Forced Induction - exhaust wrap and stainless exhaust (fatigue and fail)

ok, got my sts kit and I have wrapped my exhaust up to the y-pipe because I talked to a friend that did a race team and they wrapped everything, and after 2 races they could squeeze the exhaust and it would just crumble with their hands.

now what i'm wondering is i have kooks 1 3/4 stainless steel exhaust along with the stainless y-pipe w/cats, yes i said it. i believe that i will not wrap the area around the cat, as it can only get soo hot.

what i'm wondering is will my exhaust (if i wrap the headers and all) crumble like described above eventually??
there is a temperature that the stainless can be bent and moved at and stainless does fatigue under sustained high temps as most do all things.

I have easily seen 1200+ degrees exhaust temp

Moved from advanced tech.

interested in this too. Who's had wrap on for a long time?

interested in this too. Who's had wrap on for a long time?

I have, but not on a turbo setup, just NA. Thermo Tec header-wrap has been on over a year, no problems. Headers are still strong, no leaks, or signs of any corrosion. It greatly decreased under the hood temps, and dampened alot of engine noise...

:lurk:

I had a wrapped set of mild steel headers on my 67 back in 99 that I pulled off to get ceramic coated, and when the coating shop tried to sandblast them the blaster blew right through the steel. Stainless should be OK though. If you're really picky have the pipes coated first, then wrap them. The coating inside the pipe will keep some of the heat from ever reaching the metal.

I've had mine wrapped from the manifold/ORY (aluminized steal, the rest is factory SS) back to the turbo for about a year now and probable 15k miles. Still very much in-tacked, and I drive in ALL weather conditions. :)

The weather conditions wont have much affect on it as will the EGT range it operates in, and the length of time it spends in high EGT range.

thats what i'm wondering about... just on and off heat changes from 1300+degrees or so down to ~750 and then back up ... etc.

just wondered if anyone had exhaust problems from wrapping over a long period of time

Bob from EPP sells some good wrap from what I've been told. Might want to ask him.

Bob from EPP sells some good wrap from what I've been told. Might want to ask him.

you know... i shoulda asked him in the first place... cuz i know he has been around and he knows his stuff... i luv EPP and I haven't even really done/bought a lot with them yet**

**buying rearend and such soon ;) :judge: :chug:

1300 wont hurt mild steel.

I had a GTP and I wrapped the crossover and flex pipe with some of the cloth type wrap. The flex pipe was right where the cat-back started. I had it on SLP headers (Stainless). It was on there for two winters driven in all weather and never had an issue. I could see with mild steel, you might get moisture in there, and rust it through in no time.

-Geoff

I was planning on wrapping my stainless steel tubular/logstyle manifold until I was told by (a friend and by one sponsor here) that it would only make it more prone to cracking, so I ditched that plan...and now I see this thread. So, what's the real deal??!! :confused: