im thinking of wrapping my RB header w/ some heat wrap... how many feet does that usually take?? if anyone has had some experience using it (did you like it?) any info is appreciated thanx in advance.....

 

just read some old post and it seem like everyone is saying not to wrap them because they will rot...and the best thing would be to fab up a heat shield... what you guys think??

 

if its strictly your track car go for it. if your going to be driving through rain and snow than that would be a bad idea.

 

i wrapped my header on my daily driver. so has my neighbor. i have only heard on ONE actually person having problems with a wrapped header. it burned a whole in the header. i have heard numerous problems with people that dont wrap or anything. youll kill everything around the header. the idler arm is next to it and i think it dies after some time.

i say, at the least, go buy a can of bar-b-que paint. its the only paint thatll hold. paint the thing and make a heat shield. if it were me, id just wrap it. to do so, you need a lot of wrap. youll need about a whole roll. im not 100% sure what size my roll was. it was some wrap from summit that had to we wet to apply it. major pain the in the ***. if i had to do it over again, id go the route my neighbor did. go buy some of the header wrap from advanced. i think its called DEI brand. its about $40. use a vise, if available, to hold the header while you pull it tight. his looks amazing. also, dont get the DEI header straps. they suck ***. i did and ended up throwing my $20 in the trash. i ended up using some safety wire from my neighbor.

this is my $.02

 

Go to Goodwill and buy and old sheet. Rip it into 1 or 2 inch wide strips (how ever wide your heat wrap is). Practice wrapping the sheet pieces on your header and you will be able to figure out exactlly how much heat wrap you need. Remember that a rotary tuned right runs at about 1600 degrees, there is not paint that will hold up to that long term. There are some special spary on thermo coatings that do. These are not cheap but are effective and look nice.

 

i wrapped mine only for the fact that my brother was throwing away his old wrap that he had used on his supra's DP(and I like how the wrap looks). luckily there was enough to wrap both runners in the area of my carb and then i used some old welding wire to secure it (pretty ghetto huh ). If I was gonna buy some new stuff, i would get a roll of 1" wide(instead of 2") because it can go around bends better. BTW wetting the header wrap helps it conform to the curves better , wraps tighter, and also minimizes the amount fibers that stick in your hand.
I honestly probably dont need the wrap b/c my sidedraft's manifold actally gets condensation build up on warm days, and frost on cooler days. Even after beating on the car for an hour, the intake is still cold to the touch.

 

damn im really confused now on what route to take...im going to look into fabbing a heat shiled, if i think i cant make it or it comes out completely screwed up.. ill go with the wrap....thanx for the input guys!

 

My Grand National's dp is wrapped - no problems...I think I used like 15 ft or something...make sure to get it wet and pull it tight. Also, I just used worm gear clamps to hold mine one...but then again, one end is below the car and the other is under the turbo sheild.

 

I say wrap it...and heat sheil if you want. My bud wrapped his with one package and he said his temp guage went lower just from it. So, when its time for header for me, I'll get wrap

 

what do you guys think is the best material to make a heat shield out of??? plastic, carbon fiber or some type of metal???

 

Mine is wrapped. It seems to have helped lower the underhood temps, and not much heat transfers through the floor either. It is a pain to deal with the stuff, though.

 

definately metal. plastic DEFINATELY wont hold up.

 

The bottom header was wrapped before I got it. It gets rusty despite the LA's hot weather. Compare it to the the top 1. Disregard the 2nd to the bottom as it was left in the rain.

 

if thats what you meant ( by what i did in the pic) then iam definately not wrapping...

 

In 1998 I wrapped the header on my road race car, which is operated at sustained high power (high heat) levels. The insulation wrap held too much heat into the pipes. After about 3 races it made quarter sized flakes of steel fall off the pipes, and warped the mid-pipes.

I got a new header and hand built new mid-pipes, trash canned the wrap, and built heat shields, and everything has been happy.

A street car that is operated at low power levels may have the exhaust survive the extra heat retained by the insulating wrap, but the wrap did damage the exhaust on my road race car.