Thermal images

[RIUM+]

Hey everyone,

I have access to a thermal camera at work. I don't know if anyone has ever taken some thermal images of a DeLorean before, so I thought I should share a few snaps!

Some thermally-relevant information on my car - my DeLorean, VIN0966, has been converted to right-hand-drive by Toby Peterson at DMC Northwest. It's an automatic with a black interior running the stock engine setup. I have a 140-amp alternator, completely replaced AC system that was freshly charged with R-134a last month, upgraded cooling fans from DPNW, LED lights everywhere easily accessible & I've just recently cleaned all the contacts in my fuse box. I'm not a car guy & I'm a new DeLorean owner so I may accidentally mislabel some parts; let me know if I'm wrong!

Some background climate data: the photos were taken yesterday (1st of January) at around 5pm outside my home in Brisbane, Australia. I had just been driving for 50 minutes heading South over a distance of 40km/25mi, with the air-con on maximum cooling & the fan on the medium setting, with the windows down a tiny crack (I have no fresh air with the AC system so I have to always keep the windows partially open). Running lights were left on for the duration of the trip. The ambient temperature was 25'C/77'F, humidity was 50%, dew point was 13.9'C/57'F and the wind was blowing at 20km/h East with gusts up to 30km/h. The car was parked in the sun facing South-West & I tried to take the photos as quickly as I could after parking. Solar radiation was still around 300W/m^2 at this point so this did cause some noticeable temperature marks.

(That all matters if you're trying to use the temperature scale accurately, as opposed to just looking at the pretty pictures! Stainless Steel is so glossy & the ambient reflections cause so much hassle that I didn't even try to calibrate the camera for the body panels. Except for the images with temperature tags on individual items, I assumed a general emissivity of 0.95; adjust the figures for individual components as you see fit! The camera in question has an 80x80 sensor, thermal sensitivity of 0.1'C & all images have been already calibrated to the above ambient conditions)

All thermal scales are in degrees Celsius. I know most people on here use Farenheit but that's just the way this thermal camera works; you'll have to convert the figures yourself as necessary.


And on to the goods!


-Rear three-quarter view, showing engine heat at the back. The upwards-facing stainless steel panels are reflecting the sky so they're black in most photos.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal1.jpg

-photoshopped grayscale version of the above. Got to have a decent photo of the car.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal2.png

-From behind. You can see here's another car parked in front of me. Footpath is on the left - don't forget we drive on the left here. Road temperature is ~38'C, exhausts peaking at 88'C, muffler peaking at 114'C. In this photo the sun is coming from the upper right; you can already see a faint heat line on the road from the car's shadow.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal3.jpg

-left rear quarter angle
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal4.jpg

-left rear wheel. Brake pads peaking at 56'C but it's not a good view of them so the actual pads will be be much higher.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal5.jpg

-left front wheel. Brake pads peaking at 60'C, again not the best view. It looks like my front left brake could be gripping a little harder than the rear left. Think I might check this out some more at a later date.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal6.jpg

-front quarter shot. The bonnet & glass act like mirrors. 0.1'C of sensitivity shows up sun shadows really quickly, you can already see the change in temperature depending upon what's in the sun vs the shade. Radiator grill seems cold.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal7.jpg

-interior console. I have a single-DIN CD radio which was turned off for the duration of the trip (yet it still showed a heat spike). My AC control panel is completely custom (Vintage Air controls mixed with DeLorean controls). You can see a small bit of heat around the headlight switch on the right (headlight/hazard light positions were swapped as part of the RHD conversion). The light below the shift indicator is generating a little heat too but the clock is relatively cool.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal8.jpg

-right hand door interior (now the driver's side door). There's a cool spot behind the handle - looks like I might have an air leak inside the door cavity. Add that to my list of fix-it jobs.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal9.jpg

-right hand door interior window. The hot line on top of the door is sunlight heating up the black interior. No window seal problems here.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal10.jpg

-Storage compartment under the bonnet, looking at the front-right corner. Heat blown from the radiator is readily visible. Note that the carpet cover was still in position in this photo - the thermal camera can easily act like an x-ray.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal11.jpg

-Storage compartment under the bonnet, looking at the rear left corner. There's a line of heat coming up where the carpet meets the edge, showing the temperature under the carpet is a few degrees hotter. Seems there's no substantial heat conducted up as far as the fuel cap.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal12.jpg

-Rear view with the louvres opened. At this point it's been over 5 minutes since I turned off the ignition so parts of the car are cooling. You can see the heat on the louvres roughly matches the U-shape of the grill below.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal13.jpg

-engine compartment, looking through the grill. Peak temperature in this view is 79'C
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal14.jpg

-rear left tail lights. No real heat here any more.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal15.jpg

-front left headlights. No real heat here either. You can see the part of the bumper that's been sitting in the sun vs the shade. I took some additional headlight photos later
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal16.jpg

-Rear view with the louvres & grill open
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal17.jpg

-Engine compartment looking from the left to the right. Coolant bottle & intake hose above the image. The thermal camera has a very narrow field of view so I couldn't get a full engine shot; these are the best I could get.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal18.jpg

-Engine compartment looking from the right to the left. The AC compressor at the top is pretty hot. Don't forget that anything "shiny" will appear much colder as it'll partially reflect the cool sky.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal19.jpg

-Left half of the engine compartment. Something down there's still hot! I measured a peak of 150'C.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal20.jpg


...More to come in part 2!

[RIUM+]

Part 2.

-engine compartment, rear wall. So how hot do the ballast resistors get? They've had a few minutes to cool down but I measured a peak of 59'C
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal21.jpg

-engine compartment, rear looking down. You can see the heat shield is doing its work - muffler peaks at 131'C whereas the pulleys are around 64'C
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal22.jpg

-Now for some electrical things. Right electrical compartment, looking at the very rear of the compartment. There's a decent amount of heat coming from this bundle of wires, 50'C is a bit hot just for wires. Add this to my list of areas to investigate.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal23.jpg

-My fuse box. It's been around 10 minutes since I turned off the car at this point but the fuses should still be showing some residual heat. Instead the whole fuse box is fairly cold! I cleaned all the connections recently; it looks like I won't have any troubles here in the short-term future. :D
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal24.jpg

-left relays. Seems I've got a bit of heat from the AC illumination relay peaking at 58'C. Might double-check the terminals on that one.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal25.jpg

-right relays. Nothing funky here. As you can probably guess, a thermal camera is a fantastic tool to figure out if you have poor electrical connections & pinpoint exactly where they are.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal26.jpg

-A little blurry but here's the aux relays. The relays are very hot but the metal box they're affixed to is cold, I wonder if I can somehow use that as a heat sink. It looks like it has fins for a primitive heat sink.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal27.jpg

-exhaust intake, nothing too notable here
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal28.jpg

-Rear left tail lights & bumper. The exhausts have cooled down now; it's peaking at only 54.7'C. You can see a faint dot of heat from the screws. I have stainless steel letters installed; they're reflecting the road's hot asphalt. I thought this would be a good artistic photo ;)
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal29.jpg

-Rear left tail lights & bumper. Another one I took just because I thought it'd look good.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal30.jpg

-At this point I started the engine, turned on the hazard lights & high beams and drove into the car. I let the car idle for 2 minutes so I could get some more heat on the headlights. After 2 minutes this is the front left headlights. The headlight itself is peaking at 41.7'C
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal31.jpg

-front left side light. I still have incandescent bulbs in these. Two minutes was enough to raise its temperature from the surrounding rubber strip's 29'C up to nearly 45'C.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal32.jpg

-Right side door front, showing the warning light & the door locking latch assembly. Even with LEDs I can pick up the heat from the light easily. There's a cold spot in the curve of the metal, again showing a leak in the AC ducting.
http://www.riumplus.com/delorean/thermal33.jpg


And... that's it for now! If anyone can think of any other photos they'd like to see, let me know. :)

[thirdmanj]

"If it bleeds, we can kill it"

[dvonk]

those photos are really neat -- they are kinda like heat x-rays. :smile:

you should try this same series of photos again during the winter.

[Ozzie]

:aniclap:
Good stuff, gives some real insight into the thermal characteristics of our car.
Thanks for posting.

[Bitsyncmaster]

That is just to cool (hot :giggle:) Thanks for showing them.

[justlooking]

I have read you may be able to tell what a playing card is (from the back) by looking at its heat signature through one of these cameras. Care to try it? Would be helpful in playing blackjack!

[Ron]

Good Stuff - Interesting!

FYI, RE 'Front brakes hotter': Front brakes are designed to take more load than the rear....

[RIUM+]

you should try this same series of photos again during the winter.

Winter... in Brisbane? That's a good one! :histerical1: 25'C/77'F is is already unseasonably cold for Summer here. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology the average maximum temperature in the coldest Winter month, July, is 21.9'C/71. To put it another way, I have never seen snow with my own eyes up close.

As far as reading cards go, at a quick glance I couldn't see through the card. However if I held the card up to a light for 30 seconds then the heat signature starts to show through. This only works if I hold the card right up to a light, if the whole card is exposed to the light & if I hold the camera fairly close to the card. So doable but not really practical. You might be able to get better results with a more expensive thermal camera!

I forgot the front brakes are supposed to grip harder; you don't want the rear end losing grip when you're braking. That's what I get for posting at 3:30am!

[Elvis]

Thanks a lot for these pics.

Suggestion for further pics - fusebox with car running and lights on - high beam and
one with low beams.

Thanks a lot for sharing this :-)

[dmc6960]

Awesome pictures!

That 150ºc thing in one of your engine photos is the catalytic converter. Probably the hottest thing on the car.

[jackb]

Very cool looking pictures, I've never seen a thermal camera before, only the thermal "pointers".

[dvonk]

Winter... in Brisbane? That's a good one! :histerical1:

oops! :blush:
thats what i get for posting so early in the morning. :lol: ive never lived anywhere quite so warm, so a 71°F winter is a foreign concept to me.

[SIMid]

Fantastic pics!! WIsh I had one to check out my D to see what's happening.

Can I please pinch some pics for FB? :p

[qwerk]

Neat pictures! Thanks for sharing!

[Dangermouse]

Great idea.

I'd love a shot from underneath (car on lift) showing the coolant piping to the radiator.

[jawn101]

Great idea.

I'd love a shot from underneath (car on lift) showing the coolant piping to the radiator.

That would be cool. Always wondered what the thermal difference between the radiator supply and return was.

[Kevin]

Suggestion for further pics - fusebox with car running and lights on - high beam and one with low beams.

+1 on this!

Sounds like Mike's car may theoretically be on the cool side since he mentioned he cleaned his fuse box contacts, has LEDs nearly everywhere AND has the lower-amperage DPNW cooling fans.

[RIUM+]

SIMid: I posted some pictures myself on my Facebook (I believe you know the address ;) ). I'd prefer it if you share my photos but you can re-post them if you want. :)

I plan to take the car out for a drive this Saturday. I don't have access to a car lift but I'll do the best I can to get some photos from underneath showing the radiator & the coolant pipes. I'll also grab some fresh shots of the fuse box after I've had the headlights on & the fuse box cover back in place.

[GS450-Junkie]

Wish I had that camera to detect heat loss on my house !

[Mike C.]

"If it bleeds, we can kill it"

LMFAO! I was thinking the exact same thing! Damn predators!

[dvonk]

Wish I had that camera to detect heat loss on my house !

+1. my house was built in 1922, so im sure there are some places that could use a little help. :smile:

[SIMid]

SIMid: I posted some pictures myself on my Facebook (I believe you know the address ;) ). I'd prefer it if you share my photos but you can re-post them if you want. :)


I tagged you to the pic I put up, hope you like the comment. :)

[DMC_PRIME]

They were great! Thanks for sharing.

[RIUM+]

+1. my house was built in 1922, so im sure there are some places that could use a little help. :smile:

That's actually what we use it for at work. It's sensitive enough that it easily highlights even the smallest air leak, often in areas you wouldn't expect (around power points, light fittings, the outer part of the wooden frame around doors & windows, wall/floor/ceiling joins, etc). It also acts like an x-ray inside the walls & ceiling to view the insulation's condition. It makes it quick & easy to see where the insulation is missing, where it's settled or even just partially damaged.

We've found that in our area it's common for builders to skip installing insulation above windows since it's such a small, fiddly area to cut & fit the insulation. There's often gaps at the ceiling edges where builders don't correctly lay the insulation all the way to the edges, again because it's normally difficult to go all the way to the edge. Also, most builders just leave out an entire batt around halogen downlights as opposed to cutting the insulation to fit or installing a heat shield (insulation in direct contact with a downlight is a fire hazard). This is all the same whether the houses were built in 1930 or 2011!

[Dangermouse]

1. Could I suggest that this should be moved to the Picture Zone sub-forum, so that it doesn't get lost?

2. A similar idea, but not quite a thermal camera - this time from a TVR:

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=7616&d=1325770591

[jmrydholm]

Sweet. I feel like some kind of spy when I look at these. :D lol