Heat wrapping manifolds

[Carl H]

so the rb car broke an exhaust mani stud on number 6, which means the whole manifold must be removed in order to fix it.I have a set of arp studs that i managed to source by contacting arp directly (there is no PN, they were remnants of an overrun).however i was thinking about heatwrapping the exhaust manifold while it was off, it would be terribly convienent to do so and very accessable...so why not...the manifold flange is already warped (from who knows when) so I plan on having it planned (sp) before it goes back on.any pros or cons?i'd like constructive input from anyone that has wrapped a manifold before and would prefer quantitative info vs purely qualitative.

[Coolwhip]

I know you won't skimp out but for others to reference... spend the extra money on quality and durable wrap. Having that crap fall apart after the first time working on your car defeats the whole purpose of all the effort.

Plan ahead and twist the metal ties that keep the wrap in place, in areas where your hands are less likely to interact when you go back to work on it. I ended up working on an engine that had the tied to the outside and once you stick your hand down the side to loosen up the bottom nuts, you're hand is hamburger meat.

[gawdzilla]

i prefer leaving the wraps to downpipes and coating manifolds/turbine housings. the fiberglass wrap kind of disintegrates over time and not to mention is uglier/itchy to put on. plus it will make getting to bolts just that much more annoying when you're nicking your hands/wrap all up trying to tighten the nuts down. The wrap frays over time, and if you put it near the bolt holes you'll probably mess it up accessing the area with tools. Theres also other issues, like getting oil on the wrap (fire). i went with the DIY ceramic coating and that stuff holds up. recommend it if you're trying to go the slight extra step beyond wrapping in terms of application effort. It does help, but i've never taken temp readings of a manifold with wrap vs. nothing vs. ceramic, etc.

i think all the wrap said and done will be around $50. DIY ceramic coating is around the same price including buying sand for sand blasting, some HF tools, etc. Maybe closer to $60-75. Then the best option is to get it jet-hotted but that will run you around $200 iirc.

[Largekid]

yea, getting it jet hot coated would be the best option for sure, but like he said, $200+. A trick for when you install the heat wrap is to get it wet while wrapping it. That lets it stretch a bit and gives you a more taut wrap. Also, if any moisture gets in between the wrap and the manifold, it will deteriorate very quickly...so hopefully you don't have an expensive manifold. personally, I'm going to DIY hot coat my manifold and my exhaust housing and wrap the DP in heat wrap.

[240z4u]

I shelled out the money for the top end jet hot coatings, and don't regret it. Big underhood temperature drop! It WAS expensive.. but worth it.

Evan

[jdmser]

+1 on having it coated instead. I wrapped my downpipe and o2 housing the last go round with quality wrap. Every time I worked on that side of the car after that I was itchy for days. I'd shop around for a coating place. I've seen shops doing exhaust manifolds for $75-160 for an inline 6. Jethot isn't the only game out there any more.

[Darius]

+2 for ceramic coating the manifold and turbo exhaust housing. Instead of shipping it to JetHot and waiting for them to get around to doing it and shipping it back, look for a local ceramic coating shop. You'll get just as good of a coating and save a ton of money on shipping.

[Carl H]

werd, keep it up guys...the manifold was jethot coated once then proceded to peel off after first start, i then sanded it down and sprayed it with high temp ceramic so it wouldnt look too bad.when the engine was rebuilt i had the manifold and wg ceramic coated again and it seems to be holding up but I was wondering if there was more to it than what i had already done.I plan on making a heatsheild for the manifold (hks cast low mount) as it has provisions for a heat sheild on the manifold but i have NEVER seen one for sale.Another thing i was thinking of was when i designed the heatsheild that I would integrate in provisions to mount some heat proof material like glass fiber or header wrap...im all ears for sudgestions...tired of burning my hands on the COLD pipe when i pop my hood...what sucks about the hks lowmount manifold is the intake tube has to run right next to the manifold as there is no other way to get fresh air into the bay.

[240z4u]

Carl, a heatshield with some sort of fiberous insulation material on the back of it is a really good idea.

Who did the coating that burnt off? I wonder if they used the wrong stuff. I know jethot will redo my coating once if I burn it off. It was super shiny.. I turned it dull gray with high EGT's fairly fast.

Darius, who is kind of local to us that can do ceramic coatings?

Evan

[krayton]

sounds like u guys are on the right track. another run of coating would be a good way to go. also do your exhaust housing too. they like to give a bunch of heat off too

id say heat coat both. custom heat shield. maybe even overkill it with a turbo exhaust wrap and wrap your dp

[Cjmartz2k]

I had a custom heat shield on my old HKS bottom mount manifold. My shop guy fabed it up and it looked pretty good. I could see it being easy to stuff some kind of insulation under a shield, but I'd be worried about it only being on the top and not on the bottom. That's a pretty big heat difference. I do plan on jet hot coating everything while my motor is apart when I go back to the states, but hearing about it peeling off doesn't encourage me.

[Darius]

Evan, I used a place called Cool Concepts in the Amana Colonies, IA. They're basically two guys who work out of a machine shed in their back yard. I have recently heard of them quoting one price and charging another higher price once the person arrived. Not sure what the reasoning for the increase was, but he said f__k off and went over to a place in Omaha (4 hours in the opposite direction) and had them do it for $200 cheaper. I was shocked. Not sure what the quality will be though.

All of my stuff was done at Cool Concepts and it is top top notch!

CarlH, have you looked into the turbo blankets that bluefire was selling? I think it was bluefire anyways?? Mine works VERY well. I can literally touch the outside of it after driving for 20+ miles. My exhaust housing is ceramic coated so that helps too.

[Bluefire]

Get the manifold coated... I have wrapped many a manifold and it sux everytime. It definitely helps keep heat down, but the time and effort to wrap it properly is really not worth it imo. The only part worth wrapping is the turbo elbow.

Also I hope your not using the stainless steel studs and nuts. This is a guaranteed headache if you ever try and remove the manifold down the line. The stud and nut will gall and sieze. Plus ARP gives you those stupid 12 point nuts which means you can't use an open end wrench and have to be able to fit a socket or closed end wrench onto the nut.

I ALWAYS replace RB exhaust manifold studs with new OEM ones if the motor is out of the car and the manifold is off. Even if you manage to remove the manifold without a stud breaking, I highly highly recommend yanking all the studs and replacing them.

[Carl H]

yeah, once again the manifold, wg bottom AND the turbine housing were ceramic coated while i had the engine apart...was about 150ish for it all...not a bad deal i thought.I proly wont wrap the manifold but rather build a beast nasty heat sheild, i figure with some kind of high temp material behind the sheild it should help with the radiant heat quite a bit.anything i can do to keep the intake pipe cooler than the exhaust manifold is good...intake pipe recieves ALOT of heat from the exh mani and its heating up the charge air quite noticably.

bluefire - the arp studs I got are the standard gear, black oxide coating stuff...should work out ok. the hks manifold is already a pain in the a** to install with normal nuts so i figure i'll proly end up buying a cheap box wrench and cutting it up to make an installer tool for the bolts. I had thought about replacing the studs while i had the manifold off of the engine and even had all of them out but money was a concern at the time so I decided to skip them and reuse the stock bolts.

[craz4240]

Build somwething out of reflective gold material...keeps the heat down REAL nice.

[Fibre guy]

I wrapped my manifold. Silicon spray can stop the fraying.IMO the most reliable thing would be a heat shield w/ 18 oz woven fiberglass attached with a metal screen.

The stock RB heat shield used chopped strand fiberglass with a clay binder in between two sheets of steel.

[Coolwhip]

yum...

http://www.hitco.com/HITCO%20M...t.htm

[krayton]

are you sure nothing else is heating your coldpipe?

maybe radiator? could also try insulating it (coldpipe)

[Carl H]

krayton - cold pipe is pretty out of the way when it comes to routing, it does come close to the radiator tho...but does not make contact and the radiator doesnt get that hot compared to the coldpipe.

here are some shots of what im working with and space constraints.







im starting to think that for best results im going to end up plumbing the intake out of the engine bay thru the fenderwell and installing fender liners to keep it clean.

[240z4u]

Pulling cold air out of the fenderwell helps quite a bit. However, I would recommend you keep that intake you have now for situations such as long road trips where you MAY encounter water or during winter. I had metal inner fenderwell made up but it still filled with snow during snowstorms.

I would definitely wrap that pipe that runs within a half inch of your manifold as well, certainly can't hurt.

Good luck dude.

Evan

[mello88]

hey carl, I forget but are you running a blow through MAF setup?

I've almost got my 20/s13 back on the road, but idling in the garage the maf is super sensitive to wind/air blowing around in the garage. I have an apexi filter with the maf right behind it, similar setup as your inlet pipe. Pretty good sized 7x7" hole in the fender tray and the filter is directly above it.

Anyone tried the TurboX diy ceramic coating? I have a small cant of it but haven't had a chance to test it out.

Carl looking forward to seeing your heatshield design. I have one templated out for my HKS mani but haven't got around to cutting/welding it. Nice mount points on the mani for sure!

[maryjane]

witch from the foam to the cotton filter plz! ive sucked one of thoes thru before, not a pretty site

[maryjane]

witch from the foam to the cotton filter plz! ive sucked one of thoes thru before, not a pretty site

i wrapped my entire mani, and again change the cotton filter!

lol common grab a knn

[rb25drag]

I also heat wrapped my manifold, But I had a guy explain it to me. He said The heat wrap works as most of you know. But were is the heat going? Actually all the wrap is doing is acting like a blanket and causes the manifold to get so hot that over time it will actually become Brittle and start cracking. So I took my heat wrap off and just used a Spray on ceramic paint.

Carl a heat shield is Idea, If you can find some thin aluminum you should be able to bend it in any forum you need to make a nice shield.

[Carl H]

I have a friend who's cousin owns a local steel mill so im going to try and get a sheet of SS 304 and cut a template out of posterboard and make a sheild that way.

[mattblancarte]

Add this to your heat shield:

http://enjukuracing.com/gold-r....html

[mott6904]

hey dude if you make a heat shield and it turns out nice i would like one made also. Im in the process of coating my exhaust, turbine housing, wastegate, and part of my downpipe. I would love to have a baller heat shield to add some bling to the engine bay. I just got my turbo busa parts coated and should be recieving the parts back shorty.