97 LX450 Floor Gets Hot

[tomlite]

My Wife keeps complaining that the Passenger Side Front Floor gets hot on long trips. To Prove her point, she sits with her feet of to the side and pushed her hand bag my way to feel the hot bottom. Yep, the spot that she is complaining about is above the CATs, but is this normal.

I'm guessing that the temperature of the floor is about 115°.

What a SISSY.

Your comments will be appreciated before I go pulling the injectors out for cleaning and flow balancing.

 

[Biff]

Sounds like my 94, to this date I still haven't figure out why it gets so hot. I figure if it aint broke no need to fix it.

 

[MTNRAT]

Mine gets hot as well. After a long hwy ride grab the metal bar that the 2nd row passenger seat latches to. It gets really hot.
Cheers,
Sean.

 

[montelawrence]

had the same problem with 93 LC. It CATs were going bad.

 

[Doc]

You can get that heat reflective tape, and cover the pasenger floor area.

Or, if you want to get original and interesting, use an cleverly concealed air duct to blow outside air across the underside of the floor, it'd be easy to mock up using hardware parts.

 

[Junk]

could always put in some more jute

you don't have skid plate near your exhaust to you?

 

[erics_bruisers]

i have the same situation on my '91 -- but with it, the cats are under MY feet!

e

 

[RavenTai]

more heat shielding and if you are brave (some would say foolish) you could wrap the exaust like I plan to do

 

[lx450landcruiser]

had the same problem in my 96 lx450 i ended up changing the exhaust and muffler and when i did i had the guy cut and turn the cats too for better clearence. that gave a larger gap between the floor and the cats and the temp went down considerably.


mike

 

[Junk]

more heat shielding and if you are brave (some would say foolish) you could wrap the exaust like I plan to do

uh, may want to search read the archives on that before you do it

 

[scottm]

My bro and I were just discussing this. I have my rear heater hoses temporarily disconnected, they run under there close to the floor and always flow engine coolant. I've never noticed the heat there, just in the center console. I'm hoping to get a manifold together with hose fitting and valves for the heater cores, maybe by winter.

 

[Beowulf]

Add some of the heat shielding you can get in sheets from speed shops. It's a little expensive but should be very effective under the PS carpet.


Something like this is available in 1-ft x 2-ft sheets for less than $18/sheet.

-B-

 

[blupaddler]

So is the CAT thing a viable answer to the floor heat? I thought that if the cat doesn't get hot then it isn't doing what it's supposed to!

I might have to try that heat shield stuff, though.


So, Junk, are you saying that with my Slee transfer case skid and the Sliders, that more heat gets trapped and doesn't leave. And just gets absorbed into the floor board?

 

[IdahoDoug]

I don't think this is because of the cats. I was just under there looking at things for this reason yesterday as my brother in law is here and I'm helping him do a couple things on his 80. Noticed a piece of thick plywood under the floormat to keep his wife's feet cool and things went on from there.

At highway speeds, the passenger's floor pan gets hot, so I believe the cats play less of a role than the air that's flowing from the engine bay back along under the passenger's floor pan. What's this air coming from? The exhaust manifold and the twin pipes you can plainly see at the rear of your LF wheelwell. They're hotter than the cats, and I think the best way to reduce heat would be heat shielding UNDER the right passenger's floor pan and on the section that curves up into the firewall.

What's the risk with a heat wrap?? Guess I'll read the thread, as I was thinking of this myself now that I believe I've identified the heat source..

DougM

 

[RavenTai]

I think Junk is referring to accelerated exhaust system rust, but the 80's system is suppose to be stainless steel, it does still rust but not very quickly, my Chevy also had stainless exhaust, I applied wrap a section of its massive exhaust that wrapped around on 3 sides of the transmission, pulled the wrap before I sold it (just under a year) and it looked the same as the bare sections, cant speak for areas that have salt or vehicles that are not run daily to purge moisture from the fiberglass

It also stinks like hell for a day or so

The effect of higher exhaust temps on the cat and O2 sensors has also been brought up, did not effect the Chevy in that short time, but this is a Toyota and for a long time so I will have to see what happens (hence the foolish coment)


Wrap installed on Chevy, looking foreword tranny on right, bypass filter on left, exhaust in the middle

 

[IdahoDoug]

Pretty cool wrap job. On the 80, I'd strongly suggest focusing on insulating the floor on the side toward the heat (under floor) as the ideal strategy. Doesn't risk rust issues or generating more heat downstream that would normally be lost in the now wrapped area.

DougM

 

[mabrodis]

I've never noticed the floor on my '97 getting overly hot, and no-one with me has ever complained about it. You could verify the factory heat-shields are above the cats, I think there are some up there. On my 40 the cat is right below the driver's floor, got so frieking hot (totally factory exhaust too) it melted my rubber floormats to the floor, no big deal since my 40 isn't a 'nice' vehicle, but still surprised me they actually melted.

 

[RavenTai]

Pretty cool wrap job. On the 80, I'd strongly suggest focusing on insulating the floor on the side toward the heat (under floor) as the ideal strategy. Doesn't risk rust issues or generating more heat downstream that would normally be lost in the now wrapped area.

DougM

I am more worried about underhood heat than the floor board, in the summer here in GA when I open the hood it is like opening a blast furnace, reducing heat from the exhuast will help the stuff is very effective with the wrap on the Chevy I could wrap my hand arrounf the exhuast at idle and it felt just warm, going to wrap the manifold (will take forever torust through) and down pipes, also the EGR pipe if I can get to it to give the EFI harness a break

the stuff I have is not real exhuast warap, I was a cheap ass and bought pure fiberflass cloth for boiler pipe from an industrial supply, it is rated for 1100*f

 

[IdahoDoug]

Raven,

How difficult was that to work with in terms of securing it, etc? How did you secure it and what width did you purchase? Did you get much fiberglas fibers in your hands, or is it too fine to penetrate and make you itchy?

DougM

 

[RavenTai]

It was not to bad to work with, a little itchy, but I am around several kinds of fiberglass and other composites at work kind of used to it, nothing a shower immediately after could not take care of

It is similar to fiberglass cloth maybe a little coarser, I bought several sizes, I think that was the 2” in that pic, I wrapped it as tight as possible and then secured every foot or so with stainless wire using safety wire pliers