Thermal Wrap...

[JZA70 R]

Definately in two minds about using this stuff now, since i take pride in how my engine bay looks too. I guess i have to be able to justify the questionable visual appearance with the questionable performance gains : /

[The Real Roadrunner]

When I bought my HPC coated dump pipe from Aussie exhast, they said if I wraped it aswell, it would void all warranies

if its hpc coated then it wont affect the metal at all and the coating wont suffer from wrapping either unless the coating is inferior.

ive had lots of stuff coated and wrapped and none of its failed but it would depend on the material and the coater.

cheers
linden

[lexsmaz]

Just saw this thread & i need some feed back please ... Besides the looking like arse senareo, which works better to stop the radiating heat out from the exhaust pipes, thermal wrap or ceramic coating ? Is there a percentage drop or temp drop listing for them both.. I need to do something to stop everything under the bonnet of my celica from cooking !!
Thanks in advance .. Rob ..

[thepeter]

i've had many long stints wrapping using high-temp wrap, race cars, my own, the list goes on... And as said, get a decent brand. You'll avoid so many headaches just that way. Personally I recomend DEI (you can get it from revolution @ around $150) Also, get CV joint clips instead of buying the expensive ones, same thing, hold better for longer in my experience and less $$ at the expense of a minute more of effort.

I'd only wrap mild steel/stovepipe manifolds as well, as stainless gets cracked all too easy under the wrap at high temps, as it requires to 'breathe' for the lack of a better term.

I'd stick to exhaust only, and buy some heat tape, or shielding, and cover the underside of the piping only, as a heat deflector. The tape works well, albeit it's ugliness.

also, be prepared to itch for a couple of days post application...

[IN 05 NT]

here is my 6BOOST manifold,

this mani was from kyles 9' second 1g panelvan, this is how he built and used it...i got it 2nd hand from him....

came wrapped from him,

ive also wrapped my dump pipe, and screamer pipe.... my opion if its wrapped well it looks fine....

[Negative Boost]

What brand of heat wrap was that?

Cheers
Sam

The answer to that was Therma-Tec and to quote Linden "its good s**t"

This is the website i think http://www.thermotec.com/

Sam

[JZA70 R]

I ended up buying 30 meters of 2 inch wide charcoal coloured thermal wrap from ebay... it was sent to my door in 48 hours with 20 stainless steel ties for about $100. too cheap to pass up. And i cant justify buying an expensive brand when the majority of the hardware ill be wrapping is intake pipes and hence wont get hot enough to make me regret going el cheapo.



Below is the ebay link...
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI...._promot_widget


i probably would have bought the thermotec brand even with a $40 premium if they had it available in charcoal.

Also ive heard that any of the coloured wraps (which are dyed) tend to fade sooner rather than later, back to the original pale colour. but like i said ill be wrapping intake pipes mainly so hopefully that doesnt happen.

[M.J.H]

A bit of an off topic question but here goes anyway.

Does anyone think if the exhaust manifold was heatwraped would this lower emissions as the extra heat would help burn everything or would it make no difference?

[oldcorollas]

The answer to that was Therma-Tec and to quote Linden "its good s**t"

This is the website i think http://www.thermotec.com/

Sam

silica based wrap withstanding 2000F (1093C), i call bullshit

some silica starts softening around 600 or so.. quartz (high purity silica..ish) can be used up to about 1000 or 1100, but it is not so flexible..

i am happy to test any samples ppl want to post to japan i have furnace up to about 1300C

if any wrap is dyed, the dye will burn off.

at least the seller of the ebay stuff is not making silly claims... 550 is about limit for cheap silica tape..

if you have a cat convertor, it might help a bit by keeping exhaust hotter during intial startup, allowing cat to warm up quicker... but we are not talking by large amounts.

the amount of heat going through the exhaust pipe is much smaller than the amount of heat going out the exhaust pipe... (or is that not true.. hmm.. )

[JZA70 R]

UPDATE.

I ended up purchasing a large, thick roll of charcoal coloured thermal wrap from ebay, and wrapped what you can see in the pics below in an effort to reduce my intake and intercooler heatsoaking problems.

The ebay wrap i received looks legit and no different from any other heat wrap ive seen. There was no reason to believe it was any inferior to the next thermal wrap/tape product out there.










Now for the exciting bit....

Noticable performance increase's at any given time or temperature (engine or atmospheric)...

NONE.

LOL

the engine and the pipes in the engine bay all still get hot and heatsoaked after time and i haven't noticied any improvements at all, allthough those pipes take A LOT longer to cool down even with the bonnet up!

Ive put this down to thermal transfer. Almost every metallic part in the engine bay interconnets to something else and simply transfers heat through to it regardless of what its wrapped in.

So it goes something like this... Head gets hot, passes some heat through to turbos, passes A LOT of heat through to intake manifold > turbos pass A LOT of heat through to the connected intake and intercooler pipes > entire engine now heatsoaked.

Verdict on thermal wrap: Leave it for parts that actually radiate live heat eg exhausts and manifolds ect. Dont expect any positive gains from wrapping parts that receive their heat source via thermal transfer. (intake pipes ect ect)

Only thing to note was i didnt actually do any tests with temperature sensors or thermocouples like i wanted to. On the first few drives as soon as i felt the car was losing power and response due to heatsoak just like it usually does, i realised it was pretty much mission failed.

The last thing i want to do here is put off anyone else from trying similar experiments as anyone may experience totally different results with this product.

Thermal wrap has heaps of different uses and is a great product.

[30psi 4agte]

FWIW..my dump and screamer pipe are both HPC and wrapped with no probs or down sides to looks.

[RObErT_RaTh]

Sorry for the thread resurrection but this has been a very good read and given me a bit to think about.

I think I'm still going to go ahead and get some cheapish heat wrap and use it on my 6-2-1 headers only. Only a 5ME so it's NA so hopefully the temps aren't too much and regular quality wrap will be fine and not melt.

Basically with the headers where they are it heats up my factory plastic intake piping (had burnt a hole in it when I bought the car, got it replaced) and also heats up hoses that are nearby which are now rock hard and ready to crack. I hope to lower surrounding temperatures in this area and improve the life of the other components that are close to the headers. Also with the headers to close to the intake piping it would be nice to see / feel a small performance gain.

I'm also planning to mod either a second hand intake box or make one out of fibreglass and run a cold air intake so we'll see how we go.

EDIT: On second thoughts after inspecting the headers (some very close and would be difficult to fit the wrap between) and thinking about time / effort to install I think I'm just gonna get some waffle mat instead which should still be able to do what I'm after and atleast protect surrounding components from direct heat. Plus my headers of unknown quality will be less likely to overheat and crack

[forey]

my engine bay gets that hot that it cooks the clutch fluid ( most likly because the gate doesnt have a pipe on it lol ) and i can bearly engage it at times, so during my holidays ill get the dump off that and wrap/coat it.

How possible is it to wrap the manifold with it on the car still? aside from being awkward?

thanks

[Mos]

How possible is it to wrap the manifold with it on the car still? aside from being awkward?

How long is a piece of string? Aside from twice half its length?
It will range from impossible, through possible, to easy. Only you (and maybe a select few others) will know enough about your car to make that call.

Mos.

PS. I would still sheild (and ceramic coat) instead of wrapping.

[godlovesugly]

it is possible, i did it about a month ago. just dont do it on a hot day cause the fibres go everywhere and if you are sweaty they stick to you and get real itchy.

i had a problem where the water hose going to the air con was too close to the exhaust and one day the hose melted and sent coolant everywhere. i already had the wrap sitting at my place because one of my customers who imports textiles gave it to me to try out so i gave it a go and havent had any problems with the water hose since.

there has been NO increase in performance but i never thought there would be. personally i dont mind the look or a wrapped exhaust, its better than a rusty one.


edit: mine was easy because its a 3t in a KE20 engine bay with plenty of room to work with. if you have one of those new fangle cars with all the shit hanging off the engine than it might be a pain in the butt, a big one