My engine is running around 240 and I figured maybe if I put thermal wrap on it will cool it down some. Problem I ran into is that I don't have the capability at my house to get the headers off, so I attempted to wrap them while still in the car. Pain in the rear. The drivers side worked out good, but the passenger side is difficult. There are a few 1-2 inch gaps I couldn't get towards the back of the engine. Will this be fine or is it gonna cause problems having a couple of gaps not wrapped?

 

It might help a little but.. all that heat will eventually have adverse effects on the headers themselves. You might want to instead turn your attention and efforts toward getting your engine to a lower operating temp. 240 is hot! 180-190's better.

 

+1

you have a problem somewhere. Find it, Fix it.

 

While wraps are good at cooling down the engine compartment and keeping wires and hoses from melting, I don't think they are that good at cooling down an engine. I've done the same thing you have before with trying to wrap headers while still on the engine. Yet wraps work SO much better when taken off and wrapped property. It does sound like something else is causing your engine to run hot. Is it something that started happening after you added your headers?

 

I'm not just hoping the exhaust wrap will do it. I'm doing that in conjunction with other stuff. I've already replaced the radiator cap, and scrapping the 195 thermo to a 160 is on my to do list. It's a newly rebuilt engine with 22 miles on it, block is clean, heads are clean. Brand new rad hoses. But the headers are cheap ones that aren't ceramic coated so I figured wrapping them would be a good option as well. I'm just wondering if those small unwrapped gaps will adversely affect performance or not. It cools to 230 while moving, so the air dam sorta works. Needs replaced though.

 

If your engine is already running above 195, a 160 isn't going to make any difference.

 

If you are talking about performance in keeping the engine bay cool (not actually keeping the engine cool), then yes. While the wrapping you have done will make a noticeable difference in bay temps, those gaps are just areas where the heat can escape too (but probably not a lot to matter). You might want to do a search and read up on others who are breaking in their engines. I seem to recall reading how an engine in it's break-in phase will run hotter. Along with other culprits such as too much timing, lean fuel conditions, clogged radiator...etc

 

I was wondering about header wrap too.. but there are many other solution to solving this.. lower thermostat, dual fans, make sure rad is working properly, maybe add engine oil cooler, tranny cooler, etc.. If heat is bugging you inside the car (this is what is bugging me) then you can insulate the car with Hushmat (or dynamat, fatmat, raammat or wtv equivalent) so that heat won't enter.

Header wraps don't really ruin the headers faster than if they did not have them.. if they do, it's very minimal according to my findings accross the internet. They withstand a blowtorch without catching fire BUT if oil spills on them there is a potential for fire hazard. Again, there is a potential chance, i've never seen it happen but i've "heard" that it does.

A guy tested header wrap on his bike, after one and a half years, nothing changed. Header was still intact.. And he was driving near the ocean (salt) and all year long, so, the risk in my opinion is the fire hazard moreso than destroying the structural integrity of the actual header.

 

I did not know engines in break in phase run hotter. The timing is good, I do know that the air/fuel is off. Not sure if it's lean or rich but my mechanic who did the swap is gonna adjust the carb to get it right for free. That explains some of the heat but probably not all of it. How can you tell if a rad is clogged? None of my hoses are collapsing and it seems to be flowing. I have noticed a small amount of debris in my reservoir tank, looks like little black flakes floating around, so automatically I assume my rad is junk from that. Maybe it just needs a cleaning.

 

I'm gonna flush the rad this weekend, and swap the thermo. My engine is bored 0.060 so I know that makes it run hotter as well. I might need a bigger rad, but I hope not. I'll see after this weekend.