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??Header Wrap??

M

MrAnderson

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Arroyo Grande, Ca
so i got me some new headers for my 2000 and these(year) have issues with engine bay heat. ive installed Lebarons and also wrapped my fuel rail to avoid a vapor lock shut down and now it rarely happens but it still will, last time it just shut off while towing a whimpy little trailer. im wrapping them with the intention of keeping my bay heat down and i ceramic coated them to prevent the wrap from making the headers rust(and helps with heat) and have them all wrapped up n pretty


annnd here it comes !!BUT!! ive been looking around and cant seem to pinpoint testimonial on wether this is a bad idea or not. hell it says right in the instruction booklet not to :( now im starting to feel like i should take it all off and just eat the $100ish i spent on wrap n ties. any input would be greatly appericated

thanks
 
Run it. Header wrap works great. If you crack a manifold, weld it back up.

The gold foil sold at summit works the best for reflecting heat away from intake manifolds, or firewalls.
 
yea that seems to be the general thought on the matter. everything i look at seems to split hairs though. some have had them wrapped for years, some say itll burn them out hella quick its like ugh. the whole reason i did it was to assit resolving a problem and it seems like i spent a hundo plus time just to make another one

and yes the instruction book says "DO NOT USE WRAPPING ON HEADERS" and goes on to state itll void the warranty
 
Header wrap worked great for me for about 3 months. Then it made the new header fail super quick and crack all over the place. Though it did reduce underhood temps for the first 3 months.
 
The discussions I have read seem to debate the differences between ceramic coating and wrapping the header. Would it be more advantageous to coat the headers inside and out instead of wrapping it? Some also thing that coating them traps more heat which causes them to crack sooner too. If I were to try to reduce heat in the engine bay from the exhaust system I would go the ceramic coating route.
 
i did three coats of vht which contains ceramic and baked them as per instructions. didnt do the inside though... but lemme guess thats worthless and will now lead to ruining the headers as well :skull1:
 
MrAnderson said:
but lemme guess thats worthless and will now lead to ruining the headers as well :skull1:
Click to expand...

Its your POS, do what you want. Why the hell did you ask for advice to begin with if your going to be an ass about it?
 
woah there turbo, im simply frustrated with wasting moneys. my snideness is NOT directed at you or anyone else for that matter. i asked a question, i received an answer that im not fond of... tough shit for me. wraps coming off and im slanging it to johnny walker who is gonna put it on his headers haha. was just asking if vht ceramic coating is worth anything or yet again another "think im helping but :buzzer: wrong again :(" situation.
 
The way i understand it, is any inconsistencies in overlap of the wrap will lead to hot spots/cracking. On muscle car headers that are wide open peices of tubing compared to an xj manifold, you can be much more precise with the wraps. Like how you wrapped over 2 primaries, that kinda stuff does weird things with heat. On a race car that see's 2k miles a year, you can make the reliability vs performance sacrifices... on a daily driven xj, not so much.
 
Either way, it is a low quality header, and it will crack.

I have yet to see a high quality stainless header for the 4 liter XJ.

The VHT spray paint will burn off, it always does.

If it were me, and my goal was to keep heat down in the engine bay, i would wrap whatever manifold i was using. I would have no issues wrapping a cheap aftermarket header. When it cracks, weld it back up.

If you want heat down, nothing will beat wrapping an exhaust manifold.
 
Mega Fattie said:
When it cracks, weld it back up.
Click to expand...
Good luck welding crap like this back up:
10808d1141570859-header-wrap-good-bad-header1.jpg
 
That has nothing to do with header wrap, and everything to do with buying a piece of crap manifold.

Cheap manifolds will fail either way. It has everything to do with the materials used. Header wrap just speeds up the process.

And anyone that can weld can easily repair that section of tubing with a few minutes of time.
 
now now gentlemen, i decided good or bad the benefit of reduced under the hood temps was severely out weighed by the "possible" damage it could cause. i dont want anything to happen to my new baby....
 
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