Thread: Wrap it up?

So which is it?

Like i said in the first place. Put some high temp paint on then wrap. It can not hurt anything and at only $5 its not a waste of money.

When Dan said not to bother coating it (or painting it?) and to just wrap it, he was talking about a stainless steel manifold mentioned just prior.

When Dan said to paint it (or coat it?) before wrapping, he was referring to a mild steel manifold.

Just how many HP are we talking on a N/A sr20 here? Cause the wrap looks aweful.

Gained with header wrap? 1-5 HP maybe on an NA SR20...

Says you. =P

So I'm still confused....

So is it recommended to paint (using hitemp paint) and then wrap? I know SSACs are cheap, but i would still prefer not to have to replace that thing anytime soon (or the next seven years). But if I could squeeze some more power out of it that would be nice.

The debate was really whether or not ceramic coating the header was worth it if you're going to go ahead and wrap it anyway. Basically if you have a mild steel header you want to do what ever you can to protect it while also trying to keep the heat inside. This means the best thing to do would be to ceramic coat the header to protect it from rusting, then if you're really feeling fancy wrap the header with header wrap to really keep the heat in. If you can't afford to ceramic coat a mild steel header, the next best thing to do would be to paint it with high temp paint to try and protect it from rusting, and then proceed to wrap it.

If you have a stainless steel header the options change. Basically it's going to resist rusting from the get-go because it is stainless steel. This means ceramic coating it for rust protection is sort of silly, but the heat insulation of the ceramic coating is a good idea. Stainless steel however, is a much better insulator than mild steel, 2x or 3x as good. So already you're way ahead of the game. The ceramic coating on it's own is usually plenty good. If you're cheap, you can just wrap the header and not worry about anything. If you're really anal but cheap, you could paint the header with high temp paint and then wrap it. Ceramic coating and wrapping a stainless steel header on an N/A car is probably okay, but doing that for a turbo manifold would probably keep the manifold too hot, and then you'd run into other problems.


So, are you getting a stainless steel header, or a mild steel header?

Well I dont knwo anout me, my main reason for considering to wrap is that it would reduce the heat in teh engine bay. Especially since there will be no heat shield as with the stock manifold.

Not for HP gains.

I personally dont mind the look of the wrapped header.

Peace

ceramic coating sucks. it comes off after about a year of use and then you header is still going to rust. I got tired of removing the rust and recoating with high temp paint and even though the coating looked good it does not work as well as wrap. I hated to wrap my fuji header but it killed my alternator with radiated heat and caused issues with my a/c.

If it does get wet how long would it stay wet I mean headers run at 500+ dergrees so not too long to be very detramental.

Anyone that has had header wrap problems that were serious probably did not follow the rule of 1/2 inch over lap per section. They most likely wraped the heck of the header so all the heat stays trapped into the header which will cause damage eventually.