I have an 80 with headers, Is it advisable to wrap the headers and keep some of the heat in the pipe or leave them alone? If I do wrap them is there any prep. that I need to do to the headers before I wrap them? I do get a tremendous amount of heat under the hood, If I run for a long time in hot weather I get a heat soak in my starter and have to let it sit for 20 min. before it will start. If there are no disadvantages I may solve 2 problems at once.

Can someone tell me what the advantages and disadvantages will be??

Thanks Joe.

 

Almost all header manufactures indicate that wrapping their headers will void their warranty. Wrapping an exhaust tends to promote corrosion, as I have persomally found in the exhaust system I replaced. I now rely on ceramic coated headers and wrap only small sections near the steering box, the idler arm and the reat fiberglass spring. Using the advertised silicone high-heat coating seems to help.

 

Wrapping the headers gives huge advantages to the engine bay temperature and also should increase gas flow speed out of the exhaust, i had them on other high revving race cars but not on my vette, the worst can happen is that the headers retain so much heat that they melt , apart from that if you use them for racing you should get any extra corrosion iussue but you might get it if the car is used in stop and go street driving...

They look good too.

 

The car is not used for racing, but I don't do a lot of stop and go driving. I plan to use the split wrap and only on the pipes that come out of the heads. The car runs at 180 d. do you think that i will have a melting problem?

 

I cannot garantee it but if you dont race the car i wouldnt think you will, also, this iussue could arise in very high revving engines (i mean 6000 to 9000 rpms continuosly) and it also depends in what headers you're wrapping....

 

I don't think my vet will ever see 6000 rpm. Thanks for your help, I think I will go for it and wrap them. If they corode or melt it will be a good excuse get a new set .

Thanks Joe.

 

if i were to wrap my headers, would my sidepipes get extra hot?

 

I dont think there will be any noticeable difference, if any at all.

 

One of the car magazines (I think it was either Hot Rod or Car Craft) did an article on headers a few years back. One of the tests was to wrap a set of headers and see the results. They published a picture of the header after it failed due to imbrittlement of the metal caused by the high heat retention of the wrap. The header had a hole blown in it about the size of a half dollar coin. I guess there are many factors involved like the thickness of the pipe used and the bends involved but it seems that, unless the pipe can breathe correctly you can cause more damage than good.

This is from Sanderson's site

http://www.sandersonheaders.com/tech...oting_tips.php

 

Yes, you do reduce the apparent engine bay temp a lot. The most dangerous thing about the stuff though is, even when cured with the doping/coatings you put on after the wrap is installed, the stuff serves as an excellent *wick.* Oil or anything else spilled on them will easily ignite and not be readily put out. (We saved the Blazer by ripping off the heater return hose out of the radiator and soaking the one on the left, which had had maybe a half quart of oil dropped on it when the bottle slipped refilling. TWO fire extinguishers wouldn't stop the fire!)

On that very car the headers (cheapy steel Heddmans) rusted out where the primaries join - and quickly.

For starter soak, add a spacer and/or change the starter. I have one of the chain stores cheapy small starters (not a true mini-starter, but the size and weight of one) - which cost something like $139. My engine temperature typically runs in excess of 245 degrees and my oil temp often exceeds 300. (I have a 22 psi cooling system running enough of that horrible low-tox AF that the BP is supposed to be 265 - and it seems to work, and I always use 50W synthetic oil. I wish I wasn't so damned allergic to regular AF! It seems to be much more efficient.)

Despite this, and 11.25:1 CR on the 413, I never have a problem with restarts.

I use header wrap extensively elsewhere on the car. I wrap the fiber rear spring with both it and aluminum flashing on top of it anywhere where it's near the exhausts (I have conventional, not sidepipes, sadly.) I also have a few sections of pipe further back wrapped, such as the crossover, which has run too close to first the tranny and later the Gear Vendors for my appreciation.

If you absolutely must deflect heat in a region near where the headers come out of the heads, I would use barriers, blankets and sheeting rather than close-on pipe wrapping.

BTW, the thermocoatings really do work. I had a local shop - Enduro Coatings in Dallas County - do the Hooker Super Comps I have on the treacherous thing (which should run tomorrow!!!) and it lowered the temp so much that when accidentally touching the header once when I first had them coated I didn't even burn my fingers.

 

Another vote for the ceramic coated headers, or if you don't want to buy new ones, clean up the old ones and have them sent out to be coated (Jet Hot?)

 

my bay gets hot as well, but i used a heat reflecting tape and wrapped the starter and the starter heat shield with it and left the hooker comp headers as they were...no restart issues.

good luck