Header wrap on stainless steel header?
 

Just curious. Google searching brought up a thousand thread all over car forums, but there was never a general consensus. It was either "my buddy did it, and his header fell off", or "my buddy did it, and he's had no problems after four thousand track days".

I have a stainless steel ebay header, and was looking at using this wrap: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...word=heat+wrap

It is a titanium based wrap, and I would really like to see what it does for underhood temps.

Thoughts, opinions, ideas?

Note: I will NOT be wetting it before applying it, I will be stretching it as much as it can while putting it on dry, as per many DIY's I found on h-t and other forums reccomend to prevent water from causing deterioration.

I might just yank it off today and get it done before heading to the dragon this weekend!

FWIW -- IMO, there is a gamble factor associated with it. My header is painted and consequently I only wrapped the lower portion of the header (don't want excessive heat damaging the steel). Another potential issue is trapped moisture leading to corrosion. I'm guessing there's no hard answer to your question and so you end up taking your chances (as I did :)). The only particular concern I have in your case is 2" instead of 1" for the single pipe runners. That likely results in greater wrap overlap and higher retained heat, but does it actually make a difference? I really don't know!

Well, here it is!

I decided to go ahead and do it, and if anything negative comes of it, I will just remove the wrap. So far, the under hood temp's seem to be MUCH lower.

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Also, just a reminder about how important basic maintenance is. I completely forgot to check my spark plugs until today. Luckily, I did before they turned into dust.

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30K miles and running strong.

The wrap looks great! Even if the header only last a few years wrapped, you can just replace it with another cheap ebay header.

How many miles on those "100,000 mile" iridium plugs? They look like my parent's Highlander plugs after 70,000. The gap was about .055 when I changed them! ...and people wonder why their coil packs keep failing...

Be sure to change those coppers at 30,000 or sooner.

Haha, they had about....(runs to check ODO) 92,375 on them!

( I got the car with about 80k on it,and it just completely slipped my mind to change them!)

Nice job :cool:!

Yikes -- so much for 100K :confused:!

That looks like 2" wrap on the single pipes, so I'm thinking that at least with these cars -- controlling the overlap isn't too critical,

umm spark plugs. whats a good brand to replace em with. mines at 35k and i;ve never changed em. and who knos i might wrap mine too and if it fails get that ebay header to replace it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DEI-2...Q5fAccessories

is that the right thing? and also what are these locking ties i read about?

NGK plugs or nothing!

Yeah it is 2" no problems whatsoever. I took all the wrap off about a month ago and all the welds on my header are still in really good shape.

Your oem ND Iridiums are excellent plugs and good for at least 50k but NGK Iridium IX are great replacements. Wrapping your header will probably be fine but it's worth noting that 304 SS loses corrosion resistance and strength at temps above 500C (930F). This is seen by the discoloration and may account for the stress cracking that sometimes appears.

^^ thanks for the tip fred. its only like 20 bucks. so i might. but then again that extra heat helps keep the snow off my car haha.

Hmm! That's making me think about picking up some 1" and wrapping my already painted single pipes. It would lower the engine compartment temp and may help with my #3 coil-pack misbehavior :ponder:.

@Pasquale: I love your engine bay. That looks so clean!

Thanks :D its amazing what engine brite can do lol.

TrevorsI bet it would. The header wrap keeps my headers cool enough that I can grab them with my bare hands. It really works wonders!

how many feet did you use???

I used two of the 25' titanium exhaust wrap sections. I also bought the weird locking metal straps...but...they didn't work, so I used radiator hose clamps that cost $0.25 each. Those locking straps were nearly $10.00 for 4...:tap:

FWIW -- I used 7 of the longer DEI locking straps ("S"-pipe and lower header) and they worked fine. Just ordered a pack of the shorter ones, but the design appears the same. I had to use pliers and a screwdriver to tighten them, but that's in the instructions.

hrmm...I tried using pliers to get them to tighten, but they just didn't seem to like me. I'm sure they work fine, I just couldn't get my butterfingers to make them stay tight!