header wrap? pro's / con's

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Was it in post #15?

Hey Bob, would you care to tell us about your "home-made" mufflers?

yeah, kind of a falsehood tho . I used 3 1/2" short bullet, roundy round muflers, (not real quiet), then welded 3 1/2" spiral inserts about 1/2 way up in them. w/ a full 3 1/2" exhaust , turned down in front of the rear axle. Doesn`t leak, resonate or roar anywhere, no dirt roads so no stirring up dust, and of course is very free flowing. Also wrapped the entire thing, just because I had a bunch of used wrap. Probably hurts the low end a little w/ the loose convertor and fair sized roller cam , but who cares on a 505" engine ! Also running a mech. fan, I don`t worry too much about loosing 10 h.p. with aprox. 700 on tap. Did I SAY, I HATE HEADER WRAP ?!? -LOL
 
Well Amazon deliver me another fine quality product to put on my car LOL
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Wife said silicone spray will be here tomorrow. I looked at the headers today and started pondering how I'm going to tackle this?
Clean and spray with silicone before and after ?
I guess wrap the center two on the passenger side together?
Actually when I look at these things they're all over the place ! 1 tube then 3 tubes together 2 tubes with just enough room between them for one of the two to be wrapped leaving the other one not enough room to stuff wrap without seriously putting some tension splitting them apart and then on the other end if I wrapped it together it will have pressure bringing them together. I'm already thinking about that thing just one piece vertically in between them and wrapping them together on that? It turns from 4 to 3 to going into four and then back into two the back....lol
I'll take some pics tomorrow.
 
Will not wrap another set of headers! Even though I did it with the correct amount of overlap, used the stainless bands and painted it with the DEI coating... it still cooked my headers and made them so brittle they cracked at the flanges! The pipe literally split wide open after a burnout one inch from the head. It DID keep a lot of heat out of the engine compartment.
 
Will not wrap another set of headers! Even though I did it with the correct amount of overlap, used the stainless bands and painted it with the DEI coating... it still cooked my headers and made them so brittle they cracked at the flanges! The pipe literally split wide open after a burnout one inch from the head. It DID keep a lot of heat out of the engine compartment.
I don`t know how long the guy from Witchitaw had wrap on the headers I bought from him, but their was no cracking or rusting on them. He blew up his engine after spraying it to get it in the 9`s. I rewrapped them after fixing a couple of hammered tubes, still no problem, other than the dam stuff is starting to deteriorate and gets fiberglass in my arms while working on the engine w/ short sleeves. If ur going to wrap ur headers, buy the best stuff u can find. Jegs has some that is supposed to take 2000 degrees constantly. DID I SAY I HATE THE DAM STUFF ?
 
Seems to me the answer is to leave the first few inches unwrapped?
The next time the engine is hot, set the idle rpm up to around 2200,wait a few seconds, then start hunting around with the IR gun, and see where the pipe temp starts to drop. I my experience the hottest part is from about 1/2 inch past the flange to just after the first bend. Plus it'll be so much easier to wrap...those tight bends are... um............ painful.
 
So I'm starting to get the impression your not super fond of header-wrap ? LOL
These cheap Summit Heather's I bought for $125 new about 4 years ago or so. Again I think I mentioned that I never paid them and they seem to be on their way out anyways. Again this is more for the under hood heat which isn't bothering me because I've never had a hood on before. A lot of it for its aesthetic look. I've already bought the tape as pictured in post 28th so there ain't no turning back and the silicone should be here today according to Amazon.

I don`t know how long the guy from Witchitaw had wrap on the headers I bought from him, but their was no cracking or rusting on them. He blew up his engine after spraying it to get it in the 9`s. I rewrapped them after fixing a couple of hammered tubes, still no problem, other than the dam stuff is starting to deteriorate and gets fiberglass in my arms while working on the engine w/ short sleeves. If ur going to wrap ur headers, buy the best stuff u can find. Jegs has some that is supposed to take 2000 degrees constantly. DID I SAY I HATE THE DAM STUFF ?
 
Ok the starting the engine and looking for hot spots is quite out of the question. You know this is the Stroker motor/4 speed that I took out back April or May to put in that 318 an automatic that I played with all summer. The idea here is to get the headers all wrapped while the motors out and to be able to put the motor in with the headers. pretty much the only way that I've ever put headers in a body after that first try over 10 years ago of doing it with the motor in the car. I did that once never again! So anytime I put a motor in the car the headers must be 100% ready to go FIRST. So pretty much I won't be feeling the heat off of these headers for probably 3 months or more. And I need to get them wrapped so I can get the motor in so I can get the motor out of the middle of the second bay of my garage and finally have some room to think! Not only do I need those headers wrap so I can get that motor out of The Middle of the second bay of my garage but if you watching the forum I probably got about four other threads of all the different projects I got going on the car at once. Having that room in the garage is going to be great besides that I can't get to my snowmobiles unless I get that motor out of the way. Building a homemade engine/tranny stand in the middle of
the second bay of my garage with the sleds behind it wasn't a problem in April, BUT IT IS NOW! LOL
Now to your idea on not wrapping the hot part??? If we're trying to keep underhood temperatures down?? Odd how I'm thinking the complete opposite?

Seems to me the answer is to leave the first few inches unwrapped?
The next time the engine is hot, set the idle rpm up to around 2200,wait a few seconds, then start hunting around with the IR gun, and see where the pipe temp starts to drop. I my experience the hottest part is from about 1/2 inch past the flange to just after the first bend. Plus it'll be so much easier to wrap...those tight bends are... um............ painful.
 
Im on second set of Hooker fenderwell headers for BB (avatar) because of header wrap.
Did it for mainly keeping MC and brake lines cooler. Condensation promoted pinholes
at thinner bends of header.
However, I think the more you drive it, better off you are. Moisture is burned off in/around wrap. The lesson I learned, if you dont drive it few times a month, forget
the wrap, I did...........
 
Would a temperature controlled garage help or hurt ?

Im on second set of Hooker fenderwell headers for BB (avatar) because of header wrap.
Did it for mainly keeping MC and brake lines cooler. Condensation promoted pinholes
at thinner bends of header.
However, I think the more you drive it, better off you are. Moisture is burned off in/around wrap. The lesson I learned, if you dont drive it few times a month, forget
the wrap, I did...........
 
Ok the starting the engine and looking for hot spots is quite out of the question. You know this is the Stroker motor/4 speed that I took out back April or May to put in that 318 an automatic that I played with all summer. The idea here is to get the headers all wrapped while the motors out and to be able to put the motor in with the headers. pretty much the only way that I've ever put headers in a body after that first try over 10 years ago of doing it with the motor in the car. I did that once never again! So anytime I put a motor in the car the headers must be 100% ready to go FIRST. So pretty much I won't be feeling the heat off of these headers for probably 3 months or more. And I need to get them wrapped so I can get the motor in so I can get the motor out of the middle of the second bay of my garage and finally have some room to think! Not only do I need those headers wrap so I can get that motor out of The Middle of the second bay of my garage but if you watching the forum I probably got about four other threads of all the different projects I got going on the car at once. Having that room in the garage is going to be great besides that I can't get to my snowmobiles unless I get that motor out of the way. Building a homemade engine/tranny stand in the middle of
the second bay of my garage with the sleds behind it wasn't a problem in April, BUT IT IS NOW! LOL
Now to your idea on not wrapping the hot part??? If we're trying to keep underhood temperatures down?? Odd how I'm thinking the complete opposite?



How are you going to wrap your headers while riding a snowmobile?
 
Okay YR let's only take this off the rail for a few posts now and keep it on the headers please but if you're reading closely I can't ride the snowmobile till I wrap the headers. Maybe I didn't make my post understandable?

How are you going to wrap your headers while riding a snowmobile?
 
Would a temperature controlled garage help or hurt ?
Yes if its DRY..............and or insulated
I hate to admit, the heated garage that this cars been in, is like a humidor (not good)but its either that or outside...LOL
 
I'm a gettin the feeling I'm going to have to make a tool!?
Screenshot_2017-11-21-09-03-54-1.png
you'all know this is one of my favorite parts of this hobby :thumbsup:
 
Okay YR let's only take this off the rail for a few posts now and keep it on the headers please but if you're reading closely I can't ride the snowmobile till I wrap the headers. Maybe I didn't make my post understandable?


You could always put the headers on a stand, put the wrap in one hand and ride said snowmobile in circles around the headers to wrap them.

Just trying, as usual, to be helpful.
 
PLEASE LISTEN - Must:BangHead:Get:BangHead:Headers:BangHead:In:BangHead:to:BangHead:get:BangHead:to:BangHead:snowmobiles:BangHead::BangHead::BangHead::thankyou::rofl:

You could always put the headers on a stand, put the wrap in one hand and ride said snowmobile in circles around the headers to wrap them.

Just trying, as usual, to be helpful.
 
PLEASE LISTEN - Must:BangHead:Get:BangHead:Headers:BangHead:In:BangHead:to:BangHead:get:BangHead:to:BangHead:snowmobiles:BangHead::BangHead::BangHead::thankyou::rofl:
wear long sleeves, and long pants, wet the dam stuff and stretch it as tite as possible, u can throw an extra band or wire tie in every once in a while , it will help. no pics. yeah , u may have to wrap a couple of tubes together in places. best done sitting out in the floor or on a chair where u can wrestle w/ it a little. Like I said, it hasn`t bothered my tti headrs one bit. did I say , Ihate the dam stuff ? LOL------ good luck " tighter is better!"
 
The reason I suggested to not wrap the first couple of inches was to prevent cracking at the flanges,which a previous poster had run into.

I have seen idling temps in those first three inches run 400/450, Since proper combustion temp runs 1000 plus degrees at WOT, and with that area wrapped, I would expect similar temps in that section of pipe if not more. The steel won't melt until over 2000* IIRC to that's not an issue. TTIs have 3/8 flanges, but your cheapies probably have only 5/16, so that is gonna be the weak point. When you gas it,the flanges take waaaay longer to come up to temp, and never get close to what the pipe runs, especially if you wrap it. The pipe temp will jump up almost instantly following the chamber temp but the flanges will lag. I suspect, because of the short duration of street type acceleration, that the flanges are not gonna even get over 600(that's pure speculation). So the difference could be 400 or more degrees within a very short distance. Immediately after the event, on shutdown, the temps between those are gonna come to be the same but the pipes are gonna cool faster than the flanges, but the difference will never be as much as when the hammer went down.
Pure speculation says that's gonna be hard on the welds,at the flanges.
I wrapped a set for a guy once, and those first corners were pretty tuff.
So that was the reasoning behind my posit.
 
The reason I suggested to not wrap the first couple of inches was to prevent cracking at the flanges,which a previous poster had run into.

I have seen idling temps in those first three inches run 400/450, Since proper combustion temp runs 1000 plus degrees at WOT, and with that area wrapped, I would expect similar temps in that section of pipe if not more. The steel won't melt until over 2000* IIRC to that's not an issue. TTIs have 3/8 flanges, but your cheapies probably have only 5/16, so that is gonna be the weak point. When you gas it,the flanges take waaaay longer to come up to temp, and never get close to what the pipe runs, especially if you wrap it. The pipe temp will jump up almost instantly following the chamber temp but the flanges will lag. I suspect, because of the short duration of street type acceleration, that the flanges are not gonna even get over 600(that's pure speculation). So the difference could be 400 or more degrees within a very short distance. Immediately after the event, on shutdown, the temps between those are gonna come to be the same but the pipes are gonna cool faster than the flanges, but the difference will never be as much as when the hammer went down.
Pure speculation says that's gonna be hard on the welds,at the flanges.
I wrapped a set for a guy once, and those first corners were pretty tuff.
So that was the reasoning behind my posit.
I had to cut back at the first bend a little, couldn`t get a wrench on some of the header bolts w/ it wrapped clear up to the flanges. Other than that I`ve had no problems w/ cracking, rusting or any failure. My 505 puts out a lot of heat, no problems w/ cracking, warping, or rusting. ---------------
 
Honestly I didn't think these cheap headers were going to last this long. My very last worry is doing damage to these headers. At around $125 I always considered them disposable.
I was wondering about to much wrap near those bolt holes.
 
Ready to start wrappin -yo yo yo LOL
Clean first I know, but I thought I red where you silicone spray before? and after. If before (I would think) it must have to be completely dry before start wrapping with wet wrap? One can of silicone and spray two headers two times?
 
This may have already been mentioned, but header wrap will completely void any manufacturer's warranty if your headers were ceramic coated at the factory.
 
Covered there cheap junk Summit headers pretty much disposable and having used for several years.
Besides that I never looked for any warranties for any race parts of mine.
Appreciate you trying to help though....

This may have already been mentioned, but header wrap will completely void any manufacturer's warranty if your headers were ceramic coated at the factory.
 
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