I was looking at putting on some exhaust wrap to contain some of the heat from my v8 - has anyone used it with good or bad results?

Thanks
Matt

I have used them on three cars. They do a great job of containing heat. They do have a major drawback though. They will cause your exhaust parts to fail sooner depending on what you wrap.

In my expericence--
Mild Steel: Expect it to crack and break in 1 year
Cast Iron: I had cast iron exhaust manifold crack into 10 peices after 2 years. On a different car, it has been 2 years so far with no cracks. It depends on how well made the cast iron is.
Stainless Steel: It has been 2 years now and no sign of cracking on my stainless steel exhaust.

The less your exhaust system moves, the longer it will last with exhaust wraps. Poly or solid engine/transmission mounts help a lot. Any missing exhaust hangers will spell more stress on the rest of your exhaust.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the exhaust wrap keeps moisture on the pipes that it wraps. This will cause it to rust more if you don't drive your car daily.

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85 Fiero GT with 1.6 rocker arms, aluminum flywheel, Sprint Headers, Thermotech Black Silk Exhaust coating, WCF clutch, SS brake lines, Rear anti-sway bar, KYB shocks, K&N air filter, removed water seperator.
Removed: complete A/C system, Cruise control, coil/alternator fan
92 Dodge Stealth RT TT with too many mods to list

I havn't used it personally, but it does work. It also will shorten the lifespan of whatever you wrap. It tends to trap moisture and your system will rust. A better choice would be a ceramic coating. You might also get some benefit from powder coating or paint.

The V8 car I've got had wrapped headers when I obtained it. It had been essentially stored for years. The headers were totally trashed due to the wrapping (rust, etc) and had to be replaced. I did NOT wrap the replacements I put back in.

There is another alternative that not only cuts way down on the heat, it prevents corrosion. Ceramic coat your exhaust, I had my manifolds and y-pipe too done in aluminum (looks like chrome) locally for about $250. Was amazed at how much engine compartment heat was reduced. You can hold your hand within an inch of the manifolds when the engine is at operating temps.

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88 Formula, T-Tops,auto, 3.2 V6, balanced, 9.5 comp ratio, roller chain, roller tip rockers, h260 cam, Darrell Morse throttle body, 19lb injectors, Spintech muffler, K&N , White 16" GTZ wheels

I wrapped the custom Y-pipe I had made for my 3.4 TDC swap. If I were to do it again I would not wrap it. The wrap soaks up any water that falls on it, and for a daily driver its not good. If I drive the car with in a couple days of any kind of rain I get large clouds of steam coming out of the decklid for about 20 minutes. Everytime I jump out to make sure there is no fire. I would bite the bullet and get it ceramic coated.

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Chris

3.4 TDC SWAP COMPLETED...this is going to be a fun car

I have the exhaust wrap on my SBC, but by headers are stainless. Does it work? Sure you can touch the wrap while it is running without getting burned.

I have the front manifold and crossover wrapped on my GTP and it has help drop the under hood tempature and has been on there over a year with no problems.

What help alot is if you seal the wrap with some high temp spray sealer. I sprayed the mani first, wrapped it and then sprayed it again. I was told by quite a few that the spray sealer, which look like high temp spray paint, wouldn't stay on the exhaust. But over a year later it still on, even on places that weren't wrapped.

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Currently driving a 99 Pontiac GTP, Looking to buy a Fiero GT in the St Louis area.

Been there , done that , header wrap will ruin your headers, try Jet-Hot ceramic coating --in and out of pipes, also with a V-8 back there, look into a scoop, custom fans, and remove bottoms of the engine vents, every little bit helps. Good Luck .............

I would watch out on Jet-Hot quality. They are redoing my headers right now.
They had many runs and dirt (sandblasting media) in the coating. I was quite shocked after looking at their literature and video they did such a poor job. And FedEx dented them on the trip back to Jet-Hot.

I had my DIY headers ceramic coated and I heat wrapped them. And now 2 years later, I had to reweld them. I think it has more to do with the moisture thing than the heat. I now have a rain trught (or however you spell it) to keep water from dripping down between the deck lid and the back window onto my header. No more clouds of steam when I start it after it rained. Whereas the rear header (the dryer one) fared much better than the window one, I really think it was the rain on it. Another thing, the one that got wet all the time had even lost most of the ceramic coating! I guess the cold rain water on the hot header must have done it in. And yes it does help with the heat. To insure a cooler engine compartment (I have a turbo) I also have a scoop on the lid with a fan. Even with the turbo, the combination of fan, scoop and wrap, keep it cooler than when it was all stock.

I've used it for years on a variety of cars and never had a problem, but i do use a sealer and then spray on high temp paint. For the last one (on a Suzuki) I also used a high temp blanket, I would say use that if you're worried about moisture, it's sealed on both sides so there is no way it's going to trap rain.

iain
Scotland, where it RAINS!