jcjmw

I was going to exhaust wrap my Kleeman headers. But, that requires me to take them off, which might not be within my skill level; and I rather not pay my Indy to do it. Also, I see pics all over the internet of headers rusting or failing due to header wraps. I could have them ceramic coated. But, again that requires me to take them off and ship out and all that hassle. When I was at cars and coffee, someone there with a highly modded miata showed me how he used thermotec header blanket. He said it made a huge difference in reducing the amount of heat in his engine bay / heat from his header/manifold. I was curious what have some of you done to reduce the heat from your headers?

jcjmw

Anyone?

Roverron

Im wait for answers as well...

shardul

iTrader: (1)

http://swaintech.com/

MindBend

Seems to me that a heat shield would be appropriate. So long as the intake get's fresh/cool air, have never found it to be an issue.

jcjmw

Yeh, I wish I thought of that when I was doing the ported heads. Now I'm curious what others have done, if anything, besides coating the headers.

chiromikey

The pictures you've seen of headers failing after using wraps is not rust, it's a process called hydrogen embrittlement due to too much heat affecting the hydrogen in the metal. With a wrap it can happen to lesser quality steels in a very short period of time. I'm no expert and can't offer any answers about the process but I learned about this after ruining a custom turbo/header set up back in the 90's and will never use wraps again. If you need to protect parts from heat, wrap the other parts, NOT the exhaust parts. The guys wrapping exhaust parts are creating more problems than they're solving...much more expensive problems. You can do your best to protect other parts from heat or try the metal coatings, but I urge you to stay away from wrapping exhaust parts!

shardul

iTrader: (1)

the thermo tec header blanket should be easy to install you may have to remove the coil wires to get to the top of the headers.

scoto

My headers ceramic coated in 2006 and ran the for 60,000 miles. The original coating was good but I had them re-coated inside & out when I had my heads ported. Also had my intercooler coated.
http://s256.photobucket.com/user/euruwarren/media/20140410_161916_zps8rizhzen.jpg.html
http://s256.photobucket.com/user/euruwarren/media/intercooler%20single%20pass/20140421_212403_zpsr370mage.jpg.html

James M

My custom headers were ceramic coated when built and they came out in a nice metallic silver/grey finish. Done about 10 000 km with them and no discoloration so far. I have removed both steel bashplates from underneath my engine bay and this seems to help with the heat reduction.

SICAMG

If you can do not wrap them. Although it works very well and makes more power, it does , like told in other post, tend to crack the headers. This will almost always happen at the welds of the header towards the collector. I had this happen many times on my own and customer cars before I realized what the problem was. The key for a street car is to cover the headers with a "blanket" heat deflector and also let the header "breath" at the same time. And buy the way, Ceramic is a fantastic option and works and looks fantastic!

MindBend

Header manufacturers will tell you NOT to wrap or coat them.

jcjmw

Thanks for all the responses. I forgot I had thermotec header manifold blanket. I installed it on the driver side only, for now, to see how it goes next few days. I will report in a few days and see what happens.

G_Money

I just bought a set of Kleemann headers, and was thinking about having them ceramic coated. Are you saying I should not do this?

jcjmw

If I remeber right, Kleeman offered their headers with the option of having it coated. Call Cory at Kleeman and ask.

AgSilver

Jet Hot Coatings http://www.jet-hot.com/ is a good option. Applying gold thermal reflective tape to the air boxes and intake tubes will eliminate 99% of any radiant induced heat. You will find this material in use from spacecraft to F1 cars. I was able to achieve a significant reduction in IAT's.

MindBend

Interesting. Can you share some stats about how much reduction in AIT? Was it measured at idle/cruising and WOT?

Thx

typhoon43

This the stuff right here. I had my headers on my Lightning done and it was crazy how much cooler my underhood temps were. Their "White Lightning" product is incredible, and not as expensive as you might think to get it done.

Exotic-metal55

I just use large headers, 1 7/8 primary x 3" mege collector), so the heat flows out and does not back up into the exhaust valve/ head /primary tube area. Not much room to wrap each header on these cars but a shield/blanket may help direct heat under the car some.

EREBUS

^^^^^^This

cnterline

Does anyone know how fast air is moving through the intake tubes ? I don't think it has time to heat up where it would matter ,at least that's what I was told by an engineer years ago when I ,wrapped headers and intake , didn't help my qtr mile times

EREBUS

I believe someone here on MBWorld tested the variable intakes and found not much effected the IATs. Even the open cone sitting right above the headers really didn't effect the IATs that drastic.

Then again.......

It's those little things we do to our cars, when added up, that make a little more horsepower then when we first started.

jcjmw

Yesterday, it was raining with ambiant at 79. I drove the car around and then used the laster thermometer to measure the passenger header at 490F; and driver side (with the thermotec blanket) was 220F (measuring the blanket itself covering the driver side header). It was not as hot on the driver side with the thermotec vs the passenger side without it. But, all of this really means nothing unless IATs are improved. I am going to go ahead and put the thermotect blanket on the passenger side and start measuring temps with the laser thermo and see if IATs are better.

ygha

Subscribed ...

MindBend

Measuring the external temps with a laser thermo isn't very relevant. The heat is generated after being compressed, before reaching the intake. To get any data that is useful, you need to measure after the blower. I'm measuring in the surge tank areas and can tell you that it's very enlightening.

Nothing other than meth seems to make much difference, other than a faster recovery rate after a blast. On my previous car (CLS) I have measured IAT's actually DROPPING on a 3-4th pull by spraying a healthy mist of water/meth.

Ambient air temps helps, of course.