To Wrap or Not to Wrap.. that is the question (1 Viewer)

[bigsal]

Header hot spots

Installing headers on my f motored FJ55.... I have steel oil lines coming. Should I wrap the headers near the alternator and the front brake line? I was able to move/bend, turn the brake line bracket so it is not so close any more. (Steel brake lines are possibly in the future.. but not now). Wrap the whole banana? It seems that wrapping hot spot areas would cause uneven heating problems with the headers.

 

[cjgoode]

I would wrap the hole thing, getting more of that heat out from under the hood and especially under the carb will be a good thing.

 

[Trapper50cal]

From what I understand (and I wrapped the header on my 55 back in the day) is that it's good for heat control and performance but it substantially lessens the life of the header...so...what's more important? The gains from the wrap or the fact that you will have to replace it sooner. I have heard that a full ceramic coat will achieve the same result but won't lower the header's life expectancy.

 

[bigsal]

Yeah... I figure I'll only get so much life out of an original equip '72 F motor and the headers are an old set of used ones. I am more interested in keeping underhood temps low, getting a couple more years out of it and hoping for a 2F swap in the future. I'd probabaly get a much nicer set of headers at that stage anyway, rather than do a ceramic coating now on some old used ones. Thinking of just using a few heat shields in a few key places.



Anyone have heat issues under the hood with thier headers?

 

[Pinion]

Wrapping is a great way to mummify the remains of what once was a good header.

I think its always a bad idea for something that is exposed to the elements like these trucks.

 

[FJ40WY]

If you are going to run your cruiser in deep water and in mud i would avoid the wrap like the plague. (I like pinion's mummy reference) I do use header wrap on my Harley. It works wonders for keeping the heat off my legs and the hotter your exhaust gasses are the faster they travel.

 

[Sonny 1]

Every time i have used the wrap it has ruined my headers . I got less than a year out of my new headers. It just held in to much heat and rotted out the tubes that i wraped, where the ones that i didnt wrap still look good . this is in a gmc van with a pretty much stock 350 chevy, just my two cents i learned my lesson with the wrap.

 

[Kroll]

I wrapped my Downey header back in Sept. 2007.
Now fast forward to Dec. 2010 and I had some big holes in my header.
I had it repaired and coated with special "cast blast" as a quick fix until summer.

So if you want to do the job again, then yeah you should wrap it.