Wrapping the headers...

[Schrade]

Anyone know much about it? Pros? Cons? Tips? Mine are finally about to go in here...

Does wrap keep the heat better than ceramic coat?

[We Gone]

I would rather have them coated, Never liked the looks of a wrapped header after a few years the wrap gets lose and stained. As far as functionality the wrap does as advertised.

[Hog]

Wrap can also hold moisture when not running. It will also void pretty much any header manufacturers warranty.

Back in 1999 I bought a set of Hooker Competition Series headers for a daily driven truck. These headers were were mild steel with a ceramic coating. Previous to tehse ceramic coated headers, I was using a set of factory black painted headers which of course had it's paint come off during the very 1st warm up cycle.
EVery Spring for 3 Springs straight I had to replace the headers as the primaries would rust and then fall apart.

The coated Hookers were almost double the same header uncoated or about 3 times teh price of the painted Hedmans I was originally using. That truck was daily driven until roughly 2011 even during our highly roadsalted Canadian WInters. After many hundreds of thousands of kilometers the Hookers have yet to rust through, although the coating is far from pretty underneath the truck. I had heard that Jet Hot did the coatings for Hooker back in those days, but Hooker has changed coating suppliers, or at least have changed the coating formula itself. My experience was positive, but I cant recommend wrapping headers on s street car. Maybe on a turbo race car?

The idea of keeping the thermal energy inside the header itself, this keeps exhaust velocity up, which promotes better scavenging. That's the theory, but I have no idea how much keeping the heat inside the header will actually help power production in a performance street application, aside from of course keeping underhood temps down and preventing "thermal injuries" to plastic and other parts

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by Hog

The idea of keeping the thermal energy inside the header itself, this keeps exhaust velocity up, which promotes better scavenging. That's the theory, but I have no idea how much keeping the heat inside the header will actually help power production in a performance street application, aside from of course keeping underhood temps down and preventing "thermal injuries" to plastic and other parts

Color me skeptical too: I realize I'm swimming upstream in a flood of "header sales hype", but considering the velocity of the exhaust gasses at any throttle setting where headers are making their max power, there simply isn't going to be much heat transfer. There just isn't time enough.

Schrade: Besides, there are other physical factors like cross sectional area of the primary tubes, the length of the primary tubes themselves, the shape and length of the collector, the diameter of the exhaust pipe, X-pipe size and design...ALL having very immediate and significant impact on scavenging of the headers. I haven't run the numbers, no. Cliff or Todd or I can do it, if you want to see it, but my gut will betcha a ham sandwich the gas temp between the un-coated/un-taped primary tube inlet and the outlet of the (SW) LT5 headers at WOT is going to be puuuuurdy small!

If one wants to reduce heat radiation, and ceramic coating is out of the question, then go for it. But, I too ain't buyin' the notion that scavenging via heat retention (in any meaningful way) to be a serious consideration.

No biggie. Far as heat radiated into the car, mine are not coated or wrapped, and only have the stock heat shields in place...No problem w/ radiated heat (for me), and the same can be said for noise. And, as far as esthetics go, the headers are tucked down between the frame rails and the cam cover so that only the tops of the header tubes peek out to where they can just barley be seen in the shadows. Not worth coating on that score either, sez me.

Your mileage may vary.

[Karl]

Paul, how long have you been using non coated stainless steel headers? Any problems with normal wear and tear?

[4-cam]

Here is a link to a test Cerakote did on ceramic coating.

http://www.cerakotehightemp.com/testing/

It does show the coating to have some pretty good insulating properties along with feedback from others I decided to do it.. I had my SW headers coated as it cost $215 here from a local vendor. With the cost of the better quality wrap being quite high and the time involved to wrap them, I thought that $215 was a bargain. I’m sure some will argue different brands of coating are better than others, and that may be true but I’m not going to start a comparison. Mine was reasonably priced, feedback was very good from others, and they were local and did a nice job.
I agree with Paul that the velocity is so great that the heat loss, although present should be minimal. I’m sure there is can be some kind of performance gain but could it even be 1%? Not a good ROI if you’re looking for HP I don’t think. JMO

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by pushrod-v8

Paul, how long have you been using non coated stainless steel headers? Any problems with normal wear and tear?

4 years now. They're holding up beautifully! I DID fly off the end of the runway at Bult field, but far as I can tell, the headers did not absorb any of the rough stuff (mostly confined to the front bumper and the frame "horns" that support the bumper and radiator).

[rkreigh]

get em coated. wrap is a PITA and not that much more effective

it can kill a set of headers pretty quick too. on my old turbo buford (admit a MUCH higher EGT) the headers just shattered like glass after being wrapped for 6 months

any oil leaks can soak them and catch on fire.

not worth the hassle and risky!

[PhillipsLT5]

coat em

[Schrade]

Cerakote is PAINT? Is there anything crystalline about it?

'Ceramic' had me thinking this stuff is a mineral or metalloid (at worst) coating from a MOLTEN temperature immersion. Like porcelain - stone-like, to keep it simple here...

Anyone got MSDS for this ... paint?