What is everyones opinion on this subject? Someone told me that theoretically at least it should benefit spool and flow, as keeping heat in the air maintains its velocity, because the effect of cooling dissipates energy. What are the negatives of doing this? If wrapping the manifold increases chances of cracking then what if I just wrapped the downpipe? I would use thermal wrap for the job. Would it really hurt anything to try. I already have the wrap and it wouldnt take long to do. Anyone else have any experience with this? Thanks

 

My boy just did the thermal wrap on his downpipe and also did the turbine wrap in his single turbo supra. He said that the turbo does spool much faster and that the underhood temps seem to have gone down a bit.
I think Im gonna do my downpipe with the tape. The turbine covering is just plain ugly so Im not gonna do that.

 

I understand that it will significantly decrease the life of whatever you're wrapping, simply becasue it traps the heat in.
Hence why they mostly only use them on race cars.

 

From what i've heard, wrapping the manifold will definitely make it more vunerable to cracking due to the fact that the manifold will heat up more....it already gets hot enough, now take away its ability to dissipate any of that heat and combine it with the weight of the turbo....CRACK...if not now, at least sooner than it would have normally had...

 

What if I just wrapped the downpipe? Could I see any benefit from that without any risks?

 

Thats what I am wondering also. I think that I may just wrap it, see when full boost comes on--if it boosts faster than I keep it, if its just marginal-then take it back off.

 

Since the downpipe is after the turbo, I don't think it would do anything unless I'm missing something.

 

I'm going to be forced to agree with you

 

Why not get the manifold and downpipe Thermal Coated? HPC, Swain and Jet Hot all offer coatings that not only help against cracking, but they also help cosmetically!

 

I'll 3rd that.

 

atleast wrapping the down pipe will not allow the oil in pan to get reheated by close runing exhausts, it does help velocity = lowers back pressure, not worth it if you cant maintain or change the wrap periodically, it is a fabric that will retain moisture, it would get burned off quickly after a few minutes, but the idea is not to get it wet. you will not melt exhaust tube from wrapping, a header will only melt if made from very cheap materials.

 

Wrapping just the DP will keep the exhaust air hotter which prevents it from cooling and slowing down (scavenging effect).

It will also help reduce underhood temps and inturn lower the temp of the intake charge if you have your air filter under the hood.

Insulating you turbo housing and down pipe is a good idea but thermal wraps are not. They create pockets of super-heated air which can cause long term damage.

Ceramic thermal barrier coating is a much better way to do it and should not cause any longterm damage. It is expensive if you go with swain or hpc but there are some DIY kits. One I know of is from techline coatings.

 

Cooling the exhaust does NOT slow it down. You can cool it to -200 and it will still have the same velocity. The only way to change the velocity is by changing the cross-sectional area.

 

wrap ain't cheap.

 

However, isn't it true that colder exhaust gas is denser and therefore heavier? Wouldn't it then take more energy to push out this 'heavier' gas? I think that wrapping the downpipe might help, but not enough gains to risk cracking... Thoughts?

 

It will be denser, but not heavier. The amount of gas won't change, so I don't think it should be harder to push colder air.

What I'm saying is, take a sponge and squish it....it will be denser, but it will still weigh the same and be no easier to move/ push around.

 

The energy difference is virtually nil, so flow won't change, but the point still is to get heat away from the engine, and i believe wrap would help, plus just saturate the wrap with exhaust spray

 

oh so wrong on the velocity theroy.

PVT.

 

Damn. Yeah I guess you're right, scratch what I said earlier

Yeah, this is completely wrong .

PVT

 

I'm getting my throttlebody, intake manifold, turbo manifold, downpipe, I/C piping and I/C Thermal Coated. My FMIC is going to be done by swain, beause it helps it cool it bby 20% more and it's black .

 

what place does thermal coating?

 

Read my friend. . . . . .