Tubular manifolds should I wrap them?

[plasticpig]

I have just had stainless steel tubular manifolds fitted to my P&J. Is it worth wrapping them? Googleing on the subject gets lots of sites flogging a certain wrap which obciously spouts the benefits of wrapping them.

[deltafox]

I wrapped mine to keep from burning the hell out of everything else in the engine bay..... helps to keep radiated heat off of other parts and in the pipe where it does most good. It may cause the pipes to crack though later on.....

[ylee coyote]

you need to do this on a turbo car to keep the gas pressure up on the turbo
on a n/a car it will only keep the underbonnet temps down...

[FrenchTVR]

I've heard of people having trouble with corrosion and rust due to moisture being trapped in in the wrapping.
Hard to believe and probalby shouldn't be a problem on stainless steel.

[smhmotorsport]

never found wrapping exhaust pipes worked for long. even when coated with the paint afterwards. Why dont you look into camcoat - www.camcoat.u-net.com/ they have a variety of finishes and the stuff really works. keeps the heat in the pipe and cools down much quicker. used it on the MG lola turbo .

[steve_d]

The wrap can cause cracking so the best solution is the ceramic coating both inside and out. The inside is normally done in black but the outside can be a number of different colours with the silver looking the most like your original SS without it going brown and blue.

Steve

[leorest]

Unless the stainless is of particularly low grade, corrosion shouldn't be a problem. If it was mild steel tubular manifolds then I'd order replacements at the time of wrapping as they wont last long!

Stainless has a bad name for cracking and the extra temperature contained by the insulation wrap can only make this worse! I've never had stainless manifolds so don’t speak from experience just wot I heard on here!

BTW stainless conducts heat considerably less than mild steel so they should insulate slightly better though obviously not as well as wrapping and or coating.

The ceramic coating sounds good but at what cost? Also if the stainless manifold cracked you could get this welded up but once ceramic coated I imagine it's not weldable.

I guess the best solution is mild steel ceramic coated inside and out.

Just out of interest how ridiculous is the price for ceramic coating? Does anyone know?

[taz turbo]

lorest said:

Just out of interest how ridiculous is the price for ceramic coating? Does anyone know?

I had all my exhaust system ceramic coated with the exception of the turbocharger housing and back box all inside and out, its a strange system but front V6 engine turbocharged and all pipe work to rear of car.

All coated in satin black as it has the highest heat rating, it worked out at 800 pounds but did a 'bit' of a deal with the place I used for 400 of the old folding stuff.

I did think they gave me the wrong exhaust back, the 24 year old system I took in came back looking as new.

Regards,

Chris.

PS It really does keep the heat in, I used to suffer with terrible heat problems in the car, not now, its freezing!!! Now I use the heater when 'I' want. Money well spent IMO.

[CanAm Dave]

I had my manifolds for my Ultima coated by camcoat a couple of months ago. They had an internal coating of black and external coating of Cermakrome. They did a great job and offer a friendly efficient service. Normally a two week turn around. Cost was £285 for the pair. The manifolds are stainless.



Regards Dave
www.v8yes.co.uk

Edited by CanAm Dave on Saturday 19th August 14:32

[Trooper2]

I had a Calmini header on my old Trooper and it had "Jet Hot" ceramic coating, inside and out. The coating was very tough and a few minutes after you shut the engine down you could touch the header, it cooled so quickly.

[Dico]

Camcoat did my downpipe in satin black both inside and out for a very reasonable £60 (shortish pipe).
3 week turn around for me.

Edited by Dico on Sunday 20th August 10:31

[plasticpig]

Thanks for the responses. I think I will leave it for now and see how it goes.