Okay guys.. I'll be doing a cam install at the end of this month along with several other small things, and currently I have the hooker long tube headers, but they aren't ceramic coated or anything like that.. Should I seriously consider coating them or wrapping them? Am I really losing that much from the heat that they are giving off in my engine? TIA -John

 

Ceramic coating or header wraping will reduce the under hood temperature big time

 

i would spend the extra money and get them Ceramic coated

well worth the money and lower temps underhood as well as longer life

 

Do you guys think something like this would help? I wonder if I could wrap them without removing them from the car..I also wonder how this material stands up to weathering..Only $14 from Summit...

 

$30-$50 Thermo-Tec from Summit

 

..and to answer one of my own questions, I found some exhaust/header coating (black finish color) that you spray on the wrap to protect it for $8...

 

I alway heard that wrap will make the headers rust faster, because it keeps moisture in...

 

I always wrapped the headers on my 80 camaro and the 69 c-10, I owned before that. The wrap seems to keep it cooler under the hood and most importantly stopped the problem of overheating the starter that you get with older chevy v-8s with headers.

 

It takes a ton of that wrap to do both sides.

 

yea your headers will NOT last as long with that wrap on there. Keeps the heat IN, which is good for engine bay temps, but bad for header life

 

thats true....i don't know about header coating but....if you value your headers..stay away from the wrap

 

Wrap=BAD for headers. They'll rust like there is no tomorrow, and if you get any oil on them, they'll catch on fire. Been there, done that. They do make a drastic difference in underhood temps, just not worth it IMO.

 

Would the wrap work on cats? Reason being, I had mini cats mounted on my ORY, and on the driver's side, it sits really close. On long trafficy trips i get a case of hotfoot.

I have a roll of header wrap like the darker roll in the post above. I wanted to do that until i had the $ to but a good heat reflective mat to place above each cat.

 

I think it'd work pretty well on the cats just as it does on the headers. No reason for it not to.

 

I've used the Thermo-tec shields and wraps on my Z and truck. My main reason however was to reduce interior noise, and I've gotten the Z pretty quiet (<90db cruising, usually closer to 85db). I covered the I-pipe and that really reduced the heat coming up from the transmission/console area on long trips.

I don't think the cats should be wrapped though. Too much heat, IMO. But call the Thermo-tec people and ask to be sure. They were very helpful to me. I'd wrap the headers while they were off the engine, much easier that way. I can see where the wrap would catch fire due to oil-soak. IIRC some headers fell apart after being wrapped because the header pipe was regular steel and the wrap also contained condensation, causing the pipes to rust from the inside out. That shouldn't be a problem for coated or stainless headers (I have SW LTs). I plan to wrap my headers starting just forward of the collector, again to help reduce the interior noise. However I'll take before and after db readings to see what wrapping only the collector area is worth.

 

C-e-r-a-m-i-c C-o-a-t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!