Thread: Wrap it up?

Ok. Much thanks gentlemen.

The hotshot likely had a cheap coating on it. My turbo manifold was on my car for 2 years, and it was wrapped. I took everything off and sold it, there was no rust, or peeling of the coating.

I guess your coating failed.

The stainless used in the chinese headers is 304 stainless, it just rusts slower at the normal temperature of the header, if you look carefully the bit before the cat barely even gets a bloom of rust as it is cooler there.

304 is usually used for milk processing equipment and piping, as at room temp it is quite inert.

mike

advance auto has everything, vht exhuast paint (may have to ask not on shelf) dei wrap in the small size and the large size, and the dei exhaust wrap paint. so the concensus is if you have the ssac header you can paint it then wrap it, correct. sounds like a plan.

^that's the plan that I'm going with. I'm just not excited to take the headers off again.

Question:

I got the VHT ceramic stuff to put on. I was checking out the DEI header wrap and noticed that you are supposed to put on the DEI silicone adhesive before you wrap. Will that silicone spray someone mess with/ruin the ceramic coating? Do I need that silicone spray? Or should I just do the VHT and straight wrap it?

I've never bothered with the silicone spray, so I can't say one way or the other about it. Lemme know how it goes if you decide to do it. Do the directions say to spray the wrap after you've wrapped the pipe? Spray the wrap before you wrap the pipe? Or spray the pipe before you wrap? Either way, I wouldn't imagine it would mess with the paint you've already applied.

one thing to look out for....

if this is a DD, & you dirve it in the winter, & they salt in your area...DO NOT WRAP UR HEADER!!!

i did it on my old header...& about 1.5 years later, took it off to clean the bay a bit,,,& removed some of the wrap & i had a few rust HOLES....i talked to a speed shop guy i know well, & he said ,,,from them salt the streets to melt the snow, all the watter that got on them, the water evaporates, but the salt stays.....

salt + metal = not good & it rusts FAST

From what I understood from the guy (remember this is an advance auto guy, so no mechanic), he said to spray it on, wrap it, and then use those stainless steel ties. I think I might try it, but I probably won't be able to do the coating or wrapping anytime soon.

There should be directions on the silicone spray bottle.