Header wrap

[dezzy7]

To eliminate some of the overheating I suffer in stop and stop traffic I'm planning on heat wrapping the exhaust system to reduce some of heat blowing into the radiator. I'm also adding an additional hayabusa fan on the right side of the radiator. My question is do you think the heat wrap will cause noticable fatigue due to the increased heat contained within the exhaust.

 

[SierraFlyer]

I have the header tape on my stainless Akra pipes for a 1000 miles. So far its OK. The bike runs a LOT cooler. That is more important to me than a cracked pipe down the road. The engine is way more expensive to replace. I only run the tape from the down turn to below the oild cooler. the pipe is basically straight there. Besides, I have not heard of car headers getting ruined by this set up. Have you?

 

[Lumpy]

i dont think that the heat will cause excessive fatigue. the headers shouldnt get any hotter than normal. the tape doesnt cause the exhaust gasses to get hotter, it prevents the heat from coming out of the header at that specific point. if anything it might discolor your cans depending on what they are made of because more of the heat is now transferred to the cans instead of being dissapated before there. something you might look at is ceramic coating the inside of your exhaust headers. not nearly as expensive as most people think, most places have a quick turnaround, is available in colors so you can do the outside if you want, and prevents corrosion (withstands about a million hours of salt spray). jet hot coatings is one place that does it but there are about four.
lumpy

 

[SierraFlyer]

Lumpy has a great point, I have that coating on some truck headers. It looks great and holds the heat in. Not as much as heat tape though. You can hold your finger on the heat tape when the headers are red hot without getting burned. Can't do that with coated headers.

I scratched my coated headers with a sparkplug wrench once. After starting the engine and heating it up, the scratch disappeared. It healed itself!

 

[Rhythm]

I got mine jet coated by  www.jet-hot.com

 

[ks-waterbug]

4000 miles with it on my Two-Brothers (4-1)..........
Not one problem.

 

[dezzy7]

Thanks guys i'm ordering the header wrap TODAY!!!

 

[jmpoohbr]

i dont think that the heat will cause excessive fatigue.  the headers shouldnt get any hotter than normal.  the tape doesnt cause the exhaust gasses to get hotter, it prevents the heat from coming out of the header at that specific point.  if anything it might discolor your cans depending on what they are made of because more of the heat is now transferred to the cans instead of being dissipated before there.

Just to add a little info,

I believe I read that Yosh delayed their tri-oval carbon can due to the busa melting it. If your can(s) is(are) carbon fiber you might reconsider wrapping the headers...

 

[dezzy7]

Got the header wrap today. I'll pull the header and later this week and post a pick when its all done. THANX

 

[dannyhirji]

Planning to wrap the headers living in NYC is a real pain with traffic question is if there is any specific type of wrap that I should use.
help is appreciated
Danny

 

[dezzy7]

I used Thermo-tec cool-it wrap. After doing the research it constantly showed up as the best wrap to use. If i get a chance i'll post the pics of the wrapped pipes later this evening.

 

[vincebusa]

Can ti header be wrap to further reduce the heat?? or
for ss header only.

 

[dezzy7]

Vinve I would check with the manufacturer before I wrapped a set of expensive Ti- pipes.. I think they are made to dispense heat, so holding the heat within the pipe might not be a good thing. But hey you have their 1-800# so give em call and be at ease.

 

[pure_ego]

First Union Capital Markets Corp.

Not to beat the subject to death, but just a word of warning about header
wrap. My JR headers suffered premature demise as a result of header wrap. Of
course, if you ignore it, a leak jetting hot gas onto your brake master
cylinder won't do it any good, but you will probably notice the noise first.
But that isn't the worst thing that can happen. Anything absorbent like
header wrap does not belong in proximity to anything hot, like the exhaust
system. If an unrelated engine or plumbing problem should cause oil or fuel
to soak into header wrap, what may have been a minor problem will become a
major one in a hurry. This happened to me on track during the '97 Miata
Games, in front of god and everybody. Not only embarassing, but very
inconvenient, and made a real ugly mess of lots of wiring and rubber bits in
my blackened engine compartment. My advice: lose the header wrap. If you
want to shield the engine compartment from radiant heat, attach a proper
sheet metal heat shield, there's a good reason why the Miata came that way
to begin with.

Doug Gubbins
White 92 B, wrapless
[/QUOTE]

just thought he had a good point...



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[dezzy7]

Good info ....Because the wrap will absorb an oil that falls on it during and oil change. However it usually burns off once the pipes heat up. If you have a gas leak you're gonna have a major problem in most cases.

I'ld wrap the headers on a new busa without fear personally