Hello all
I decided recently to wrap my tubular exhaust manifold to reduce the heat in the engine bay and also prevent my return line from melting, also rducing temp under the hood.
Since then I have been getting mixed review that are confusing the shit out of me.
Apparently wrapping the exhaust manifold has some pro/cons.
Pro:
reduce under the hood temp
safer for brake master cylynder
better turbo spool time
cons:
makes the manifold material very britle
causing exhaust manifold to crack
an cause reaction if in direct contact with the skin
What is the deal with the cracking story? I had it once on my exaust manifolf I the past, and never had a cracking issue, then again I only drove the car for 1 summer.
IMO it shouldnt cause a problem, heat is good for the turbo and should actually help the turbo spool better, at the same time the car will back fire a lot more because exaust manifold will remain hotter and exess fuel will explode in there , almost like a anti lag.
I am looking for factual information regarding issue with heat wrapping a exhaust manifold, no he said, she said of the internet because we all know people make up a whole bunch of bull so sound smart/cool
I had a tubular manifold on my sr for about 3 years and had no issues at all with cracking, and that was with a megan manifold. If your exhaust is hacked together and isn’t properly supported than I would worry about it, if not then you should be fine. As far as under hood temps go, it made a huge difference. It would be stupid not to heat wrap it considering how close the runners get to the master cylinder, or at least have a heat shield.
BTW, make sure you wear gloves when wrapping it, that stuff gave me a crazy rash!
If the heat cannot escape from the manifold to the relatively cool air, it will then heat the header itself more. Obviously the hotter the manifold gets, the more likely it is to deform, and crack since each heat cycle is more violent than it would be if the manifold was left open.
That being said, you always want to have a heatsheild protecting anything that is in harms way, because header wrap will do nothing if you have an exhaust leak. The exhaust will get past the headerwrap and melt everything!
At the end of the season last year i found myself header wrapping certain parts of the manifold, like close to the coolant elbow and close to the master cylinder heat sheild - but left some areas open, like the top of the manifold to radiate heat out of the opening in my bumper. Perhaps this is a stupid idea as it will have the manifold at different temps at different spots. Perhaps it is a good idea. Who knows.
The point though, is to use a quality manifold and keep as little load on it as possible, and it will last as long as you need it with or without header wrap
Maybe I am been ignorant but what is the real purpose of header wrap then?
is it’s only advantage to reduce under hood temp?
it’s very strange to have a product that can lower engine bay temp at the same time break the manifold, unless it was more so intended to be use for N/A header applicaiton as oppose to turbocharged application or vice versa.
I dont know anymore but I am going to try anyway.