Header and Overpipe...
 

Should they be Ceramic Coated and/or Wrapped????
Discuss please..:)

Bill

If you're min/maxing, why wouldn't you? Probably not as critical as on a turbo car.

wrapped would be all you need. you could do both if you are really worried about it.

I think Ceramic/Wrapped would be good for the header to maximize efficiency and probably just Wrapped on the overpipe.. thats my 2 pesos..

I wrap the whole exhaust, from the engine to the tips. Why not?

A little excessive unless you have the extra money to throw at it. I'd most importantly want the headers coated or wrapped more than anything. You want that heat out of the engine bay. Like someone else said, furthest I'd go is probably the overpipe. Behind that, I don't think it matters too much unless someone can provide insight on why it would be valuable.

Whatever you decide, a before and after dyno would be nice. Or temp readings or something.

I've wrapped, coated, and coated/wrapped headers on past cars. I think obviously max heat proteciton is coat/wrap. I do think though on this car that EGTs probably won't be as high as a turbo car. With that in mind, it would be very nice if some of the header/exhaust vendors would have a coating option. If they did, that probably would be all I would do on the header/overpipe for this car. JMHO.

And I'm talking about real quality coating that makes a difference (like anything, there are good coatings and bad coatings out there). Something like swain inside and outside.

http://www.jet-hot.com/

Check out Jethott coated... People use that to keep temps cooler and tends to make the parts last longer.. If im not mistaken.

Prefer coating to wrapping, especially on stainless parts.

Since most of the systems for our cars are stainless, you probably won't see a lot of coating options. Besides the thermal advantage, coatings are usually used on cheaper mild steel headers so they last longer without rusting. Since the stainless headers don't rust like mild steel, coating is redundant for all but the most hard core applications.

Wrapping is death to mild steel headers, but fine on stainless. Not only does it keep heat out of the engine, it keeps the heat in the exhaust. Theoretically, that helps exhaust flow.

Agreed...

I've had a set of Watson SS headers on my ZR the were Jet Hot Coated back in early '96--not a single issue & I'm certain it's helped w/ some of the heat radiation. My .02...

Increases exhaust gas velocity, especially helpful in turbo vehicles

I'm going FI via SC, and feel just fine with a uncoated header. One of my big reasons for SC is you dont have the same heat concerns you do witha turbo. I could see where om a turbo application, coating can be more important depending on placement etc

Exhaust velocity and scavenging are affected by heat retention of the headers. Coating or wrapping will help improve this affect. Factory headers come with heat shields to protect surrounding components. This is the other purpose for coating or wrapping headers. The only draw back to wrapping is it may trap moisture as the headers cool and condense. Lower quality stainless components/welds/flanges/bolts are subject to oxidation and rust given enough moisture, time, and the right temps.

Wow, actually learned quite a bit from this thread. Thanks guys!

Bump. I'm gonna be NA, but get headers in the future. I would probably heat wrap those, but for now I have a Perrin overpipe. How important is it that I heat wrap that? Am I wasting my time? Anyone have any experience with having a pipe like that get too hot? Thanks!

I would just ceramic coat the header. Jet Hot is very popular in the LS1 community for keeping temps down and rust prevention. I have a pair of Hooker Longtubes (uncoated) and I see the rust buildup around the flanges. Granted the headers are about 8 years old, they'd still probably look new today had they have been coated from the start.

I plan on getting a Nameless header (or Revworks if I go UEL) ceramic coated for sure. It's the proper way to do it to make the part last the absolute longest and most importantly, it does affect the temperatures.