Hot floor - what to do about it?

[Scramblin_Jim]

Man after being in the Scrambler half of a day driving about 135 miles I sure noticed that the floor under my seat is very hot. I went to reach for something I couldn't put my hand on the sheet metal it was so hot. Doing a little looking around, it appears the heat is coming from the cat converter and the rest of the exhaust system.

When I had the new exhaust system put in, the guy didn't keep any of the heat deflection shields so there are none between the cab and the exhaust system.

So what can be done? Would I go to the muffler shop again and have them fabricate shields? Or do you go to an offroad shop and as they put in skid plates that also help to keep the heat out? Or do I put in new floors that have some heat insulation to them?

Man in another month when the outside temps get into the 110's it going to be hot as inside the cab!

[John N]

Yes, that's the hot spot in Scramblers. I'd go to the exhaust shop, if you want to fix it. Have them add heat shields, it's not a difficult job.

On the other side, you could leave it alone. It can serve a purpose.... whenever my son and I are off-roading for a weekend, he always gets an x-large pizza the first night, the next day he puts the left-overs (wrapped in foil) under the carpet in "that" spot. He's got hot pizza all day and he's happy. It solves a different issue, but it's an important one when he goes with me.

[Bear Claw]

Buff that floor to a shine and scramble some eggs in that boy!

[mulescj8]

Originally Posted by Bear Claw

Buff that floor to a shine and scramble some eggs in that boy!

Or just hold your feet up and keep your hands off of it. on second thought..........might make a great place for buritto's

[Scramblin_Jim]

I don't know if I could handle the smell of warming food all day as I drove. It would make me too hungary and I'd loose focus on my driving. Think its best to stick with trying to figure a way to keep the heat out as we have too much of it already in AZ.

[CJ8Rockcrawler]

I have the same issue in my Scrambler... same thing as you, exhaust was redone and now it is all toasty. I have a fiberglass tub though, so it is somewhat better insulated. At least it doesn't melt!

[kohldad]

You can easily add a heat shield your self. Add a exhaust clamp in two locations with the threads pointing up. Then place a piece of sheet metal on the two exhaust clamps with extra nuts. Make sure to put at least two angle bends in the sheet metal to make it rigid. The close to center of the gap you get it, the more functional it will be, but make sure to have at least a 3/8" gap between the exhaust and the heat shield. Sitting still for long periods, it won't work much. But for riding down the road or trail, it should help a great deal.

This came up last year but winter was approaching so I didn't worry about it as I wanted the warm floor boards. But since summer is comming, it's time to add mine. Maybe I'll make it a project for this week and post up some pics.

[RandyLL]

Is your cat in the right place. It should be behind the transmission skid, not inside it like mine was.
You can also get heat/sound deflection material for the inside.

[Scramblin_Jim]

kohldad:
Man that would be great to see to some pictures of what you're taking about.

RandyLL
I don't recall. Maybe I can post a picture tonight of what I have under there. As for heat/sound deflection material, I was hoping not to have to use it unless there was no other way of doing this. I wanted to paint that Rhino-liner stuff on the inside of the cab's floor to match the rear bed area. Don't want to run any carpet as that is what I have now and its a dusty mess to keep clean.

[Scramblin_Jim]

Looks like the cat is mostly behind the transmission skid plate.

[Dirty Dave]

I like the idea that kohldad had, would this work better if I used Aluminum. And since I am fixin to paint or line the underside of my tub, what is best, I was thinking herculiner or zero rust

[RandyLL]

It takes a real short muffler to get both where they're suppose to be using the stock hanger. My cat was all the way under the skid so it was also cooking my transmission.

[Scramblin_Jim]

The saga continues . . .

Thought I'd give you all an update on my progress (or lack of) with regards to elimination of the heat. I fabricated a steel heat sheild which helped a little. I got some high denisity high temperature rubber to lay across the top of the shield as well. That also helped a little. However on a trip two weeks ago with the outside temperature near 85 I was getting 145 degrees at my feet.

So this weekend I got some jute with foil on one side and put that on the floor under the seats, under my feet, over the hump. I then put a new molded vinyl floor mat over the whole install. Looks nice. Took the Jeep over the same route with the outside temperature in the upper 70's and got a reading of 123 degrees at my feet this time. So made a 20 degree difference.

I think now the heat is coming thru the firewall. Any suggests on how to block that entry point? Will exhasust manifold wrap work to hold down the heat? Put in vents in the hood? Any suggestions?

[MarknessMonster]

Hey Jim, the first thing I'd suggest is moving out of the desert!

Kidding aside, I've seen some folks glue a foil-faced insulation on the engine-side of the firewall on modified vehicles with V8 engines. This foil was used to block heat. This solution is a lot easier done with a blank firewall, instead of working around an installed assembly, though, so I'd assume that there has to be a better solution than the foil insulation.

I also made the mistake of losing the cat heat shield, when I was about 19 years old and had the cat replaced by Midas. Unfortunately, I ended up melting the Laredo carpeting under the driver's seat. Those are pretty high temperatures to cause carpeting to melt.

It seems odd that you're getting that much heat through the firewall.

[Craner8]

Has anyone ever wrapped the cat converter with heat shield products? Can it be applied directly over the converter? Does it work?