“The clear engine cover was heat tested to 800 degrees,…”
How is that possible? F or C? Actually neither matters.
Polycarbonate has a much lower melting point. So does all other plastic that I am aware of.
So you are saying, even though you omitted it, that it is glass?
I searched around quickly to find the testing statement from RapidRev, the manufacturer of the clear polycarbonate panel and could not find that specific statement now, other than the mention below. Know that I waited until a more robust clear engine cover design came to market, and this was the one.
I am not afraid to mod a car, I come from decades of building show cars and always modifying them cosmetically, so what I read about this cover was enough to make me want to try it out. I was probably one of the first in Canada to do so, because when I went to many car shows and meets where dozens of C8 HTC were around, nobody else had a clear engine cover installed.
Even Morgan Crosbie had his doubts when I handed the cover for him to install, and he did make a statement around his concerns for this cover when he did his YouTube video review about my custom build. After driving the car from ON all the way back to QC, I then went back again to ON and drove another 800KMs to attend VetteFest 2 months later and that sealed the deal for him, you can see him touching the cover in the VetteFest YouTube recap, and he not only confirmed it was intact, but finally vouched for it and said it was much better than the GM offering that has a smaller window opening. I went back 1 more time to Ottawa from another big indoor car show.
In total drove 7000KM's in 3 months to shows, and the cover remained perfect.
There are several YouTube videos that measure the temp of the engine bay (externally), between OEM cover and aftermarket clear ones, and the variation is close to none, which I think was between 125-140, I am not sure what the temp was under the cover, but expect it to be well below the tolerance (melting point) of poly.
Also keep in mind, if you ever get around to removing the OEM cover, that the heat shield is very minimal, many people think that the entire underside has a think shield going edge to edge when in reality it is a thin layer of shield in the centre portion only, which explains why the temp measurement diff between OEM and clear panels are very minimal to none.
Post I found online :
Polycarbonate has a tg (glass transition temperature) of 147c or 297f where it starts to soften gradually above it's tg and starts to flow at about 155c or 311f. I saw on another forum where they were claiming the manufacture of these said clear PC covers were rated to 500f.
RapidRev actual engine bay temp testing:
