to wrap or not to wrap??

[intacivic16v]

I've recently purchased some extractors to go onto my b16b engine and i've been researching if it is worth while getting them heat rapped. A mate of mine who races a WRX with me has had heat rapped extractors and non heat rapped extractor on his car, and has told me the benefits etc with having his rapped. But i can't find any info on the benifit and disadvantages of heat rapping a set of extractors on a N/A car.

An info will be good info if you guys have any thoughts on the matter.

[beeza]

This is one of those things where you will hear both sides of the story...
I was gonna but didn't cause I heard it will shorten the life span of the headers by causing them to crack.
But people will say if they are wrapped correctly you won't have a worry.
I would wrap them if I had the chance again.May just do that in the future.

[simonnowis]

there was a thread on this before and a link on how to properly wrap extractors. ill try look for it.
i reckon just follow the instructions and wrapp it, coating is costs way too much and not worth it. with the price you might as well get new extractors if they crack.

[vincikwan]

its wrap...not rap. LOL...I thought he wanted to rap at the drive tru of macdonald's....BIG MAC....BIG MAC... i wanna dbl cheese burger n hpld the lettuce..............

[beeza]

btw it's 'wrap' I thought you were deciding to be a rapper or not.Haha.

[beeza]

Great minds think alike Vincikwan.

[vincikwan]

lol...how is the e-manage?

[beeza]

Haven't installed it yet.Andy from AKMotorworks will be installing and tuning my car.Should be in a month or 2 :)

[Jomsy]

Top level motorsports dont do it, ie F1, wrc, indy etc... , so i guess there is no point in doing it

[vincikwan]

andy is going to goldcoast? He is a great tuner...good choice

[beeza]

Top level motorsports dont do it, ie F1, wrc, indy etc... , so i guess there is no point in doing it

I would say there are reasons why they dont.But wrapping a header can reduce under hood temps by upto 70% I've heard.


andy is going to goldcoast? He is a great tuner...good choice

Great to hear.He's a Top bloke too! Pity my car is slow.I just can't get 5k together for an engine swap so I gotta make do with what I got.

He said he will be coming up here soon to tune at Hi power racing in Brisbane if you need some tuning done.

[vincikwan]

wraping a header does so much reduction in heat? maybe i should wrap mine too.

Beeze...i can visit andy in melbourne anytime...LOL.

[TODA AU]

Manufacturer's of headers say don't do it...
Why, because your headers don't last as long. That is they're crack sooner than later.
Others say do it for reduced under hood temps & perceived power gains...
I say, only do it if you risk melting shit... Ie: BNR32 GTR with T88GK.
For your honda...
Unless the headers are total shitte...
Don't bother.

Btw... Stainless steel has crap heat transfer abilities & air is an exellent thermal barrier.

[beeza]

wraping a header does so much reduction in heat? maybe i should wrap mine too.

Beeze...i can visit andy in melbourne anytime...LOL.

I don't see why not man.Give him a PM.He said he can Tune anything :thumbsup:

[Black_DC5_R]

Top level motorsports dont do it, ie F1, wrc, indy etc... , so i guess there is no point in doing it

Thats plain ignorant!

The reason that you wrap headers is physics. Conservation of energy.

The heat of the exhaust is energy. If this energy is allowed to escape, by heating the pipe and then radiating into the atmosphere, there is a loss of energy from the exhaust flow.

If the header and exhaust is wrapped, it insulates the pipe and heat loss is minimised.

Since the heat (energy) is then kept inside the pipe, this translates to increased kinetic energy, meaning the exhaust flow is sped up and results in lower back-pressure.

The reason we wrap exhausts and top end motorsport teams dont is because they use a metal called inconel (I think thats how you spell it)

Inconel is almost as light as titanium but has a very high thermal capacity, so it doesnt radiate very much heat (compared to stainless steel, aluminium and titanium)

So wrap the headers and increase the exhaust velocity :thumbsup:

[beeza]

Makes perfect sense to me.

[dsp26]

Yep.. as said by Black_DC5_R and clayemore!!!

just don't wrap it tight... my cheap eBay 4-1 headers still haven't cracked to this day...

but to add and elaborate on the kinetics thing...

exhaust flow isn't actually sped up but rather, 'maintained'... because without heat wrapping your exhaust gasses are significantly cooler by the time it's hit the muffler. people with high horsepower cars wrap to keep engine bay temps cool coz they need to.. they don't care about the poofteen kilowatts they'd gain from it

the 'maintained' velocity actually prevents powerloss... but on the performance side of things, this 'kinetics' mentioned... with exhaust flow at a greater speed, it creates a bigger vacuum in the exhaust system and 'pulls' the gasses from the head when the exhaust valves open... in turn creating some more vacuum and air going into the engine by the time intake valves open again... this is called 'scavenging effect'

[Limbo]

i've wrapped alot of mine and no issues. Can also help get rid of some of those noised you get from stainless steel headers (that swooshing noise).
Somehow it changes the pitch of the exhuast tone slightly also

[X3E]

wrap is good for efficiency of exhaust flow.

to avoid cracks or leaks, best NOT to wrap on weld joints, where the tendency of cracking is usually at under wraps.

I found this to be really simple and yet effective.....especially when i was racing in singapore and malaysia where the air temps are high and in a race car with no carpets,etc.....

just my one cent opinion....

cheers, ivan :wave:

[markoJEK1]

Dont wrap, for the reasons above, you can have the same effect with more pros than cons if you ceramic coat them

[beeza]

But that's expensive isn't it?

[markoJEK1]

it will be more than the heat wrap no doubt, but it does not affect the inegrity of the headers nor the durability, so upto him if he wants to pay that extra dollar to save the headers, or if they are cheapo ones, then wrap them up haha, I havent looked at the prices myself personally so I cant really say how much that would be

[markoJEK1]

.. yes I said it myself that I havent done it hence me not been able to quote on a price =/

[90LAN]

i have had both no diff imo
heat wise and performance
all in your mind i reackon
wrapped headers are a pain in the ass if u get oil on them they smoke like anything

"i got wrapped headers added 10kw atws" LOL

[Limbo]

Lan - i know what you mean i dropped oil on my headers once with wrap. it kept smelling like oil burning and smoking for over a month

[dsp26]

just want to add since this thread was linked to a current a question.

after having heat wrap for a while now i can say that the fibreglass burns out eventually and goes stiff and starts cracking after like 2yrs.... kinda the same way fibreglass packing in a muffler eventually burns out.

but yeah for around ~AU$50.. can't go wrong though... it is more beneficial on boosted setups where manifolds glow red... but i the NA world we all know we spend more for that few extra ponies

[Limbo]

Three years on mine with the copper impregnated warp and still fine no signs of wear at all.

yeah that one is better. Ron i had the cheaper stuff also, it breaks and leave bits of fibreglass all over the place in the engine bay.

This time round i've opted for ceramic coating, will let u know how it does when i get my car back. I am sure that is looks real bling ;)

[dsp26]

yeah ****.. wheres the link on the 'copper impregnated' stuff?


i too would opt for ceramic coating now, but not on my cheapo headers lol.

[dsp26]

^^^damn i ordered the exact brand but the non copper one... i ordered the black coloured one lol.

[Limbo]

i got mine from egsi a while back when he was selling