What do you folks think of thermal wrap for headers? It seems an obvios choice to me in hot climates such as Florida where I live in the summertime. What are the downsides? I have SS motad headers on the bike...
None that I've seen yet, I've been running it on my Two Bro's SS header for 10 years. the only issue for is when I change the oil filter, if you're not careful and spill oil on the wrap, it'l smoke for a week before it burns off. It's kinda embarrassing when you pull up to a light and the bike starts to smoke. I guess it's kind of like riding a Harley, for awhile anyway. Robert
I did it on my 5th gen mostly to protect from frying the Penske shock. (I have the stock headers) I hear that it will accelerate the material fatique of the carbon steel headers, but I will worry about that if/when it becomes an obvious issue. I may buy a set of Motads for reserve in the future, but its not at the top of the list. Even if I still had the Motads, I would consider doing it. The wrap I used was from ThermoTec and it wasnt that bad a job. You do have to seal the crap outta the wrap when your done with the super high temp (2000 degree F) paint and bake it in a oven if you have access to it. Even so, I didnt have one to fool with so did quite a few heat cycles - run for a few minutes, shut down, run a few more minutes, shut down... etc. It will smoke up like the dickens untill it set in real good, so it takes a little patience. -- Summit Racing has quite a bit of options on header wrap and there looks to be some newer technology available since I did mine. Here's a link ---- Search Results for header wrap - SummitRacing.com heres the coating stuff http://www.thermotec.com/hi-heat-coating.html another link http://www.thermotec.com/full-product-line.html Theoretically the hotter exhaust gasses are supposed to have better scavaging and faster flow to lead to more power. I cant say if this contributed to more juice on mine since I did the whole hog thing with a power commander and a BMC air filter at the same time. I can say that the 10500 rpm out of gas top end flat spot is gone. The bike was kinda going - "Oh, you want me to rev?" (You see that spot quite a lot in dyno graphs too.) Now, the bike just slams to redline on one linear rush now as compared to before. Here's a pic I had handy of the header around the shock --- Good luck, MD
