The original firewall insulation is gone on my 122s (1966). Its noisy and warm air from the engine compartment is finding its way through various passages in the firewall. Any suggestions? Anyone used HeatBlok http://www.heatblok.com/ ?

I couldn't afford the good stuff. What I found and worked for me I went to Loews and bought their "PEEL and STICK" quick repair for roof flashing. It's aluminumized on one side and has self-adhesive on the other. This helped with the road noise and a little of the heat transfer. A roll of it is (6" x 25ft) is only $15.00. I then bought at Loews their aluminumized insulation and cut to size and that did the trick with the combination of the two. We're only talking about a total thickness of about 5/16". A roll of the insulation (36" x 25ft) was about $22.00. It worked for me.
Mike

Hello! I just found this mention of my firewall heatbloking insulation products so I thought I would comment. I am a volvo owner (too many to count but currently 2 1800's and 2 240's). For the past three years I have marketed and sold firewall and transmission tunnel carbon fiber heat insulating blankets for 122's 544/444/445/210's and 1800's. I have a website at www.heatblok.com that has information about the product and ordering information, I have sold over 300 combination blanket sets in 17 countries with not one complaint.
Starting next Monday I will offer a holiday sale price for 122's and 1800's. Details will be on the website. I also have a demo video of the inventor of the fabric using a torch on the fabric to melt a penny while draped over his arm (in fairness it is two thicknesses of the fabric) with amazing results. If you need to contact me it is Tim Cox 616-240-4440 or
mi_land0@yahoo.com

Very cool! I've been eying it every since the original post came up.

Paul

I have the heatblok insulation in my 122 - it helped a little with sound and it helped a GREAT DEAL with temperature. Heat blocking was what I wanted - I have a large exhaust that's within 1/4" of the underside of the car, and this made the passenger side floor *quite* warm. Fit is excellent. Might not be cheap, but it's great stuff.

Best,

Cameron
http://www.myspace.com/swedishrelics

Making sure all of the various holes in through the firewall into the cabin are plugged make a difference. The local Ace Hardware had a good selection of rubber stoppers that I used.

The original firewall insulation in my 67 Wagon also disintegrated. I picked up a large roll of woolen carpet padding from a local Habitat for Humanity store and will cut a new blanket out of that.

My wagon had AC orginaly and it was later removed, leaving me with a wide variety of 1" (and larger) holes in my firewall.

I agree that the stoppers help a lot, but the big ones are expensive and mine would fall out. Fortunately, I upgraded my original coil to blue Bosch 1800E coil and so I had to cover the coil hole and the two biggest AC hose holes. So I shaped a piece of 22 gauge (hardware store) steel to cover that whole area. I sealed it with some weatherstrip goop and secured it with several short self-tapping screws. That made a huge difference.

I also got some hardware store red rubber "Plumbing Gasket Material" (it a 4x4" square of thick red rubber) and cut a slice and hole to replace my steering wheel/firewall grommet. That was the other big heat/noise/sound leaker.

Finally, I opened the hood and pointed the car towards the sun, then crawled around under the dashboard and squirted some silicone caulk into every point of daylight I found. I also put some short pan-head screws into some holes.

More in the future (since the car is 40% disassembled), I have been filling the UPPER portions of the body with expanding foam sealant.

Before anyone freaks, I am only doing the areas around the windshield and tops of the accessible pillars. No water gets in there, so there's no issues with creating a rot zone. This should quite the whole enchilada down considerably.

I suggest reading this excellent article:
http://www.shagadelic.org/VW/info/gmbulley-soundproof

I got one of the heatblock blankets for my 1800 and it's great.

If you're on a budget however (as I was with my 122) and want to do the firewall and floor (and even underneath the hood) for short money get a roll of sound/heat insulation from J.C. Whitney. I hate to suggest going there, but it is one of about three decent things that they sell. They have two types. I used the non-foam-backed kind:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2010475/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2010475/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-10101/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=sound+insulation


I also made good use of the tape and adhesive. It worked really well- the difference is astounding. And It's been under the hood with little to no deterioration for over five years now...

Jim
--
'58 PV444, '66 1800S, '67 122S Estate, '70 142S, '78 242GT

Heatblok.com is Tim Cox (I think), Volvo enthusiast. Super nice guy. People rave about his carbon fibre products. They come highly recommended.