Is header heat wrap a good idea
 

i know that you gouys out there with turbos use the stuff, but is still a good idea on N/A cars.
I want to use it to reduce cabin and under hood temp and picking up a few hp (if any at all wouldn't be bad either)

is this stuff any good from both a performance and comfort stand point?

sorry about double posting my computer goofed

yeah, i would be interested to know the same thing... getting my header soon, and wondering if i should wrap it...

off to gen rotary

Go to the trouble and have the headers ceramically coated.

how much does the ceramic coating cost?

a lot more than wrapping would.
Probably around $150+ Lates Matt22

damn, thats almost as much as the header...

I don't reccomend it. I wrapped my 12A RB headers and they ended up melting down and then cracking. This was after cruising and spirited driving at 90+ MPH for a while, but I still wouldn't do it again even for less aggressive driving. Try the coating or leave them alone.

my friend wrapped his headers and it reduced the heat going to the intake, etc.....its a good idea IMO:D

Try both coating and wrapping :D

Yes, I forgot about ceramacoat, this is another great alternative and wise investment.

It's a smart investment. Wrap them and you'll be spending another $150+ for new headers. Take the advice and don't wrap them.

Undoubtedly wrapping would reduce the heat, but life expectancy of the header is about 2 months or so. The trapped heat will eat them from the inside out.
Don't do it...you''ve been warned :p:

what about a header sleeve?

^Same difference. I've been considering ceramacoat and a intake heat sheild for my FC to reduce the possible heat soak issues.

What about coating and then wrapping? Does that solve the issue of the wrap killing the header, or would the header still fail quickly? I am thinking of doing this for heat and noise reasons on a turbo car. I probably won't wrap the turbo header (don't want cracks), but it would be nice to do the downpipe.

-Max

Ceramic coating completely covers your manifold and turbine. I have measured up to 100 degree drop in an engine compartment. Safe to 2000 degrees. :bigthumb:
http://www.akarimotorsports.com/images/IMG_0900.JPG

Odd, then, how the racing beat header I installed for a customer with header wrap has lasted for 35,000 kms and counting over 18 months ago has not developed any problems whatsoever, with British Columbia's very wet weather and extremely high EGT's due to very lean tuning both working against header life...

There have been tons of headers that have developed the problem over time. I think two months is kind of a short period of the rust to eat through the header, but it will happen in time. I used header wrap on my endurance rx7 and it did the trick keeping heat down, but I could never cover the whole thing. Thermal coating keeps the temps down just as much if not more then header wrap, and it covers the entire header, and great for turbines because there is no bulky heat sheild or heat bonnet.

it depends on the header construction. shitty thin walled vs nice stainless etc..

Ya, definitly go with the coating. Wrap will ruin the headers.

never had a problem with header wrap on any of my rx7s turbo and non turbo. one in particular was driven for 100k miles through all weather.

my headders are made of thick walled steel tubing...the kind used for high pressure fuel delivery. so im thinking that the headers can stand the heat of being wrapped...but im thinking all that extra heat will go into my exaust and mess up my back pipe and WRX muffler...am i nuts or should this be a concern?

What's the difference in a ceramic coating and the wrap. Don't they both just trap in heat?