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Hot feet

T

twmattox

Legacy Registered User
City
Arcadia
State
IN
I have a full hardtop with full hard doors and the front carpet. I have A/C, but it isn't hooked up yet. My feet get verrrry hot while driving (even with windows down, back windows slid open, vents open, etc. It seems like the floor (espically by the firewall) radiate an extreme amount of heat (even at night). Almost feels like the heater is running (I checked and it isn't). I had a CJ-7 before (with the 4 cylinder). The floorboard felt warm with it but never like this. Is this normal? What can I do to drive more comfortable (yes, I will fix the A/C soon)...
 
On my Scrambler, even with the heat off, it still puts off a lot of heat in the cab. The heater core still has circulation and it's inside the Jeep. I keep planning on putting a heater valve (I think that's the right name) in the heater hose under the hood. Then you could cut off the circulation through the core by just turning the valve off. I'm told these are easy to find at most auto parts stores. Keep in mind, if your cooling for the engine is marginal, this may put it over the edge, because the heater core does disperse some of the engine's heat.
 
Another thing to think about is your converter they get very hot when they are old and half plugged up .
 
If you have the I6 that heat is coming from the exhaust, if you have a hedder on it it will be WAY hot.
 
I have the same problem in the summer though it is nice in the winter time. Have figured that most of the heat is coming from the exhaust. When I get around to it, I plan on adding a heat shield between the exhaust and floor board. All the heat shield needs to be is a piece of sheet metal between the floor and exhaust where there is at least a 1/2" between the sheet metal and floor.
 
Will it make any difference when I herculine the floor?

I am due for a new exhaust in a few years...I will be sure to add the heat shields...
 
Can't remember the brand

I can't remember the brand, but I went by the local 'boom-thump' stereo shop and bought some sheets of head & sound proofing material and did the entire floor of my Scrambler. They had a kit for doing the trunk of a car but that was going to be a tad small for my Scrambler, so I bought a box of the stuff for about $120.

It is aluminum backed adhesive stuff that is real dense yet flexible. Kind of about the feel of a refridgerator magnet. I would say it has to be at least 3-5 times as think as herculiner will be.

My Scrambler floor was not getting *that* hot with carpet absorbing some of the heat. I think the sound/heat dampener helped, at least that is what I have convinced myself.
 
I had the same problem with my CJ-7 (nope, don't have an 8 yet...). I used Dynamat Xtreme door kit. It did help quite a bit. It didn't cover the whole floor, but most of it. The sad thing is that later I discovered the floor had rusted through around the rollcate down tube and finally broker through the paint. I couldn't see this when putting down the Dynamat.
I had to pull up alot of the Dynamat to weld on a thicker floorboard on top of the old one. That seemed to do just as much as the Dynamat for heat. I'll put some more Dynamat on later.
Good luck.
Oh, I also replaced my cat but not sure if this did much to reduce heat transfer or not.
 
It sounds like heat displacement from the exhaust system. I get the same problem driving those boxy little mail trucks at work. If you have a catconverter you are sitting right on top of a super radiator heater. Find a way to divert air across it to dissapate the heat, eliminate the 'heater' or just deal with it.
 
Yeah, Kohldad said it best i think. From an engineering standppoint it makes sense to me to put a heat shield over the exhaust system over the cat and the muffler, and if you have a V8, as in my CJ8, too much heat is coming in on my feet from the crossover pipe which I will eliminate when I run duals from the manifolds to the rear. I'm not running hedders because I've head too many dissapointments about those. I wanted at least 1" or 2" clearance between the steel of the tub and the steel of the heat shield, just not sure how much is best. Another thought was to "louver" the heat shield to more quickly dissipate the heat...just an idea and as long as my truck is moving it should move air more quickly and that should remove the heat. Of course we could get some of those ceramic plates NASA uses on it's re-entry rockets shields and that should do the trick. Anyone have a source ?
 
Yeah, I agree with Kohldad. My heat is all coming from the exhaust. My entire exhaust system was replaced 2 years ago and I have bed liner on the floor (but no carpet). The floor behind the driver's seat will melt plastic and burn the skin off the bottom of bare feet (it burned the bedliner off too). I've talked to the muffler shop and the said they could install a heat shield between the muffler and the floor for $50.

In the winter the extra heat source is nice, but in the summer I'm using the soft top and going doorless so the extra heat isn't a factor. But in the in between times when the air temp is above 65 degrees and I have the hard top/doors on it can get rather hot in the cab. My tops are both full length. My engine is a 4.0.
 
Well $50 sounds like too much. I would, however pay $25 per heat shield if I could get 4 of them installed. I would want 2 between each header downpipe and the firewall and another two above each muffler where it comes in close contact with the floor in my CJ8. I've got a 360 in my Scrambler and a 4.2L in my CJ-5, same problem with both.
 
Great post. I started reading as I am dealing with the same thing right now. I realized that, even with my AC going full blast, I have cold air blowing and mixing with hot air. I got to feeling around, (not recommended while driving down the road) :D and found a good source of the heat was coming up through the transmission tunnel cover. I don't have carpet down and it felt like a hair dryer set to high blowing right on my dogs. This weekend I plan on sealing it up a little with Black Permatex high heat gasket maker (there never was a gasket around there, was there?) and making sure that all sheet metal screws are sinched down real good and are not stripped out. I found several loose and/or stripped. I hope this helps. I have confidence it will. What do you guys think about the gasket material? Anyone had to do that before?

Thanks,

Jeff
 
I would check the converter, I get some heat through the floorboards of my CJ8 (and for that matter got the same from my YJ and TJ! Unfortunately to a degree it is a jeep thing.

However, it is still comfortable even without AC with just herculiner and rubber "dirt" catcher type floor matts. However, I have a brand new cat in it.

First check and replace the cat, they are cheap and can be bought for $60 at advance or autozone. You will likely get better performance and reduced emissions from this swap as well. If it hasnt been replaced yet, it is almost certainly due.

Second you can herculine, but this wont make that much of a difference, alot less than carpet.

Racing companies (Summit/Jegs) sell heat sheilding you can get some of this and strategically place it under your scrambler. Honestly I was shocked how much of this type of sheiling that DC put under the TJs (1999).

You can also get radiant barriers for the cab and apply under the carpet.

Goodluck!
 
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