Question - How to wrap a header with heat insulator

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Place the wrap in a bucket of warm water. It makes it pliable and easy to work with. A nice clamp, or the stainless tie wrap at the begining and end of every section to keep it tight. It will not wrap tight if you do not wet it first.

 

Thanks for the heads up
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I have always soaked it as well. The black stuff will turn your hands black as well. Clamp the first wrap and then pull it very tight as you go. Take your time, patience is the key Grasshopper, it can be a pain to keep your wraps even and looking good. Clamp the end. I always do it with safety wire as it looks a bit tricker. It is going to smoke a bunch when you first fire it up.

Just remember that it is going to destroy your headers faster than if they weren't wrapped.

 

Well that explains a bunch!! Wish I'd have know that before!!

 

I like to paint mine after it dries. Cheap black paint. I spray it heay with a brake parts cleaner spray tip. It will take a LONG time to stop burning, but it does last longer. I found no real difference between cheap spray paint and the high dollar high heat stuff when applied to the wrap.

The paint would be for under car exhaust, not a bike or lake pipes.

 

remember to wrap from the top down(the same way old ten speeds/road bike handle bars are wrapped) - keeps the loops from sliding out if they should loosen a bit - each loop helps keep the loop above in place.

 

Use long sleeves and gloves. The fiber glass in the wrap will make ya itchy!

 

I've used this stuff on my motorcycle pipes. I tried the soaking trick at first, and it was a mess/pain to work with. I then tried just spraying a little bit of water onto the wrap with a spray bottle, just enough to get it damp, and it was a lot easier to use/much less mess. It's held up very well after thousands of miles of use. For whatever that's worth.

 

true dat!!

 

Just remember that it is going to destroy your headers faster than if they weren't wrapped.[/QUOTE]


why is that???????

 

HEADER WRAP the new BILLIT.

 

Put on a bunch of baby powder it clogs up your pours and keeps the fiberglass from get in them and inching

 

Thanks Jay, I'll try that next time around.

 

Antny is right use the spray bottle, works just fine with less mess.

 

why is that???????[/QUOTE]

Keeps the heat in. If you put a lot of miles on the car, don't expect your headers to last very long.

 

ive seen them wrapped after soaked in liquid graphite too. get it on your hands and it will be months before theyre clean again. graphite is one heckuva heat blocker though. i cant see how wrapping headers would wear them out any faster than not wrapping them. most headers i see unless stainless are usually rusty as all get out after a couple of months. one would have to think keeping the heat in as much as you can would help engine efficiency too.

 

Chitbox, you're right; keeping the heat in the pipes makes the engine more efficient. The exhaust gas is hotter than non-wrapped pipes, and since air expands more when it's hotter, the exhaust flows out of the exhaust at a higher velocity.....which helps scavenge the combustion chamber. Thus, increasing engine efficiency. Hope that made sense, because my head hurts now.....!

 

posted a day too late.

 

Here's the way we always do it on bikes:

1) Soak the crap out of it. The wetter, the better.

2) Use two people. One guy holds the header TIGHT. And also rotates it as needed for the wrapper.

3) The wrapper wraps it TIGHT. Stretch it. Overlap it evenly as you go along. You have to work the bends to get the wrap 'right'. Otherwise you end up with a lump, or a void. Both are bad. The tighter the bend, the more you have to work it - you gotta get the feel for it.

4) The hell with stainless clamps. That is hokey. My trick is to wrap twice with safety wire. The wire disappears into the wrap and never loosens. Put the twist in the back so you don't see it.

5) If you are using the black, yes you will get dirty. So what, the first time you got your hands dirty?

6) Run the motor until the wrap stops steaming. This shrinks it slightly.

7) If you used black wrap, then after the water boils off, remove the header and paint with black VHT exhaust paint. This provides a uniform color and also seals the fuzz in the wrap, making it look better, longer.

8) Oh yeah, you wrap from port to collector.

 

Header wrap also collects moisture on the nice dewy mornings, and wet cloth on steel is an awesome place for rust to happen...then when it gets hot again, the wrap steams the water off onto the steel...keep in mind, your headers and header wrap are constantly expanding and cooling at different rates, and even though you can't see it happen, it still wears on the nice rusty surface of the steel and exposes fresh steel to start the rusting process over...