(blows dust off thread)
I have wrapped those on my daily driver
and on my rally car
no CEL's no issues
and the wrap keeps things cool....
Jamie
I wish I had a rally car.
I just wrapped the stock exhaust manifold on my fozz. I couldn't stand the rattly heat shields anymore, so I tore them completely off while the header was out of the car during my recent engine reseal. I decided to go with heat wrap and I found a great deal on it at
Fiberglass header wrap.
I followed the numerous instructions I found online, was a very easy and straight forward install. I cleaned the manifold of any loose rust, sanded and wiped down followed by two coats of Duplicolor high temp paint (to 1600F). After it dried (to fully cure it has to be heated from running the engine for so long), I made the wrap wet in a bucket of water and started wrapping starting from the engine side working to the CAT side. I overlapped about a half inch each wrap all the way to the flange at the CAT. I initially secured the beginning by wrapping over itself and when I was finished wrapping, put a clamp over to hold it permanently.
After it was all wrapped I let it dry in the sun for a day and then sealed it with about 3 coats of the duplicolor high temp paint. I let this dry for the next several days until I got the motor put back in to the car.
To cure the high temp paint and the wrap, I first idled the car for about ten minutes and then let it cool. After I felt confident that the motor was running properly (no issues, woohoo!) I took the car into town and back, about 6 miles 1 way at 60-65 mph, to get it good and hot. When it got fully hot the first time, at one of the lights in town, and I was sitting still, it was smoking like crazy. I thoght something was on fire at first, so I pulled over and checked with my fire extinguisher at the ready (always prepared:biggrin

. Everything was fine though and the smoke and stink was mostly gone within a day. 2 weeks later, there is no remaining smell and I can touch the hot pipe with a bare hand and not get burned (as long as I don't let it there). And it looks awesome in my opinion. The only real problem I can see is having an oil leak get on the wrap and laying there instead of burning off the pipe right away. I'll just have to keep an eye on the underside of the motor and take care of any leaks pronto instead of letting them go for a while:biggrin:. As far as causing rust issues, only time will tell. If the pipe does go, I'll have a good excuse to find a stainless UEL header, sounds like a win-win to me:Banane17:
I'll post pictures tonight if I can figure out the photobucket process.