What are you guys opinions about exhaust wraps? I need to wrap my iron cast headers in order to save my starter but have a few questions. I figure it should be enough to withstand up to 1200 degrees, the engine is pretty much standard with a mild cam. Thoughts? What brand do you use? Summit is cheap but I don't need to save on this item. Do you wrap the whole header? Please share your opinions, will be much appreciated. Stuff is ready to go in. Oh, it's a Mercury 390 with FMX.
i think there was a tech article in this or last months rod and custom about the differences in temp gained between wrapped and coated headers. the wrapping if i recall didn't do too much.
Been my personal experience that a simple sheetmetal shield attached so it's between the heat and what you don't want heated works quite well.I see engines with the low cost stater blankets around,so maybe that works also
Wrapping the headers will void any header manufacturers warranty. Summit and others sell a stainless starter shield (or you could fab one yourself) as well as a starter blanket. The stainless shield looks the best and may be the cheapest and easiest. I tried wrapping my headers and exhaust as far back as the mufflers for the starter 'heat-soak' problem and actually got a higher reading off of the wrap. When I queried the wrap manufacturer I was told that I needed to wrap the whole system and not just part of it. If I didn't then I would get higher readings where it was wrapped. I must've been talking to 'marketing' and not 'tech help'. I ended up getting a hi-torque mini-starter that draws less amps and is more immune to 'heat-soak'. The starter was $115.00 from Summit and the heat wrap was over $50.00. It works great.
Thank's, I'm a little bit worried because the starter is real close to the header, might go with a reduction starter as well with turnable house.
When I worked at Hedman Hedders, we would void the warranty on wrapped Headers, what it would do is Crystalize the Metal making it brittle, we would get Headers and X Pipes back with holes in them after a few thousand miles! We could see where the pipes were wrapped! I happened alot! I think its more of a race car thing! It had a starter problem in my 51, I went with a smaller gear reduction started and solved the problem! John
Hot starter problems can sometimes be cured by installing a remote Ford solenoid inside the car. Anybody else do it this way??
I worked at a Pontiac dealer parts dept in the late 70s and the "Ford" solenoid was the factory fix on the hard to start Trans Ams, the kit had a jumper for the Delco solenoid and we just moved the factory wiring harness over to the frame and mounted the solenoid/relay and used a short jumper batt cable, fixed em every time!
I have been riding my hardtail Harley with wrapped pipes for 4 years now. Thing probably has 20,000 miles on it and pipes are just fine. Cast pipes will not have a problem overheating. Heat shield will probably be cheaper, if you decide to use wrap pm me and I will explain what not to do in installation.
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