In the world of performance, heat is the enemy. While it may be winter outside… in and around your engine, parts are being exposed to high temperatures while you are driving. If you have a hopped-up truck, those temperatures can get pretty high.

It’s not uncommon for wires to actually be burnt and fuel to become super-heated as they pass the exhaust manifolds. The OEM tries to combat the issue of heat in two ways. The first way is the easiest to do when initially designing something. They simply route parts away from hot components. For the Power Stroke and Duramax engines, exhaust runs on the outside of both engines. So, routing anything that goes from the frame and body over onto the engine is a little more difficult. When the fuel lines come up from the frame and connect with the engine, the manufacturers try and route the lines as far away as they can to keep the fuel temperatures within an acceptable range.

If they are unable to route things away from the heat, OEM’s use the second method. They protect the lines with some sort of heat shield. While the silver looking piece of wrap around fuel lines and other places may look too small to do anything significant, you would be surprised how effective they can be.

One of the things we commonly see in the aftermarket is a complete disregard for heat management. Parts are upgraded or added with little protection from heat. Most of the time, the routing is either done because it “looks the cleanest” or because it was the shortest routing.

Even if you aren’t experiencing any issues, you may be losing performance. Companies like Heatsheild Products make a wide range of products to combat the heat. Now most people think of exhaust wraps as the only type of heat shielding. But in fact, thermal protection comes in a wide range of shapes, styles and designs. Heck, even different colors. Heatshield Products makes choosing the right type of product pretty easy with its wide range of offerings. They have thermal sleeving for wiring and fuel lines (you wouldn’t believe how hot fuel gets and how much power is lost by hot fuel), turbine housing shields for lots of different size turbine housings, exhaust/header wrap, not to mention a host of other heat shielding products.

While you may see these products as an extra expense, there is not only the potential to increase power, but with things running cooler, less heat can mean less wear and increased durability. Check out Heatshield Products to see what it has that will work for you today!