I guess I should have read all the way down hehe

Yeah those rubber boots are a little loose on that shifter since the stock shifter, C's, Mazdaspeed all get big at the bottom to strength, and will tighten up that hole to prevent heat.

Figured the tranny oil change would help.hehe

 

OK, I had this problem with my last FD, and also my current one, until I did this: Use Thermo Tec header wrap to wrap the exhaust system from the beginning of the downpipe to the end of the midpipe, before the last section of the exhaust. I did this, and the difference is night and day, the comparision will be remarkable once you do it, and do it properly, by this I mean installing the wrap fully around the exhaust and using good clamps, so that there's no spaces, with the exception of where the ends meet. The reason for this is because the exhaust obviously runs next to the transmission and under the passenger side, so if you stop heat from coming off of the exhaust till it's behind the passenger compartment you won't get that heat into the interior anymore. Try it, I guarantee you'll be happy with the results. Also the reason that this doesn't happen with stock exhaust is because the entire stock system comes with heat shields from the factory to prevent this, so basically you have to do the same thing to the aftermarket stuff, just with the header wrap.

 

NedM - yeah the previous owner had a mid-pipe. I replaced it with a stock cat. It does have a heat shield above the cat. It is attached to the cat actually. This is probably a long shot, but do you (or anyone else) have a pic of what that looks heat shield looks like?

Somehow, I don't think I will be able to find one quickly or easily enough. I just ordered some thermo-tec for the downpipe and some DEI aluminized heat screen that I'll attach to the tranny tunnel up top. Oil is already changed to MTL (made a huge difference actually).

I think this should cover it. Thanks a lot everyone.

 

If your heat shield over the cat is attached it's almost certainly the stock one. Make sure you apply the aluminized heat fabric with the shiny side facing but not touching the cat, and it should make a big difference. Also, I was able to fit a small piece on the firewall near the downpipe and that helped too.

 

I have the exact same problem, I live in Miami, and to top it all off my a/c is broken, my car is an inferno to drive in the daytime. I am going to do all of that hopefully it eliminates some of the heat.

 

I feel your pain...

Solution seems to be:
- Make sure the insulation is intact below the shift boot console (about $2 from Malloy)
- Redline MTL
- Wrap the downpipe in ThermoTec header wrap
- Use some kind of heat reflecting covering (like DEI heat screen) on firewall/floorboard or tranny tunnel

both of these can be found at summitracing.com

Mine should get done this weekend. I'm sick of listening to my girl friend bitch about how hot it gets in the car. It is negatively effecting my sex life. ;(

 

Just wanted to update this thread with a final status.

The first thing I did was change to Redline MTL. It made a huge difference in the shift feel and the heat that I felt at the shift **** and shift lever. Definitely cooled it down by more than a few degrees.

It was still too hot so I got the stock leather **** and that made it a little more tolerable on the hand. However, there was still a lot of heat radiating from the tranny tunnel and from under the middle console.

The felt sound deadening piece that I got from Malloy didn't help as much as I would have helped. It is just a 5"X5" square about 1" thick. Plus it doesn't really fit well with an aftermarket short shift kit.

The problem is that there is a huge square gap around where the shifter comes in. Check the first pic so see what I mean. The heat just rises right through that opening.

I got the DEI Heat Screen from Summit last week and installed. This helped the most! I took out the entire center/middle console thing and cut a sheet of the Heat Screen to sit over the tunnel from the front of the shifter to around where the back of my seat is. I cut a hole so that I could place the sheet over the shifter and shift mechanism. Then I sliced an opening in the carpet under the center console and pushed the Heat Screen stuff under the carpet as far as it could go. This effectively sealed off that huge gap that was allowing the heat to come in. It sits flush against the tranny tunnel metal.

Then I forced the sound deadening felt strip over the shifter and installed the black rubberized thing over it securing the black rubber thing with the 4 10mm bolts.

This made it much more tolerable as there wasn't nearly as much heat making into the cabin anymore. However, the car still got hot after long stop and go drives like when I'm making my way through the city over to Jersey. I wrapped my downpipe a couple of days ago (after installing the Heat Screen stuff) and that was the icing on the cake!

I was extremely surprised how much of a difference wrapping the downpipe made. The Thermal Header Wrap stuff really does help 'pull' the heat out of the engine compartment. The car does not heat up and heat soak as much with the Header Wrap stuff especially when driving around at city speeds.

Highly recommend the above to anyone in warm climates or w/o air conditioning like I have been suffering through. I was going to use that Heat Screen stuff on the firewall and underside of trans tunnel, but I don't think I even need it anymore.

Thats it for now. Cheers

 

damn that was a long post...

 

Mine gets hot too but I removed all my heat shielding when I put my bitch on her last diet.