THERMO-TEC EXHAUST INSULATION WRAP

this claims to increase power and fuel efficiency. Can anyone confirm?

 

wrapping headersis a thing of the past. it accelerates rust/corrosion since the wrapping will retain moisture. also, many people get warped headers becuse of it.

the best thing you could to is get a heat paint/caoting such as this:
Swain Tech Coatings for engine piston coatings, race engine coatings, ceramic header coating, carbide metal coatings, thermal spray plasma coating, metalizing closures, spray welding

 

I have not personally wrapped mine, but if you want an objective scientific approach to answering this question then check out this thread from another forum that I am a member at.

Header Insulation Wrap

If you don't want to read it then I will paraphrase and say that insulation wrap is good at insulating and does add a small amount of whp (+1 in the case of a moving integra).

On another note, it is speculated that insulation wrap can deteriorate headers over time. So getting the headers coated might be a better option. This all depends on the material that the header is made from.

Again, none of this information is mine nor have I used insulation wrap myself so please don't expect me to defend these statements.

 

I did use that very same wrap on my ceramic coated DC's on my CRX.
Occasionally, they were running so hot during peak summer heat waves in Los Angeles that metal changed properties and started crystallizing and eventually they cracked! My local muffler shop is owned by a guy that races everything from bikes to cars to rock crawlers. He welded them up perfect and showed me quite a few failure examples in his shop.
He recommends leaving them alone and using ducts to bring in fresh cool air to keep temps down.
I maybe pushed my headers a bit too much, though!
Before the wrap they would glow red hot at night sometimes under continuous high rpm operation (7K-9500 rpm in the canyons!). At one point I even experimented (no cat!) with cocktails of leaded 115 octane race gas, methanol, octane boosters, red line fuel/injector cleaner,......
Headers were glowing white! I was shooting 20inch flames out of the tailpipe between shifts lighting up the night sky. It was surreal! I wish I had exhaust temperature gauge at the time.
Car was running like it was on steroids! I had Yokohama 008 rs tires and I was braking traction in third gear just by flooring it!
This was like in '93 or '94.

 

Two thumbs up.

 

Ive heard this mentioned a lot. I can see the moisture getting trapped if the car just sits. But once you fire up the car and 30secs go by the header/manifold gets so hot moisture wouldnt stand a chance.
The warping I understand.

I thought about wrapping my OEM manifold. I never put the heat shield back on since my Megan header catastrophe. I dont think wrapping the OEM manifold would do anything. Besides reduce heat.

Plus I dont feel like removing the manifold unless Im putting on a sweet ass header.

 

It's not a good idea for your headers.

 

I have wrapped the headers of every car I have owned since 1969 and NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS NONE.

It was one of the first things I did on my Jazz and it's been 2 years AND GUESS WHAT NO RUST NO CRACKING NO PROBLEMS.

Problems come from INCORRECT INSTALLATION not the wrap.

And all manufactures recommend NOT WRAPPING coated headers ...... if you do it you are going against recommendations of the manufacturer and problems may arise

There is ANOTHER GIANT THREAD (what else is new) on wrapping headers right here on FitFreak you can learn all you want from it.

 

Did you wrap your oe header or an aftermarket? Also if it was aftermarket was it coated? Thanks in advance.

 

Point me in the direction of that thread since 'header insulation', 'header wrap', 'thermal insulation', and 'wrapped header' didn't seem to pull up anything noteworthy. Though I did see a thread about coating the header, but the only mention of wrapping was your one post.

Also, there are different factors that would seem to cause the issues that are being mentioned with wrapping the header. I just don't see the Fit at its current state creating enough heat with the thermal wraps to cause any damage to the header. I also don't think that it will make a true difference in the performance of the car either. Perhaps it might be beneficial if you were to build the engine up and especially if you were to turbo it. Just my .

 

The one on my jazz was the stock Honda header. Used the newest Thermo-Tec copper impregnated wrap.





Thermo-tec has a great website with a FAQ guide and the people there are great. I emailed them about the "cracking" problems and we went back and forth several emails and they were very good at answering any questions QUICKLY. so if anyone has any questions or concerns just email them and read the FAQ it will help dispel some of the "myths" out on the web.

The Jazz stock header was wrapped this time but on my other cars it was always aftermarket headers and still no problems. And the cars sat inside a non-heated garage for the winter months due to snow so no racing and only started once a week yet still no RUSTING or cracking problems.

 

Osborne, it was some time ago so the search engine won't go back that far. If you really want to find it go to the exhaust forum and go back to earliest posts and work backward looking at the post names.

BUT some of the early posts may not have been moved to the proper forums when they were created (see been here a lonnnggg time).

I just checked my log and I installed the wrap 10-23-05 so the other threads (I think I remember more than one) will be right around that time.

 

Gotcha. I will check it out.

 

well i guess since ONE PERSON (you!) didnt experience a problem, means it doesnt exist, right?.....wrong.

for your few experiences of not having a problem ,there are 10x as many that do. check other forums, look around, even in this thread there is an example of wrapping problems. it is a problem.
and please tell me about how a person goes about installign wrap wrong? its an idiot proof mod.

if your going to tell us about another thread about the same thing, please post a link.....shits probably archived.

just so you know, you come accross as a very arrogent person.

 

Seems stupid to me, to insulate an already overheated part. At speed the air heated by the heat radiating off header would be blown under the car and not toward the intake which would be fed by incoming air. Just MHO.

 

Show us your links to all these 10 TIMES as many people that have had problem. One here after wrapping a coated header which is one way to have problems and NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE MANUFACTURER. I passed on all the information I have on the other posts if you want to try and LEARN SOMETHING go and hand search for them yourself.

If you had EVER actually DONE ONE and not just TRYING TO TALK ABOUT IT you would have READ THE INSTRUCTIONS well ( or at least the FAQ at the site I told everyone about)..... maybe not and found that the overheating problems come from INCORRECT SPACING OF THE WRAPS. Even an idiot couldn't miss that IF THEY BOTHERED TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS RIGHT.

That MISTAKE IN INSTALLATION technique creates hot spots because the wrapping is too thick in some places and much less in others creating the situation of differing thermal profiles that encourage cracking because of differing cooling and heating rates in adjacent areas. But your such an expert I guess you knew that IDIOTS TRYING something can CAUSE INSTALLER PROBLEMS. By hey how many did you say you have done yourself?

If your "One of them" that doesn't like my "Style" please feel free to click the "add claymore to my ignore list button" win win for everybody.

Please get back to us when you have all those links. But in the mean time please READ the post and you will find I did say there maybe problems. I related my experience only if you have any REAL EXPERIENCE YOURSELF please post your photos of your installation or your posts from when you did it.

Just so you know you come across as a very inexperienced person trying to talk about something you have never done. And please if you are trying to impress everyone with your vast knowledge please look into a spell checker you might come across better

 

Guys,
the cracking occurs more due to exceeding metal properties than because of the wrap!
Claymore is right about that ceramic coated headers should not be wrapped. There is also the properties of the welded spots to consider which are different than metal tubing itself. Headers usually crack by the welds. Mine did!
I did mine since I was putting them way beyond expected abuse.
Keep in mind that racing headers of extreme nature (F1, WRC, CART, INDY,......) get both coated inside and out as well as wrapped. For the sake of aerodynamics engine covers are way to close to the engine & tranny. Or components near by - they still fail during the race sometimes. And trust me they are made from a far better material than what we can buy for our rides, present or past. Not that DC ceramic unit (or equivalent) is bad, it is just not up to par!
Sudden water splash to a gloving header can do a lot of damage, yet in WRC, engines are turbocharged and water splashes are common. Yet failures are rare! Better header material and coatings beyond our reach is the reason.
It is not just the heat and thermal properties of the metal being exceeded, it is also vibration that plays a role. Additional anchoring point beside mating surface at the head is a must, but even that is not a guarantee.

The fact that some fail and some do not is decided on many factors, but the most significant is exceeding metal properties and vibration, period!
More extreme header can be made, but would you buy it for a few thousand bucks if it was available for a $17K Fit? Coatings alone on professional racing headers exceed at least twice the price of what we pay for Fit or any other street car!

IMO, why do you guys (in US) even bother buying headers and "go fast" goodies when our fly-by-wire combo is locked for MPG? Without upcoming electronic throttle controller you are just waisting money and making more noise gaining less than 3% power and going by at the same speed!
I am not asking this to offend anybody or start a war of words, I just say it because I do not see a point at present time due to electronic limitation. Again, no punt intended, but maybe it is my age. I am not a teenager. Been there-done that with my CRX.

Ivan

 

ciburri, a nice thought out post full of good points. But hey it's less than $30.00 and every bit counts.

 

LOL, I think this thread proves that you guys will argue about ANYTHING..

BTW, wrapping headers is SOOO like, 2001.

 

And you post SOOOO like a Valley Girl like Forsuuur.

Not really more like 1965 and gee wonder of wonders it still works like all good things it just keeps on working no matter how old the idea is. Who cares if valley people just LIKE HAVE TO go out and spend $200.00 to get their headers coated when one can spend $30.00 and get the same results.

And MOST of us are having an adult discussion but there's always that 10%