zamboxl

iTrader: (1)

hey have you guys seen that thermal wrapper for your headers, that is supose to keep heat in the pipes, and soposedly cool down the engine bay a little. is that really worth doing does it help in anyway at all to wrap your headers in that stuff????????

GREATWHITE

Get ceramic coating, less heat, looks better, less labor IMO

zamboxl

iTrader: (1)

yea but how much is the coating and could i coat old headers, cause my headers do have a few miles on them already.

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

One way it may help you, is by keeping the gas
hot enough for your O2s to work properly. The
ceramic coating helps a little but is not that good
an insulator, being pretty thin. More of a radiant
barrier.

In Jeg's and Summit catalogs you can find a bunch
of thermal stuff now. Pricey, but no more than a
pair of O2s I expect. Depending on how fast you
go through those, might make economic sense.

Richie Carbone

iTrader: (3)

Thermal wrap might be cheaper in the beginning but it will cost you more in the long run.

The wrap will not protect the headers from rusting and you wont see the rust but eventually it will rust through.

Thermal wrap is mainly used for dedicated race cars that never see street use and aren't exposed to the elements.

Ceramic coating looks nicer and better suited for a car that is driven regularly.

Classic

iTrader: (3)

The other things to consider with thermal wrap is that it is pretty thick stuff and you might run into some clearance issues. What I mean is that you might wrap the primaries and then now your easy spark plug access has become much more difficult. It also keeps a lot of moisture right on the header itself which will make it much more prone to rusting.

AZ28DRIVER1

I have used this stuff before on a 79 camaro that I used to have. The pro's are the stuff really does work and keeps the heat in the exhaust system and not in the engine compartment. Exhaust velocity was definetely way up because after the install (that was the only addition) I had to re-jet the carb. So the yes the stuff does work and it works very well.

Now for the major down side to the product that I experienced. If you use your car as a daily drive and drive in the rain DO NOT use this protect. Once the wrap gets wet it retains the moisture. (picture a wet rag wrapped around your exhaust) The only way to avoid this would be to sit there with the car at an idol until all the water had evaporated off of the wrap. To really eat up your headers drive your car in the winter like did and get salty water (from road salt and slush) all over the wrap. I used my car as a daily driver and because of this my hooker headers (granted they were uncoated but only a year old) totally rusted out in a year and halfs time. I'm not talking surface rust either. I'm talking a holes. You could take a screw driver and punch it right through the collector.

In short it works, but there is a price to pay.

Another_User

It's called header rot. And I am sure you will get it, no matter what silicone sprays, or whatever junk they sell you to try and keep the moisture out. Plus it sucks...I think it has fiberglass in it. It got all over my darn hands the one time I used it, and even then I only used it because the pipe I covered was stainless, which would help.

zamboxl

iTrader: (1)

ok thanx for the replies i guess i'll stay away from the stuff.

sawedoff

iTrader: (3)

Go and lookup a product called Emisshield. It will do what your aiming at. It will only work under load, which means it has to have a heat source applied to it. You cannot use it as an external coating. It was never designed to be used in that way, and it won't work. You have to apply internally to your header primaries.Here's some links:

www.emisshield.com
http://www.thorpecorp.com/

zamboxl

iTrader: (1)

how am i supose to get that in teh headers soak them in it???