Anybody ever use that exhaust wrap stuff??? (hopefully you can see the pic that i tried to attach with my headers)

Well, i did, and i dont recommend anyone using it on headers, at least, for three reasons...

1.) it really isnt that durable. i wrapped my headers that were only painted black when i did my 355 swap. i figured it would save my money over getting em ceramic-cromed and i thought it looked kinda cool. ive gotten a few positive remarkes from people, but when it i had to remove the exhaust system to get at the motor mounts, the stuff basically crumbles apart if you catch it on any sort of hard edge of something.

2.) IT IS AN ABSOLUTE BEAR to wrap a set of shorty headers with this stuff. that was LITERALLY THE HARDEST PART OF DOING A FULL ENGINE SWAP. you have to attach the ends (which most of the time start to fray) with hose clamps as best as you can and try to wrap it as tight as you can (which i did a pretty good job of)

and on top of that, it is very irritating to the skin, eyes, nose, mouth, and wind pipe. your supposed to soak it in water before you attemp to apply it, wear gogles, a mask and gloves (which i did). but even if you do something simple when its installed, such as adjust sparkplugs or wires, your gonna end up itchy, and have a scratchy mouth or throat for a coulpe of days at least. (kinda reminds me of asbestose, god i hope im wrong with that analogy)

3.) it really isnt that cost effective after you buy as much as you need, all the stainless hose clamps you need, and pay for the shipping.

So, this week im have my headers ceramic coated by New Image Coatings http://www.newimagecoatings.com/ and im glad not to deal with this crap anymore. i can see i being useful on a y pipe maybe... maybe. and obviously a turbocharger downpipe and the turbocharger itself.

anyway i just thought this would be some good food for thought. ill get off my soap box now and let yall chew on it...

thanx

 

thanks for the heads up. i was just getting ready to buy some, but now ill just spend a little more and get my headers ceramic coated

 

Normally wrapping headers isn't a good idea anyway. It tends to hold in too much heat and can make the metal brittle, which can lead to a primary crumbling.

 

Interesting--I was just gonna do this on a new set of headers going in next week. Thanks for the heads up.