I have read conflicting articles and stuff on the net about header wrap what is your take what do you guys use. I would go with ceramic coating but i dont have the time to have it done nore the funds. This will be for my dc 4-1 header system.

thanks

 

In my opinion not a good idea,my kid did his headers and they rusted out in about 2 yrs guess they trap moisture.

 

it was black but it discolored, ceramic coated header too
ceramic coating on my hasport for a b16 rusted out too and i live in GA aka, not rust

 

yea they do get really dirty, my friend straped sum on his gen 7th civic and it's been 1 1/2 years that shyt is turning black. but they do hold a little heat tho...enough to keep your hands on it for a few seconds.

 

so header tape is a bust?

 

I feel it's a good idea and i have had nothing bad happen to my dc header. Engine bay temps were a decent amount less.

 

ive used header wrap on my DC ceramic header. even did a whole season of road racing with it on. when the car got stolen, after it was retired as a race car and then a street car, they tried to take the header, but its 1 piece so it didnt come out, just trashed the wrap. had to take it all off.

header is in perfect condition. just superficial blemishes due to the heat, no corrosion. i drove in the rain a lot.

i dont buy the theory of wrap kills headers by rust and extra holding heat. it didnt happen to me.

and it does do a good job of doing what its supposed to do. keep the heat in the exhaust gas and keep the rest of the engine bay cooler, especially the radiator.

 

damn i guess i have to try it for myself everyone has different stories to tell . I have the dc ceramic header hope this works out.

 

I remember an article about swain tech coatings, white lightning coating keeps heat in, you can get it in any color as long as you only want white

 

Header wrap works fine for what it is. Hi tech coatings are probably a better option but they're more expensive and require you to send off your part for a couple weeks.

I wrapped some stainless headers back in '98. I sold the header to a friend. He later sold his car to another friend. I talked with that guy a few months back about the header...still looks and works great.

For longevity, you don't wrap over any joints or welds.
And my experience is with stainless. It might mess up a ceramic coating.

 

I don't have experience with wrap but I have researched a little it seems to work very well to keep temps down and you should also soak the wrap before you use it and strech it very tight...afterwards theres is a silicon spry you can use to help seal it and prevent rust/corrosion problems

 

Rust promoter----
They do sell a spray like a high temp clear from "Mr. Gasket" I believe and its suppose to help stop moisture from getting behind the wrap and rusting out your header.

 

Headerwrap is great. I've used it twice with very favorable results. First thing you need to do is get some sand paper or scotch paper to scuff up your headers finish. Then get some high temp spray that comes in a spray can from your local auto parts store. Spray liberally till you feel it is well coated. After its dry put on your header wrap and make sure its as tight as you can get it. Any loose spots will hold more moisture.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b.d.racing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Headerwrap is great. I've used it twice with very favorable results. First thing you need to do is get some sand paper or scotch paper to scuff up your headers finish. Then get some high temp spray that comes in a spray can from your local auto parts store. Spray liberally till you feel it is well coated. After its dry put on your header wrap and make sure its as tight as you can get it. Any loose spots will hold more moisture. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Good info, some high temp paint should also help to prenet rust

 

my header just came with the wrap on it. id do a stainless steel header for the bling if anything
love me some freebies

 

i used wrap on my downpipe, i didnt really care about the heat, and i dont care about a little rust, my welds were just so damn ugly, but they hold and dont leak, im using it to just make my down pipe more visually appealing

 

I had my stainless Hytech header wrapped, but then a lot of people told me that I was running the risk of it ruining some of the welds from excessive heat. I have since removed it after reading a thread in which one of the custom header guys (SMSP, or Hytech, can't remember) said header wrap was a bad idea. I still haven't seen any pics of a header ruined by wrap so I still don't know what to believe. The wrap certainly kept temps down during the time I had it on.

 

The other factor around header wrap that has been discussed is that when a wrapped header cools off, the parts with the wrap on them will cool much slower than the parts without (the welds and flanges) and this causes stress since one part is contracting faster than the other.

Hearing Tyson's story is encouraging though, I'd sure like to wrap my DC 4-2-1 to keep underhood temps down.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2lude4u &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have since removed it after reading a thread in which one of the custom header guys (SMSP, or Hytech, can't remember) said header wrap was a bad idea. I still haven't seen any pics of a header ruined by wrap so I still don't know what to believe. The wrap certainly kept temps down during the time I had it on.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That would be Dave at SMSP who has his headers coated as an option. I've not seen any evidence of rusting or cracking as a result of wrapping a header yet either from anyone. I have seen plenty of just plain rusted headers, though.

 

anyone else want to chime in?

 

header wrap works wonders for what it is and to those that say their header rusted all i have to ask is was it a good header or was it an ebay one bc if u spend the money and go for a dc or sumthing with quality it pays off, u get what u pay for

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by davens &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Header wrap works fine for what it is. Hi tech coatings are probably a better option but they're more expensive and require you to send off your part for a couple weeks.

I wrapped some stainless headers back in '98. I sold the header to a friend. He later sold his car to another friend. I talked with that guy a few months back about the header...still looks and works great.

For longevity, you don't wrap over any joints or welds.
And my experience is with stainless. It might mess up a ceramic coating.</TD></TR></TABLE>
All my reading on it sees to point if you have a good metal and or a coating it's not needed if you have a header with out coating it's not a bad idea.

Me I now have a coated header still a pile of DC junk and will be moving to a good SS one so I don't see a need.

On the el cheapo long tubes my old thunderbird had we used it.

 

ive had my header wrapped over a year and its still holding strong. i like the fact that it really keeps the engine bay temps down.




Modified by floss at 11:29 PM 8/3/2006

 

DC Sport 4-2-1 One piece ceramic.
bought it used cleaned it up and wrapped it.
That was 2 or 3 years ago (I don't remember exactly)
The wrap had a big impact on engine bay temps.
This is the black wrap from Jegs
It gets a slight amount of discoloration as you can see.
Otherwise I have not had any problems.
This car does not see rain or snow.

 

These are on my OBX header & downpipe, it <U>DOES</U> keep the
engine bay temp down, if nothing else . . .