Header wrap

[myfirstbonnie]

I am looking at wraping mine and wondering what the opinions are. I have the ceramic coated SS Pacesetters and still don't like the heat under the hood. I was thinking of using the DEI Titanuim wrap in the link below. I have no experience with header wrap and wondering if anyone here has any experience and opinions on it.

http://www.designengineering.com/catego ... technology

[MattStrike]

So, they way I hear it, back in the day header wrap used to 'mummify' the headers. But those headers were made from plain steel. I've heard the reason was from moisture being trapped in the header causing with the increase in heat soak on the header contributing. One of the conutermeasures was to coat the wrap, to prevent moisture from being absorbed and held in. I don't think stainless steel headers are as susceptable to this if at all. But I see a lot of track bikes with header wrapped pipes, and more track cars (compared to show cars/DD's) with header wrap last time I went. I don't really know what that implies, other that a DD probably spends more time moving than stopped compared to a track car?

I thought that the benefit is that the hotter exhaust helps maintain exit velocity and scavenging and has a side effect of keeping under-hood temps down. So it's a 2 for one. I have not seen dyno numbers.

[00Beast]

I thought that the benefit is that the hotter exhaust helps maintain exit velocity and scavenging and has a side effect of keeping under-hood temps down. So it's a 2 for one. I have not seen dyno numbers.

I believe that's the theory, and I'm sure it's been tested a lot. I think Horsepower TV did a dyno of it? I'll look later...

[redzmonte]

I would start with the X-over and see how much it helps. Advance auto parts had header wrap in stock when i looked for it, Siliconeintakes.com also offers a header wrap. SS tipically will hold more heat inside the pipes then mild steel and it shouldnt be much different then the stock cast manifolds, thoes holdheat in the metal for a long time.. shouldnt hurt anything to wrap it.

[yourgrandma]

I don't know about coated as, but mild steel headers do tend to erode when wrapped. This is (in theory), due to the extra heat being trapped by the wrap. My gut tells me that coated (inside and out) headers should survive for quite a while ith wrap.

[myfirstbonnie]

I will not use the header wrap from Auto Zone. The reason I am looking at the stuff above is because it does not need coated or pre wetted. It is also oil repellent (not that it would see much).

I will probably do this soon, and will report back anything I do.

[deano55]

I did my crossover when I did my headers, I sure wouldn't want to do the complete headers

[myfirstbonnie]

What wrap did you use? Why would you not want to do them?

My plan is to remove them from the car and do them on my work bench.

[deano55]

I bought 2" wide from frozen boost,I said that only because of the work involved and you would never notice a difference

[01bonneSC]

Wrapping the whole header would be the way to do it, thats how its supposed to be done. And it will be much easier out of the car.

[2000Silverbullet]

Granted I don't run my Bird in the rain and have only gotten the header wrap wet a few times but they've been wrapped since 91.
Yes I had to wet the fibreglass tape to cut down on the FG dust and then painted them to seal. Make sure you use SS band straps.
On the Bullet, I have only wrapped the cross over. The engine bay heat has never exceeded the melting point of the bubble wrap intake cool box. Temps inside the intake box is monitored and has never exceeded 80*F (outside air temp doesn't get hotter where I live).

Wrap away Matt but a lot of work for very little gain.

[01bonneSC]

Whoa! Who Dat?! Lol

[00Beast]

Woah. Welcome back Paul.

[Sadden]

The crossover is the killer because it heats up the TB , its even worse on the LS4 cars :S
When my custom headers come in im going to wrap them with some industrial *shoot* from work , stuff they use to wrap manifolds of 5000hp natural gas compressors.

[sandrock]

When I wrapped the x-over on my '97, I noticed a difference in underhood temps. I used hose clamps to hold the ends tight

[myfirstbonnie]

Once I get the youngest daughter a car and I get my truck back, I will be pulling the headers and wrapping them. Including the primaries. I plan on doing some before and after temps using a cheap meter I got that has a temp probe. It works fine to zip tie to the wiper. I also have my aeroforce to compare the intake temps.

[BoiseGTP]

I use header wrap on the Buick but that stuff is nasty, and I mean really nasty. Next time the pipes come out(soon) that crap is going away and getting all pipes coated. Get eye protection and a respirator if you put it on. Yes get it wet first that helps.

Buy a decent set of coated headers and if you are wrapping coated headers I have some property for sale.

[myfirstbonnie]

My headers are supposed to be coated, but I don't think it was done very well. They are Pacesetters and there were some issues with wrong parts. They rushed a new rear header to me and the coating is flaking and I think it was a rush job and not done properly.

I am not planning on using the old type of wrap. The link above is what I am planning on using. It does not require wetting and does not need to be coated once installed.

I am hoping to get a better set of headers later, but just want to see if this will do anything for the heat under the hood. The most I will be out is about $150 and some time.

Here is a screen shot of the link above:

[01bonneSC]

I use header wrap on the Buick but that stuff is nasty, and I mean really nasty. Next time the pipes come out(soon) that crap is going away and getting all pipes coated. Get eye protection and a respirator if you put it on. Yes get it wiet first that helps.

Buy a decent set of coated headers and if you are wrapping coated headers I have some property for sale.

What's so nasty about it? I wrapped a set of V8 headers as didn't have any problems.