Who makes the best header wrap? On your turbo set ups does it last more than a year?

 

I like the titanium wrap. Its oilproof so I dont have to worry about stray oil catching fire when it gets hot. Cant attest to how long it lasts though...

 

Header wrap is gross. Unless its covering uncoated rusty mild steel pipes. Why don't you have them coated. Doesnt look ghetto like wrap. I am just a header wrap hater. The titanium is said to be the best. I have seen it work for a few guys. I wouldnt put it on my lawn mower, but that's me.

 

The regular stuff from your local auto parts store with a few coats of hi-temp silicone spray lasted 5+ years on my last WRX and 2 years so far on my STI. Like 355TurboLT1 said, it isn't show car worthy though.

 

i do not think ceramic coating works as good as header wrap, last season i was melting wires that where about a foot away from the down pipe, and the downpipe was ceramic coated along with the rest of the hotside

 

Header wrap > ceramic coating for keeping temps down. Ceramic looks better and last longer though. Usually wrap promotes rust because water will get in there. I use ceramic on my headers because they would be a pain in the *** to wrap and I havent melted a plug wire yet. I run regular wrap with silicon on my crossover(under the tranny) because theres no oil getting on it. I have titanium on my collector and downpipe.

 

if your pipes are stainless that should not be an issue, i honestly can not think of a good excuse to run mild steel piping in a turbo set up

 

Stainless is corrosion resistant not rust proof, it will still rust even after a wet summer. Not at the same rate as mild steel though.

 

^^^ truth ^^^

Sort of how galvanized nails will still develop rust whether their coating is damaged or not. Stainless isn't rustproof, AFAIK all irons will eventually rust.

 

The only coating that really competes with wrap is Swain tech white lightning. It is white and goes on thick, but has been proven in racing environments with turbo cars and trucks. They claim it can be painted with a high temp paint of your choice. The white is about as ugly as wrap in my opinion. But if you can paint it, should look just like some of the black 2200 coatings. Thank god I live in arizona, no wrap or even coatings for me.

If the stainless gets a little flash oxidation (rust) just use steel wool to buff it off. Works wonders.

 

real 304 and 321 do well against rust, all the test specimins i have put in the salt spray chamber for 100+ hours, i have never seen rust, 200 and 400 series will develop rust eventually.

 

My turbo Y-pipe is made of 321 ss and is heat wrapped, If you spend some time and wrap hot parts carefully wrap looks nice IMO
lf l was rich... my turbo parts would be covered in inconel. Also there is a significant drop in under hood temps with heat wrap, also holds more heat in to spool turbo. So l say heat wrap ftw!

 

If they could only make header wrap that didn't have all those fiberous splinters to get into your skin.

 

I ceramic coated and wrapped and silicone sprayed all my hot side pipes... keeps a lot of the heat in, and looks good!

 

Im not sure how a wrap will assist in keeping temps down anywhere close to a Ceramic coating. A wrap is not bad but for the most part you will only see around 50-125 degree drops vs. a good ceramic that will reduce temps in the range of 300 degress and in some cases even more!

 

Most coatings on the market have been race proven... We use ours in Indy, Nascar, NHRA, and even into the Aerospace racing circuit and plunty of others.

 

 

fireball coatings
check that stuff out, I am interested in trying their internal coating.

I have been more than happy with anything i have sent to Jet-hot as well.

 

I soaked my heat wrap in water before wrapping, Helps with the fiberglass problem and you can also pull it a bit tighter then if it's dry.

 

Very true, but I would rather accidentally touch hot exhaust that's heat wrapped then coated steel and not wrapped if l have to do something under the hood when the cars up to temp.