Who's done it? I just have, as it seemed common sense due to the huge heat they produce, not to mention the close proximity to the inlet manifold, and the results seem good

Wanted to up the boost, but I wanted to sort this weakpoint out first, as well as wrap the inlet manifold in reflective heat wrap stuff, which is all done now.

Used exhaust wrap on the tubular manifold and full system to inline with the rear diff (I ran out! ), used a turbine blanket on the turbo, and thermo-tec wrap on the inlet etc.

Spool is faster, enginebay heat is hugely reduced, and most surprisingly, exhaust volume is so so much quieter than before, sounds nicer, but so much quieter, more than even adding an extra silencer has ever done to a car on the past for me.

A side effect which is good and bad, is the flames are now ridiculous, even a 1/4 throttle blip to 3000rpm or so shoots a small flame even in neutral, and even after driving off boost for 5min and then idling for a minute you can see the exhaust glowing where it meets the turbo, so hope the manifold can cope!

Im a bit annoyed I didnt bother fitting a charge temp sensor to the lower inlet manifold now as the difference should be pretty big, but hey, im more about driving than numbers

Anyone else done similar on theirs? The effects similar? How long till something died? Ive seen turbos and manifolds die sooner due to the heat, but mines jus a fun/compeition car so only comes out once a week or so anyhow.

 

Did yours smoke for the first 50 miles or so?

 

Ah man, it smoked like hell, lol.

I knew it was gonna happen, so I had a few tactics (totally random stuff I thought up while doing it, nothing anyone has reccomended, so up to you if want to listen to me, lol) to reduce it a bit from the usual 50miles or so...

1- Gave the wrap a quick wash in some water as I fitted it, not only does it help you have a better fit (shrinks tighter as it dries) but it washes out a lot of the crap that burns, the bucket of water was thick yellow/brown after that.
2- Sprayed it all with high temp paint, which not only helps it not fall apart, but seems to reduce the smoking a bit.
3- Used a paint stripping heat gun to heat up the pipes for a bit, helped them dry faster and also made them smoke a bit BEFORE I had to put em on the car.
4- Let the car idle with em on rather than driving around looking like the car was on fire! With the above tactics the smoke was 99% gone within 15min or so of letting the car sit there and idle, there still a tiny amount, but nothing visible even when stopped in traffic, you can just smell it still when you get out.

 

i put some on my new single installation, i hope its not too terrible. hehe

 

wow i didn't know that wrapping your pipes had this much of an effect on power and even noise!

 

I used it on my N/a rb headers works awesome i could work on my car 10 mins after i shut it down in the middle of the summer I didn't use water but I wrapped it extremely tight and never had issues with it till the day it came off

I plan on doing the next turbo manifold and downpipe that i get

 

Its worth wrapping it for the noise reduction alone, its ridiculous, you couldnt talk to the passenger or on the phone unless the car was at idle beforehand (ARC single box system), and even then you was shouting, but now its fine until the screamer pipe opens, the difference is huge.
The sound, and general feel of the engine is so much crisper and more responsive than ever before, so punchy now, and the charge temp differences in the LIM must be huge.

As a bonus I also realised I could remove (JUST!) my turbo/manifold/wastegate as one piece, which saves me a lot of time compared to how I used to do it!

 

I do have a turbo blanket. But performance benefits be damned, heatwrap is ugly and I don't want an Ace bandage on my downpipe.

 

If you don't want to heat wrap your parts, I would suggest ceramic coating them. I am in the middle of pulling my engine and I will be coating my LIM, UIM, turbine on my turbo, turbo manifold, downpipe and midpipe. I also have a turbo blanket to help keep heat down even more, as well as installing water injection.

It's all about minimizing the heat with these cars

 

I dunno about anyone elses setup, but especially with the blanket on its just not possible to see any wrapped parts unless you look deep in to the engine bay as the turbo and blanket hides it all.


Even though you can see the manifold glowing at the turbo-manifold join, the enginebay is barely warm now and you can place your hand on the turbo blanket, it really does work nicely.

 

does anybody know if there is a supplier for a more compact turbo blanket? I plan on using one, but the ugly factor does really get to me.. i was thinking of just making a heat shield out of a cooking pot (theres a DIY in the fabrication section) with a turbo blanket underneath. Do you guys think it would work just as well if the turbo blanket was smaller, but had a heat shield around it?

 

TBH, I dont think you will get one that gives full coverage any smaller. Mine totally covers the entire turbine housing from inlet flange to downpipe flange, but isnt loose or baggy, takes a fair tug at the springs to get it all the way around, any smaller and there wouldnt be full coverage.

 

You can see mine in the background of all the parts. I haven't put it on yet, but it fits T4 turbos. Bought it from the classified here brand new.

 

You can loose the rubber nipples on the LIM. Those aren't vacuum. No need to cap.




i think wrap looks good.

 

can't really use wrap on mine, the bends are too tight to get inbetween the pipes to wrap them properly, so I am getting them ceramic coated instead. This is a bit more expensive, but it makes the steel last alot longer, looks damn tidy, huge enginebay heat reduction and won't deteriorate/become brittle over time like wrap does. Also with heat wrap, it causes the pipes to sweat and accelerates rust. A few of my mates have had wrapped headers and they had exhaust leaks develop due the wrap sweating and pipe rusting... some food for thought...

 

No offense to you but those are all myths and half-truths

1. Both coatings and wrap deteriorate over time. NONE of the heat reduction options are permanent.

2. Rusting of the metal is due to the quality of metal used in the item being wrapped. Bandages do not cause rust any faster than typical metal and water reactions. The reason this gets reported as being a wraps fault is that an exhaust becomes so hot that the actual aging process is accelerated due to heat. Wrapping and coatings retain the heat within the metal and thus causing a faster-than-normal rusting phenomenon. A mild steel pipe will rust regardless of wrapping or coating.

3. To help protect mild steel piping every exhaust wrap manufacturer recommends sealing the wrap with a silicone coating to help slow mild steel rust due to heat retention.

4. NEVER wrap an item that is already ceramic coated.

 

may i ask why?

 

You could make your own by using some heat blanket material from summit racing. Lot more compact and works pretty good too. This is two layers of heat blanket using stainless steel wire to stitch together, dosent really look alot better and you loose some heat retention vs a heat blanket but it is alot cheaper.

 

I've always heard this too as well as seen a huge thread regarding this. I wasn't very convinced though I've got ceramic coated upper and lower intake manifolds, turbine, and exhaust manifold. On top of the ceramic coated parts I've got wrap on the downpipe (not coated) and the exhaust manifold. I've got a heat blanket on my lower intake manifold from turblown and I've got a gotham racing heat blanket for my turbine. I like low engine bay temps

 

On my FC, the turbo manifold sets the turbo pretty far forward and the downpipe is clearly visible from the passenger side

 

^ i think he was referring to the turbo manifold, not the downpipe.

 

TBH you cant see much of either on mine, RHD remember so the master cyl etc hides a lot of it.

 

well he did use the word "any" wrapped parts...

 

i wrapped the M2 DP in my old FD in 1999, and its still on there and fine today.

i think it did help with the heat, and took away from the turbo noise, but it wasn't drastically different from a non wrapped one.

 

Can anyone really give proof and/or reason for not wrapping an already ceramic coated part? I'm very interested to see this. I'm going with twins and I'd like the heat to stay as much where it should considering the packed engine bay.
Anybody shed some light on this?

-J