hey guys, i just bought that heat wrap and silicone spray from design engineering ( www.designengineering.com ). i plan on putting it on the header when i install the turbo since i have to play with the header anyway. they claim a 45% reduction of heat in the engine bay? anyone else wrap their header yet? and is there any other parts that can be wrapped?

 

You could probably heat wrap your intake piping, maybe it would keep the air a little cooler...who knows.

 

I have the same products but I'm debating whether to just spray or wrap and spray. My manifold is tubular steel however so I think my heat concerns are a wee bit different than yours.

You'd want to wrap it in something heat reflective.

 

yea, hobie your manifold is oragami just like the auto transmissions, looks like it would be a major pain to wrap, but mine is jsut the rrm header, won't be too difficult, for some reason i think you should wrap it if you can, but if not, the spray def wont hurt

 

I'm concerned about heat issues in the winter. The rapid changes in temp may cause it to crack and give me a nice, neat exhaust leak. Gonna ask around a bit. It's such a pain in the *** to take off the manifold that I should have plenty of time to look around.

And I keep forgetting to answer your initial question: Yes. Many people wrap their downpipes as well. I can't say I know the mechanical reason for this, but I'll see if I can't find out.

 

Id say wrappin it is kinda worth it or would actually work.. Coz if you looks at high perfromance cars from Japan, like Skylines and Evos that are modified, they have this heat wrap materials on their headers and other pipes..

 

That's because you lose a large percent of the power made from combustion through heat absorbtion. Basically you're trying to keep areas like the manifold, turbine and downpipe hot so that they both maintain more efficient operating temps and also deter radiation of heat into the surrounding air.

For turbocharged cars this means quicker spool times and increased exhaust flow in the areas wrapped.

EDIT: You can read this from DSM Talk if you're really interested. For a non-turbo car I think you'd notice the difference a LOT less.

 

The main reason that high performance cars have heat wrapping on the header is to protect the components around them (Hobie's point). If you have ever witnessed a turbocharged CART motor on the engine stand, at power, the exhaust system is glowing red hot. Unless your motor is running serious power, and you are having problems with nearby components suffering from heat induced problems (melting, warping, igniting, etc.) I dont think that the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks.

 

As far as I know most headers come with a ceramic coating eliminating the need for heat wrapping. If yours isn't coated then it probably would be a good idea.

 

id heat wrap / heat shield everythign if i had the money

the intake pipes to intercooler are right over the turbo and manifold
so if you could keep heat radiaton to them you could lower intake temps
at the same time you could keep all the other parts fo your engine bay from gettin heat soak fromt hat thing
its big and its hot
id get seom heat reflectors to for alot of the itnake pipes to further ruduce intake temps