hey, so ive been considering header options, basicly i think i want a set of tri Ys bolted to a set of GT40 heads, when i can find a pair :/... I have some biker friends and quite a few of them have wrapped thier pipes with that kevlar stuff to control the heat. i sorta was considering this cuz im a poor college student, and ceramic headers are always a little on the $$ side. I realize they could get all nasty crud and stuff, but hey, they're washable!

thoughts?

 

auto zone carries wrap, id check with summot or jegs ive never used any b4

 

yeah, its pretty easy to find, im just wondering if anyone knows much about it, loved it hated it or somthing

 

id thik my opinion would be based on if i had an oil leak or not :P

the wraps do void header warranty though iirc

 

from what i seen wraps hold water and make the pipes rust faster.The reason v twin guys like me wrap the exhaust is to keep from burning your legs on the pipes which is not fun.Even wrapped there still hot tho.

 

the wrap is very effective at keeping heat in the pipes and it can help your oil to cool quicker after a few laps of the track too. No real performance gains IMO.

plus - cheaper than coating

minus - will cause the headers to rust quicker due to condensation between the pipe and the wrap. But, hey we're talking over a period of years.

I'm curious as to why would you want to do it? I've been away a while. Have you built a stinking hot motor?? :P

not hard to do but its a little bit of a pita to do it well - you need the pipes out of the car and even then its hard to make it neat where they join.

 

+1 on the rust. I have thought about putting them on, but it is going to hold water and cause rust. Great for racing, but not great for a street car.

 

I don't know about all this rust talk. When the car is fired up, the heat will evaporate any moisture that may be soaked into the wrap.

I had my last set of headers, Flowtechs, wrapped for about 6 or 8 years on my fastback which was my daily driver at the time and it made a world of difference in reducing underhood heat. You could actually lay your hand on the headers and they were just mildly warm. Great for working on a hot engine.

When I did the engine swap and pulled the headers off, the wrap was starting to disentigrate a bit but the headers were still solid. I still have them hanging on the side of my barn waiting for the next project.

+1 on taking them out of the car to wrap unless you want it to look like complete ***.

I have nothing bad to say about header wrap other than you gotta watch for oil leaking onto them. I used brake cleaner to blast the oil out of the wrap whenever I would get oil on them and that seemed to work just fine.

My JBA shortys that I have on there now are too pretty to cover up, plus it is no longer my daily driver.

 

+1 i dont see how they will rust faster cause the heat from the engine in the pipes should evaporate it...

 

effect of wrapping headers:
combusted gasses leave the chamber , they start to cool down. as they cool , they lose velocity and the scavenging effect is reduced. if the velocity of the gasses inside the pipes is kept as high as possible the net effect will be a greater velocity, greater pressure drop in the system and a higher efficiency
all in all it is all about reducing the pressure in the exhaust system to gain better efficiency/performance

arthur