Thermo Wrap

[grprof]

Has anyone used Thermo-Wrap on their headers? Thoughts?

[KLZE Porsche]

Has anyone used Thermo-Wrap on their headers? Thoughts?

I can tell you about my experiment and how it went very bad!

I decided to try out some of the DEI titanium wrap and I did 3 wraps to see if it would cut down the under hood heat soak a significant amount. The results was positive. But for nearly any gain you get losses. By reducing the underhood temps with lots of wrap -you focus that heat on the metal of the headers. If it is one of those cheap EGAY sets then it will come apart at the welds. I will post up a photo of the results of running it like this for just one month.

In the mean time I was reading comments on a race car team website and how they said they stopped running header wrap because of how it shortens the life of the headers. If you do not run your car often such as a track car and the life of your headers is not of much concern then do it. But if it is a daily driver then I would only wrap the "Y" tube where it comes in close proximity of the oil pan. It seems like it only goes for the welds and less destruction on the stainless itself.

Here you go:

http://www.xtremethings.com/Header-Wrap_Very-Bad.jpg

As you will see in the photo - it completely blew off the EGR pigtail at the weld (melted it) and started destroying the welds at the collector. The welds will melt when exposed to this kind of heat. More expensive headers can probably hold up to it but the cheepo EGAY ones will not!

P.S. These were very shiny stainless Egay headers just one month earlier. I am guessing that the rust comes from moisture being trapped under the wrap. This was just another experiment for me and the results are not what I had expected.

[focuszx3lover]

porsche is right but they have a coating that you can put on the wrap to hold moisture out and also helps keep rust off the piping outside my last car I ran it with the sealer and it really was great but they weren't cheap headers either

[stoker100]

ive recently wrapped mine but it part of my rebuild so its not up and running yet, i have stainless headers so any damaging effect is negligible, also by wrapping the headers more you amplify the heat and therefore damage it will do, because porsche did this they wouldn't have lasted long at all. i used a silicone paint to coat my headers first and then wrapped and the coated them again to keep them a consistent color and keep the water/dirt off them.

headers after being on the car for more then 3 years:
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...00510_1145.jpg

painted (cant really see squat, poor lighting + matt black + camera phone):
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...10610_1931.jpg

wrapped but unpainted (cable ties were temporary):
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...610_161701.jpg

i dont have any final painted pics but the process is very easy IMO. IIRC thats 50ft worth of 2" wrap. it doesnt look pretty but you dont see much of the header anyway and id rather go then show. bear in mind i did it ONLY to keep underhood temps down due to my intake setup and the hot weather we have here it should help a little.

[Tomcat_AL200]

Good Idea

I will have to give that a shot, and I hope mine hold out that long in Florida.

ive recently wrapped mine but it part of my rebuild so its not up and running yet, i have stainless headers so any damaging effect is negligible, also by wrapping the headers more you amplify the heat and therefore damage it will do, because porsche did this they wouldn't have lasted long at all. i used a silicone paint to coat my headers first and then wrapped and the coated them again to keep them a consistent color and keep the water/dirt off them.

headers after being on the car for more then 3 years:
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...00510_1145.jpg

painted (cant really see squat, poor lighting + matt black + camera phone):
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...10610_1931.jpg

wrapped but unpainted (cable ties were temporary):
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...610_161701.jpg

i dont have any final painted pics but the process is very easy IMO. IIRC thats 50ft worth of 2" wrap. it doesnt look pretty but you dont see much of the header anyway and id rather go then show. bear in mind i did it ONLY to keep underhood temps down due to my intake setup and the hot weather we have here it should help a little.

[richtq]

if the welds are a concern reweld them better and then coat them and wrap it. The welds are a weak spot because being mass produced. Companies use less filler material as they can to keep cost down. Ive noticed this on headers where they just fuse the metal with out filler material so it will crack very soon. If it is welded correctly it will never leak and the metal around the weld will break first.

[stoker100]

after all that work all id like to say is if you take the headers off again wrap them with a rag and cable tie the rag on, even if working near them, the itching is a pain but other then that its done its job, been on for a fair few months now and still looks good.