I know the benefits of thermal wrapped headers, but in changing my oil for the first time and changing the radiator as well in Brent's former car, I ran it issues..

What is the horsepower loss in a set of equal vs unequal headers with same mods you've experienced?

Seems that wrapping headers turns it into brittle metal by the sounds of it...sounded like corn flakes when I touched and not sure about longevity and exhaust leaks being a future problem. This was evident when changing the oil filter out as there is not much room with equal length headers. Got a better/smaller oil filter remover for future, but still and issue..

Changing out the radiator for a Mishimoto one too posed a problem when I read about wrapped headers and coolant dont bode well.. Something about someone's car catching fire after a drive as coolant is flamable. I kept a gallon of water and water bottle after I did my rad change just in case and soaked my headers in water right after the change too..

Im thinking of going to unequal coated headers as I miss the boxer sound but not not sure if this is the best route with a FP Red.....

 

ThermoTech DEI Titanium wrap is what you want. The popcorn feeling is the regular wrap drying out from the heat. This titanium stuff is made from extruded lava rock, and is non flammable, and in my experience oil drips right off of it. Much easier to work with also.

 

I saw a write up on a few forums using Mishimoto Heat Wrap. Looked pretty nice IMO, too. The guy who did the write up also logged in temps from an Infrared Thermometer when using his stock manifold/an "upgraded" 4-1 manifold/then the non-stock manifold wrapped.

I think I remember seeing that the temps jumped up at least 400 degrees when the Mishimoto heat wrap was installed.

I can dig up the link if you guys are interested.

 

Negative. Coolant is mostly water. Water is not flammable. Oil on the other hand.....

 

I think he meant that coolant will burn off, not necessarily flammable. But still, a little coolant/oil on heat wrap will not cause ill effects. I have even seen people dunk the wrap in water prior to installing on the manifold to allow it to stretch more. Once dry, the wrap is assumed to be "tighter" this way.

 

I read a thread where someone's headers were on fire due to the wrap soaked with coolant..

Here is the thread, and it was a local i-clubber:
https://www.i-club.com/forums/showth...t=coolant+fire

 

I've run wrap on several cars, and the one that got messed up the most was non-daily driver. I have a few theories as to this. The wrap causes oxidation without a doubt, but the effects are not that bad if you get the header hot every day. The wrap basically absorbs moisture, and that gets burned off twice daily if you go to work with it. When I pulled the header off of a turbo Honda that was sitting for a summer, the metal was basically jacked up (a technical term used in prison). It looked really really bad. It was the wrap, but it was more so the intended usage and conditions.

But if you let the car sit, the wrap will absorb the moisture in the morning and the effect is like having a wet towel on metal. It will eventually rust no matter what grade of stainless it is.

As for the burning stuff, I'm sure it can happen, but I've never had any experience with it.

Also, the whole equal versus unequal is not that plain and simple. It depends on the design, the runner length, where the merge is etc... The effect will be amplified with different turbos as well. If that's the APS header, it's one of the better designs because it's basically a twin scroll header that merges at the last minute. It's close in design to the Full-Race without the large primaries and awesome build quality. But it's a very cool design, and I don't know why we haven't seen a Chinese rip off of that header. All the other header rip offs are of the Perrin type. I have no idea why. There's an EXTENSIVE header comparo on IWSTI and Nasioc (it's kind of old). On a stockish 2.5l, most of the equal lengths did better on midrange spool and produced more hp than stock. So comparably with a larger turbo, I'd think the effect would be greater.

 

Be a baller and send your headers off to Swaintech for a good coating.



All the cool kids are doing it.

 

Good, but still isn't as good as proper heat wrap.

 

Leaving in an island where humidity is 85%, always raining all year and dusty roard.
I went Swaintech for several reason:

- Look Cleaner
- Perform well
- I can still enjoy my manifold
- maintenance free
- Doesn't keep moisture
- Not scared taking fire

Swaintech Rock!

 

I would coat it as well if I went the aftermarket route. Though i will probably never go aftermarket headers unless a boat load of money came my way and I had a newer Subaru.

Just not as baller as some of you guys

 

All the cool kids that just came back from Iraq with all those Greenbacks!!!

 

Lol! My header's are titanium wrapped because the old wrap did popcorn and got oil SOAKED from an oil filter leak.

 

agreed. my up and down pipes are swaintech coated and that stuff is awesome.

 

Probably look for anyone selling a coated Gruppe-S header. Had it and it performed well. Swain is Baller status, but my car is dd and not really show status.