Hey guys, I have been running American Racing 1-3/4" x 3" Longtubes for the last 2 years now, and with most headers you get that faint pinging noise due to the thinner wall of the tubes. Will wrapping the header help with that at all?

 

It might, but the headers will fail from all the heat it can't dissipate. It almost melts the tubing.

 

How so, I have wrapped headers many times before?

It supposedly helps with scavenging by keeping the heat inside the headers and raising EGTs. I read that somewhere, dont know the truth behind that tho.

 

If you've done it so much in the past, did it make a difference in the tinny sound then?

 

Its been on all customer vehicles with small/big blocks, I have wrapped maybe 10 or so headers but never my personal vehicles. I never paid attention to it until I daily drove my truck and notice it every day. I just dont want to remove them and spend the time wrapping them if it wont make a difference.

 

Wrap is amazing. Ceramic coating is also amazing. Anything that keeps the exhaust hot INSIDE, and cooler outside, is "insulating" and amazing for performance. It never hurts to have a hotter, faster moving exhaust gas. Unless of course its so hot that something melts....

Enter the big question. Can you melt the exhaust with what you have? Of course you can. Any V8 or even 4 cylinder engine could probably run long enough, lean enough, to melt a typical exhaust component or even the warp the head or valve. So its our job to kind of know what the temp is, how to keep it cool, how to use these toys like exhaust wrap properly.

Short version is, if you have cheap headers, very thin, barely stainless, the wrap may accelerate the deterioration of the metal beneath. Wrap is often not recommended for those cheap, easy to ruin metal parts. On the other hand, a beefy OEM manifold is pretty tolerant of additional surface oxidation (its already pretty rusty probably). So wrap is more well tolerated there. Any other pipes? Use your judgement. If it looks sturdy, thick, stainless, I would wrap it. If you can stand to replace it? I would wrap it. If you only need it to last a year or two anyways? I would wrap it.

One word of caution, maybe just because it happened yesterday. Wear a mask when you work around exhaust wrap, and gloves. I was under the car the other day putting on a PS line and when I finished I felt some of that wrap in my mouth. Not a pleasant feeling.

I used DEI titanium wrap. IT was my first time wrapping exhaust parts, so the itchy fiber glass feeling was new to me. I also did a terrible job, kind of. It was so bad the guys at DEI face palmed... and sent me a new role free of charge to do it over. It works, even poor looking installation is very cool compared to surrounding components.

 

Wrapping can help with heat & sound but will accelerate oxidation
Underneath due to trapping condensation between wrap and the
Part wrapped. So cheap steal/non coated headers will not last
Very long.

 

No, it doesn't. A properly wrapped header will last for many years.

 

I think it depends on the header material and manufacturer. And also operating conditions- if the header wrap is constantly getting soaked with water, and the underlying metal is exposed unpainted mild steel, yeah it is probably going to negatively affect the material of the header, which would have rusted into dust even without the wrap.

And so forth, some are better than others at handling the wrap, the wet, the oil, etc... have to use your imagination sometimes. I agree that all high quality exhaust systems should be coated and wrapped if possible. Temp control is done from the cockpit.

 

I have seen rust issues with poorer quality headers. ARH uses top quality stainless steel, but they do not recommend wrapping or coating them.

I went over to a buddies house to look at his LS car with wrapped headers. It does "Help" with the sound in a sense. It kinda changes the sound a bit and is not as noticeable.

I will probably just end up leaving them as is. The noise is really not that noticeable unless the hood is open.