I'm going to install stainless steel Megan Racing headers on my 6th gen civic, wondering if exhaust wrap will hurt them, I've heard it can for some brands...

 

im not voting cause its not that simple, if you can keep it dry it should be fine, if your header is mild steel and you put a wrap and that wrap gets wet and stays wet, then yes your **** will rust. its all about moisture, that **** was designed for race cars which normally dont get wet, and if they do im sure they change the parts out or dry it somhow. why not heat barrier coat it?

 

What blinx9900 said sounds logical but I really doubt water will stay on the header when you go to park the car, do you know how hot it gets? Once water touches it, it will evaporate quickly. Its not as if it will get a little wet more and more over time, every time water gets on it, it will evaporate.

p.s. soften the welds? um no

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blackdelslo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What blinx9900 said sounds logical but I really doubt water will stay on the header when you go to park the car, do you know how hot it gets? Once water touches it, it will evaporate quickly. Its not as if it will get a little wet more and more over time, every time water gets on it, it will evaporate.

p.s. soften the welds? um no </TD></TR></TABLE>

i agree with you but i was going based on the fact that most of us (i hope) have a dd and a non-dd so i figured if he was referring to a non-dd it may get wet or moist from weather and if the car dosent get ran much it could start to damage the header. (cause who wraps a header on a REAL dd?) if ya got enough money that your car is that built that it gets that hot that you need a wrap, surely you have a second car... that just my logic

 

This is a daily driver, but what many people don't realize or care to address is that the largest producer of heat is the exhaust manifold. I want to try and keep my engine bay temps down, especially since i have a K&N air intake system, don't want lots of hot air around there...

I was going to use a special Thermotec heat paint sealer for the exhaust wrap to protect it from dust, grit, rain, etc...

What do you guys think?

I was reading from DC sports/AEM from their faq that using exhaust wrap can "weak welds on the header" and "voids the warranty".. I found it hard to believe that the wrapping could weaken welds so I wanted to ask around. Hope that clarifies things.

 

I'll address this:

You wrapping your megan header isn't going to net you mad horsepower. It's not going going to matter that heat is radiating from your header soaking into your filter. Exhaust wrap is for race motors, and it serves two purposes:

1) Preventing heat soak to your air filter (generally done to carbonated vehicles where the filter is sitting on top of the motor, so heat soak is a big problem).

2) Keeping temperatures up inside the exhaust chambers. Think of your exhaust as a liquid. The colder your exhaust, the denser the air, the thicker the gas. If you up temps, then it becomes less dense, and flows better.

Neither of these things are really something to be concerned about with a stock D16Y8 with bolt-ons.

As far as painting the wrap, bad idea. It's a better idea to ceramic coat the header with exhaust manifold paint or powder-coating, and then wrapping. This will protect the metal from the moisture that can be trapped between the layers of the wrap.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ke98248 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was reading from DC sports/AEM from their faq that using exhaust wrap can "weak welds on the header" and "voids the warranty".. I found it hard to believe that the wrapping could weaken welds so I wanted to ask around. Hope that clarifies things. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You're increasing temperatures inside a mass-produced, machine-welded, low-grade steel header. That does have the propensity to weaken the welds. They're just covering their asses.

 

hmm. That's interesting, but damn, I wish I had asked this before I ordered like $90 worth of **** for the headers.. I guess I will return it all.

Thank you so much!!

 

Hey, where can I get ceramic coat paint?

How could moisture get into the layers of wrapping, it's super hot up in the header region?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ke98248 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hmm. That's interesting, but damn, I wish I had asked this before I ordered like $90 worth of **** for the headers.. I guess I will return it all.

Thank you so much!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

No problem. Always glad to help. I've been in situations where I've ended up regretting something very stupid because I was too stubborn to ask before I did it.

 

Hey, where can I get ceramic coat paint?

How could moisture get into the layers of wrapping, it's super hot up in the header region?

(goin' to sleep now even if it shows im online. check back tomorrow..)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ke98248 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey, where can I get ceramic coat paint?

How could moisture get into the layers of wrapping, it's super hot up in the header region?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Plastikote makes a 2500 degree ceramic paint, so does VHT. Only thing is, to cure it, you have to either bake it in an industrial oven @ 600 degrees, or bolt it up to your car within a matter of hours after drying, and run it at idle for a couple hours.

 

I heard VHT is good.... Umm, I was reading in this honda tuning book that you could just let it dry after spraying it and let it sit in a climate controlled area for at least 6 hours.. Is that true? my garage isn't fully insulated so I guess I will do the car idle thing..
Does the vht go inside the header tubing or outside?

I'm guessing inside.


Should I invest in a special 02 sensor removal socket or just use a wrench?.. the o2 sensor was replaced in my car less then 2.5 months ago.

 

You ceramic coat on the outside.

And for a 2500-degree ceramic paint, you need to heat cure it. It's basically ceramic dust with some paint mixed in. By heat curing, you're basically burning off the paint, and melting the ceramic to the header. If you don't cure it, it'll start to come off as dust.

 

I see. Thanks

 

the whole point of header wrap and high temp coating is to keep the heat in the exhaust to keep the exhaust gas velocity high as to increase the scavenging effect of the exhaust itself. so if you coated it and wrapped it...it could only help. this effect is more noticable with turbo'd cars than those that are n/a...unless it's a highly built high compression n/a

 

I've experienced poor results with the high-temp header paint, even when properly applied.

As for wrapping the header, one of the main issues aside from trapping moisture is that the heat is trapped within the walls of the header tubing itself, thus reducing the header's longevity over time.

If you want to protect the header while also experiencing the potential benefits that header wrap can provide (namely, decreasing engine bay temperatures and increasing exhaust gas velocity), my suggestion would be to have the header professionally coated inside and out. It's somewhat more expensive than the header wrap, but the results are far better and most coaters will provide a warranty on the coating.

 

great.


Getting a header coated can't be cheap, how much approx?


Also, is it worth the extra $$ to dish out for the special o2 sensor socket? My sensor is less than 2 months old, don't want to buy another one.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Eran &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'll address this:

</TD></TR></TABLE>

i agree. unless ur running something insane. i dont see the benefits from using it - except it looks kinda cool

 

Ok, honest real world answers here.....

Thermal coatings don't work too good. I had it done to my header and turbo and it did not make any noticeable difference. Now the only coating that will work good is swaintech, pretty expensive and includes shipping. Normal coatings are about $150 for the header. Swaintech is more expensive than this.

Just wrap the header with header wrap. The header will last years even if it does develop some surface rust. Most likely the car won't last you as long as the header wrap will.

I have my downpipe and manifold header wrapped. I daildy drive the car and I park oustide all night, I pulled the header wrap off after like 8 months of driving and there was barely ANY noticable surface rust.

Seriously though, on a N/A car, this isn't really going to give you any benefit. If your motor is running hot as a N/A motor, then header wrap will not fix the problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ke98248 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">great.


Getting a header coated can't be cheap, how much approx]</TD></TR></TABLE>

Peformance Coatings is located in WA, and their pricing appears to start at $110.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ke98248 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Also, is it worth the extra $$ to dish out for the special o2 sensor socket? My sensor is less than 2 months old, don't want to buy another one.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I honestly don't know what the "special socket" is. Your current O2 sensor should simply thread into the new header's bung.

 

Thanks:

 

u dont need to O2 socket, just use a properly sized wrench and u will be fine.

 

I just heard you can round off the o2 sensor piece pretty easy, but ok, thanks!

It would be a metric size, anybody know which size it would be?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ke98248 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It would be a metric size, anybody know which size it would be?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I believe the O2 sensor is 22mm.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Eran &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You ceramic coat on the outside.

And for a 2500-degree ceramic paint, you need to heat cure it. It's basically ceramic dust with some paint mixed in. By heat curing, you're basically burning off the paint, and melting the ceramic to the header. If you don't cure it, it'll start to come off as dust.</TD></TR></TABLE>

and when you cure it, it will also help release moisture. Finding a place to cure it should be easy and cheap. I have a vendor that heat treats parts for us for like $50