Exhaust Insulating Wrap

[Jason of RI]

I was thinking about wrapping my exhaust with insulating wrap? Does it really increases horsepower and fuel efficiency? Also, I am personal tried on my heat shields (noisey and are very blue in color).

Also, when you wrap the pipes does the insulating wrap need to be wet? And any tips on getting a tight wrap would helpful too.

Thanks for the help and comments on this one.

Jason B of RI

[litnin]

Originally Posted by Jason of RI

I was thinking about wrapping my exhaust with insulating wrap? Does it really increases horsepower and fuel efficiency? Also, I am personal tried on my heat shields (noisey and are very blue in color).

Also, when you wrap the pipes does the insulating wrap need to be wet? And any tips on getting a tight wrap would helpful too.

Thanks for the help and comments on this one.

Jason B of RI

I would recommend against the exhaust wrap.

#1. Yes it does help increase horsepower.
Enough for you to notice with no other modifications? Absolutely not.
It holds in heat and causes the exhaust to maintain speed as it exits the pipes... it helps in the scavenging of the cylinders and the only place it's
noticeable is at high rpm WOT throttle.

#2. No, the wrap does not need to be wet. It's treated with a flame
retardant chemical and wetting it will wash the retardant out of it AND
it will also hold moisture against your pipes...

#3. Because it retains heat IN the pipes and doesn't allow it to radiate
out of the pipes, as the pipes were designed, it WILL cause premature
pipe failure due to heat fatigue.

#4. The stuff doesn't stay on worth a crap.
The pipes expand and contract, which causes the wrap to loosen and stretch.
After a while, it will loosen up and un-wrap. You constantly have to re-wrap.

I have yet to see any fastening method that will hold that stuff on
for very long.
We used to use the stuff on the headers of the race car and it was so
time consuming and 'repair' labor intensive, we went to d'zeused heat shields.
We've tried hose clamps, mechanics wire... any way you can imagine
to fasten the stuff down, we've tried it...

The stuff is actually pretty expensive too. About $40-$50 a box ($1/ft.).
If you want to get rid of the discoloring and get the same effects as
the heat wrap, I would suggest looking in to getting them "JET HOT" coated. It's a ceramic coating that doesn't harm the pipes, like header wrap,
it can be applied to look like chrome, and still has the exhaust flow characteristics (if not better) than the wrap, and actually can
exhaust the life of the pipes over uncoated.

The "Sterling" is the 'chrome' look coating.

There's a couple of places that do this type of work, but JET HOT is
one of the best.
We do our race car headers with them and they're great.
JET HOT ceramic coatings

[ShadowOSU]

My pipes are wrapped (pics coming once the paint is done).

On a motorcycle, it's usually more for "hot rod looks" than anything.

It doesn't have to be wet...we usually wrap pipes dry, but you can optionally wet it to help make less of a mess. On a bike, the heat and the open exposure will take care of an excess moisture pretty quick (you will, after all, get them wet in the rain at some point).

I chose to wrap mine partially because I personally love the look and partially because I modified my stock headers to make custom pipes and wrapping them was MUCH less expensive than chroming or ceramic coating given the extent that I modified the pipes.

[MrRngr94]

I always wet it when applying it. To me is seems to be more managable while wet. I have black wrap, but I also shot it with black 1500* paint. The paint kinda helps stiffen the fiberglass. Not sure if it's neccessary, but I have seen quite a few wrap kits that come with paint.