My biggest problem with this though, is where can I fit my pod for easy access behind the bumper?

Perhaps Im better off concentrating on repositioning the air pod pipe more so than the protection of the intake pipe?