Header Wrap

[cooljess76]

As some of you know, I recently wrapped my headers. They turned out great and I'm very happy with the results. However, I ordered waaaay too much stuff and I have enough left over to do a couple more headers!


This stuff is supposed to reduce your engine bay temperature up to 70% I'll tell you what, I wasn't a believer until I baked mine in the oven at 600 degrees and less than 5 minutes after I took them out, I picked it up with my bare hands! It was slightly warm to the touch, but not blistering hot. However, the uncovered part of the header was very hot.



I've decided to put together a couple of kits for those who are interested. Once I run out, that's it.

The only thing that I ran out of was the high-temp coating, but... I found a different product that comes in cooler colors!!! I'll include a can of it in the kits and you'll have a choice of blue, red, white, orange, yellow, black, or aluminum(which is what I used). I might even be able to get gold. I found the product locally, so your kit will ship out immediately.

Included in the kit will be enough to wrap one OEM m42/m44 or both m50/m52 s50/s52 exhaust manifolds, stainless steel zip ties, and one can of high temp coating in the color of your choice.

Price will be $40 shipped for a 4cyl kit, or $45 shipped for a 6cyl kit since there's more than a few swapped Ti's rollin around with hot engine bays these days If you want extra steel ties, I'll throw them in for a buck apiece.

Besides enhancing performance by reducing temperature in your engine bay, it'll also do good for your wires, belts, hoses and other plastic stuff that takes a beating from the heat. Did I mention that this stuff looks super trick!!! Imagine how cool blue or red headers would look!

[cooljess76]

[Maverix]

No green?

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by Maverix

No green?

I'll look into it for ya

[Maverix]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

I'll look into it for ya

That would be cool. Although it's gonna have to wait. Rims and tires are my top priority. But I will definitely buy one if you can save me one.

[cooljess76]

BTW,
I'm not really trying to make money off this, just trying to get rid of my leftover materials and help a fellow Ti'er out. I'm not posting this on bf.c or any other forums, this is strictly for the 318ti.org crowd If someone wants to source everything listed, it'll cost about 50-70 bucks after shipping and stuff, that's why I'm only asking 40 bucks SHIPPED So figure, for each kit, I'm spending an additional 20 bucks or so out of pocket for the can of high temp coating, shipping & handling, paypal fees etc.

[angel318ti]

damn Jess that looks awesome. I would love to do this but there is now way in hell I'll tare all that out anytime soon. Not til I do my own S52 swap in the late spring. If you still have some maybe then.

[30yrMbr]

Jess,

That is really a good idea to reduce the heat under the hood, and will make the cat come up to temp faster too (I think). The heat has to go somewhere, so it must go down the exhaust system.

The first pic seems to be yellow or gold or ????, then the next shows them as being white. Is that after & before images?

Got any alaska blue hi-temp paint?

what is the down side of this, if any?

How long to bake in the oven?

Let me know, I'm interested, but would have to pull the exhaust manifold off a running vehicle to use it, so...

I'm sure I've got more questions, but this will have to do for now.

Thanks for the offer

Roger

[minicoop900]

ohhhh id love to do this, i just got some cash so if i find some spare m44 headers in our shop that i can use, ill let you know if imma get one, heck i might even take mine off and do it to them haha.

do they cause any problems? will exhaust break more quickly or anything?

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by angel318ti

damn Jess that looks awesome. I would love to do this but there is now way in hell I'll tare all that out anytime soon. Not til I do my own S52 swap in the late spring. If you still have some maybe then.

It can be done on the car. Painting it would be a little tricky, but not impossible and should look fine if you mask everything off. You just want to make sure to get total coverage with the coating to protect the wrap from oil and/or fluids. As for the baking process, all you have to do is use your engine as an oven. Basically start it up and let it idle for 10 minutes, allow it to cool and repeat the process a couple more times.

Personally, I'd recommend removing the headers though. It wasn't that difficult and this project can be finished in the course of a day. I started by knocking all of the rust off of the headers with a wire wheel. Hosed them down with brake cleaner and wiped them off. Then I sprayed the flanges with the silver coating. Wrapped the headers, then used the rest of the can to seal and cover the wrap. The coating dries pretty quick, about an hour, after that, toss em in the oven.

Pretty simple process. The actual wrapping was a little tricky, but once I figured out a system, it went pretty smoothly. Oh yeah, the stuff dries pretty hard like a cast. All of that fuzzy stuff in the pictures is just from handling the material. Once it's coated and baked, the fuzzy stuff wipes right off with a damp rag.

I'd definitely recommend this for those guys running aftermarket intakes, you might actually feel an improvement

[30yrMbr]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Personally, I'd recommend removing the headers though. It wasn't that difficult and this project can be finished in the course of a day. I started by knocking all of the rust off of the headers with a wire wheel. Hosed them down with brake cleaner and wiped them off. Then I sprayed the flanges with the silver coating. Wrapped the headers, then used the rest of the can to seal and cover the wrap. The coating dries pretty quick, about an hour, after that, toss em in the oven.

cool:

Would new exhaust gaskets and gaskets at the connection to the headers be needed?

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by 30yrMbr

Jess,

That is really a good idea to reduce the heat under the hood, and will make the cat come up to temp faster too (I think). The heat has to go somewhere, so it must go down the exhaust system.

The first pic seems to be yellow or gold or ????, then the next shows them as being white. Is that after & before images?

Got any alaska blue hi-temp paint?

what is the down side of this, if any?

How long to bake in the oven?

Let me know, I'm interested, but would have to pull the exhaust manifold off a running vehicle to use it, so...

I'm sure I've got more questions, but this will have to do for now.

Thanks for the offer

Roger

Hey Roger, the first pic is actually before I sprayed the silver coating over the wrap. The flanges were already sprayed, but the headers were freshly wrapped. The gold look was due to poor lighting conditions. If you look closely at the first pic, the header on left(rear) has darker pipes(the two pipes furthest to the left of the pic), this was because I read somewhere that if you wet the material prior to wrapping, you could achieve a tighter wrap. I tried it and it really didn't make much of a difference, so I wrapped the rest of the pipes dry. They do look sorta white in the pics, but that's just because they're so shiny, they're actually aluminum colored.

As for the baking times, I didn't completely follow the instructions. The can says to bake them @ 250 for 30 minutes, allow them to cool for 30 minutes, bake @ 400 for 30 minutes, cool for 30, then 650 for 30. They started smoking my kitchen up, so I took them out a little early. I didn't realize that you were supposed to let them cool between cycles, that's probably why they started smoking, lol. It'll be a while before I actually start the car, so I think they'll cure just fine.

Originally Posted by minicoop900

ohhhh id love to do this, i just got some cash so if i find some spare m44 headers in our shop that i can use, ill let you know if imma get one, heck i might even take mine off and do it to them haha.

do they cause any problems? will exhaust break more quickly or anything?

I've heard a couple people say that this stuff could cause premature failure of the headers, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Their theory is that the wrap won't allow the headers to dissipate heat evenly causing uneven stress on the overlapped areas.

Here's the deal, I've never once seen or heard of a header being damaged from the wrap. One guy on bf.c said that it trapped moisture and his header rusted. Stainless steel, which is what the headers are made of, is supposed to be resistant to rust. However, the heat causes the flanges to rust no matter what.

As for moisture being trapped, the header heats up to above 1000 degrees! There's no way moisture will exist at those temperatures. Furthermore, I don't think that guy sprayed his with the coating.

And finally, as for the actual steel failing, well... mild steel doesn't become molten until about 3000 degrees. IIRC, the product mentioned something about being great for use as a coating on the inside of the pipes as well. I'll give it a shot, I want to bake mine some more anyway.

Just to be safe, it might be a good idea to carry a portable fire extinguisher in your car Seriously though, I always like to keep one handy anyway. You never know...

[minicoop900]

haha hmm ill see if i can talk my dad into it, who knows he may let me get it haha

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by 30yrMbr

Would new exhaust gaskets and gaskets at the connection to the headers be needed?

When I took mine off, the gaskets were still intact so I'm going to reuse them. It's probably recommended to replace them, but I'm not sure. My s52 has 120k miles on it. Also, the headers unbolted easily from the engine and the cat. But a couple people on here have actually snapped the studs when trying to remove their cat. So I can't guarantee that your experience will be the same as mine

Good questions guys, I'll do my best to help out with tips/techniques and such. Since I haven't yet ran my car with this mod, I really can't give very much input, so don't take my word as the final answer. I'd highly recommend reading other people's experiences with the stuff, that's what I did. I've seen it used on race cars and we used similar products on the F-14D when I was in the squadron.

I'm assuming that it's safe, but if your car catches on fire or your header melts off, I can't be held responsible

[davidl]

I bought the ss rep from ebay and want to make sure that there will be enough to wrap it. If so I will take two kits, one is for my buddy.

David