RMK

Just wondering if any of the people with turbos are using exhaust wrap on any part of their exhaust system? If so what do you think of it?

Thanks

Robert

Raiden

I have heard bad things such as it will rot your headers. I on the other hand have never had such experience with my tes headers. My underhood temps get to hot so i use it. I figure that if you have shorty style headers and wrap them properly ( nice tight wrap leaving no pockets where water can get traped and painting the wrap with the proper paint) you will be OK. I have had mine wraped for 4 years and they are still solid. I did a engine rebuild, took it off and they look fine. I'm gonna wrap them before summer. I figure that if they do rot, it will give me an excuse to get the 1 3/4 slp headers and get them coated. I wish I would have gotten mine coated when I purchased them a few years ago, oh well

rhuarc31

I wrapped my coated headers, works great, and I don't have any problems except for the fact it doesn't look as good of course . BTW you can send your used headers in to get coated, turn around when i did it with jet hot was less than a week.

Dr G

Exhaust wrap generally isn't recommended for coated headers as there is a chance it can cause the coating to crack and start to perish.

However, it is a great idea for non-coated exhaust systems. That applies to both the manifolds and the rest of the system. Does improve exhaust gas velocity, and hence flow. The other benefit is of reduced under hood ambient temperature and reduced heat transmission to surrounding ancillaries.

Downsides to wrap include the cost, questionable looks and some people reporting rot.

Gordon

askulte

I used it on my wastegate dump pipes (otherwise I'd melt any wiring running nearby). No problems there, but it's on stainless... One other thing to be careful of is to *never* get oil on it. It'll wick in, and then you've got a nice candle. It's how Tom Byrne lost his first Camaro (Wow! That's a blast from the past... when I thought high 12's were fast!)

Andris

87_TA

Moisture is not the only enemy - heat is a large one.
Header wrap does such a good job of isolating the heat in the header that it will actually breaks down the metal of the header,
leading to thinning spots especially at the bends.
I had wrap on my hooker S/Comp's for about three years and last year I blew 2 holes in # 3 and 5 tubes at the bends,all the others were very thin as well. Then again I run the car on the lean side and im sure that contributed to the metal breaking down as it did.. The car is also dry garage kept for the record.
But if you are using it farther down like past the header go for it,i still use it on my Y pipe due to all the heat that comes up the tunnel into the car.

RMK

It was actually the Y pipe that I was thinking about using it on. Interesting reading.

Ace_Murdock

if you are using stainless steel for your headers i wouldn't worry about rotting headers. if you use turbos, a wrap is a good idea because of thermodynamic laws and stuff. you want the highest amount of heat going into the turbos, higher heat often implies higher temps. and insulation helps keep the temp up inside of the system