How much work is it to wrap headers?
How do you finish?
Start?
Any cautions?
I hear I need to "seal" them, with what?
why?

 

Pet Peeve - HEADER....as in One(1) not multiple. The honda guys that say "headers" really irritate me.

 

You are correct it is one piece...so I guess I should have said header or header pipes. Sorry for the peeve.

 

no problem....now heres your answer You can use a sealant so that the water from the road and such doesnt allow moisture between the wrap and the header. Wrapping them should take about 30 minutes or so. You want to be sure to use gloves...the stuff they're made of isnt healthy to be touching all that much. Make sure you use good clamps or whatever is supplied in the kit to secure it so it doesnt unravel. The technique is hard to explain but easy to show....have Mikey Poo at GruppeS show ya.

 

I got headers, their above every doorway in my house!

 

Just a quickie - If you're running the stock WRX header pipes wrapping them will probably not result in much gain since the cast metal retains heat pretty well out of the box.

(You're probably not running stock header pipes, but this will also put this info into the search logs)

 

stock would be considered a cast exhaust manifold....a header is an aftermarket piece made from round tubing usually constructed of stainless steel.

 

just have your header thermal jet coated. Its much better then any wrap.

 

Good advice. Wrap promotes rapid degradation (read that as RUST) of the headers. You're literally better off just installing them bare than wrapped.

On the other hand, good coating will last for years.

 

Check out Swaintech. I read about their coatings in GRM and they sound hot! Er.. Cool. Whatever.

I peeled the wrap off my 3S-GTE downpipe and found out why I won't ever be wrapping anything like that again.

Also - SpeedMerchant in San Jose said they would ceramic coat my TRD longtube header for my old Celica for around $150. For that, I can't see a reason to wrap them.

 

All,

I am wrapping them, yes they are aftermarket, because since installing them my underhood temperatures have gone through the roof. Running the stock manifold I was running typical underhood temps about 90-110 degrees F.

After installing the headers I very often run temps of 140+ degrees in traffic and it isn't even summertime yet. I expect those numbers to continue to increase until I do something. I hope wrap will reduce the temps considerably.