zoltan944

So I know about advantages of heat wrap and I know there is something about keeping heat in the pipe and quickening the exhaust out and such.

So if I wrapped my Xpipe with heat wrap and my headers were not wrapped (for now) would there be a 'negative' type effect?

On that note think its possible to wrap your header from under the car?

RKD in OKC

I personally think heat wrap is asking for an oil fire if you have any kind of oil leak.

The only advantage of keeping the heat in the exhaust on our cars is lowering the temperatures under the hood. On a turbo car insulating the exhaust from the head to the turbo makes more power as the loss of heat is a loss of pressure to drive the turbo. Or so they say. And even then, once the headers, etc themselves are heat soaked there is not much difference. Without a turbo to drive there is no real performance gain to keeping the exhaust pressure up as it flows away from the engine, especially if your exhaust is already pretty free flowing ie., x-pipe and headers provide the correct back pressure. Think about it, the headers and piping itself is still going to get hot.

So, if you want to keep the heat down under hood, go with a coating like Jet Hot or Swain. Then you don't have the worries of the wrap itself collecting any leaking fluids.

Mrmerlin

I have seen rusted through pipes from the heat wrap once it gets wet then the liquid will work its majick on the metal. As suggested a good metal coating will do more to reduce heat ,
I have one of the jet hot coated X`s and it still looks brand new, had it on for about 4 years now

123quattro

+1. I get stuff ceramic coated instead. Looks nicer, works better, and is much more durable.

Richter12x2

They also make a silicone sealant for heatwrap that will help keep water out, but yes, I had a friend with a turbo car, and when he took the heatwrap off his downpipe, it was so rusted that pieces of pipe were stuck to the tape.