i've used wrap on headers before and it definitely ages the non coated ones faster. is there any reason not to wrap cast manifolds? my engine bay gets hot on its own and to help the heat issue i'd like to wrap the stock manifolds on my ls. any experience with this?
In reply to itsarebuild:
helped crack the cast iron manifold on our XR4 in no time. On the up side the engine bay was significantly cooler, downside, it was smoky...
Mine was really smokey. And it cracked my (non cast) header.
I was thinking about the same thing.
+1 on the heat shield... 
Raze wrote: In reply to itsarebuild: helped crack the cast iron manifold on our XR4 in no time. On the up side the engine bay was significantly cooler, downside, it was smoky...
that is pretty much what i was afraid of... was the Xr4 turbo?
I think that is the reason why manufacturers use heat shields rather than wrapping. Could a fabbed heat shield help? You could add in brake ducting to route to the heat shields...if you have room for it.
All XR4s are turbo.
RossD wrote: I think that is the reason why manufacturers use heat shields rather than wrapping. Could a fabbed heat shield help? You could add in brake ducting to route to the heat shields...if you have room for it.
at least one of them already has a heat sheild. while they do protect adjacency specific parts from extraordinary heat, they dont do much to reduce ambient temps under the hood from rising... and i'd like to use my ducted air for other things if i can.
i think most of the reason manufacturer's dont do it is because it takes too much labor to wrap individual parts and correctly apply fasteners. a heat sheild is a stamp it, join it bolt it operation..... basically 30 minutes vs 15 seconds. and since most cars have their floor pan and fire wall insulation in tact and dont get ridden as hard as this one will it generally doesnt matter.
A ceramic coating is WAY better than a wrap. 
HiTempguy wrote: A ceramic coating is WAY better than a wrap.
true, but i dont have any ceramic coating lying around my garage from other old projects!
In reply to itsarebuild:
Yeah it's a turbo, and it's got a secondary brace so it wasn't the turbo hanging off it that cracked it. Matter of fact we cracked 2 before we stopped wrapping the header, problem solved...
So, wrap the header and have it crack or buy ceramic coating? I would say using the wrap is false economy.
everything I have read on wrapping.. it corrodes/breaks the manifold. How about coating?
mad_machine wrote: everything I have read on wrapping.. it corrodes/breaks the manifold. How about coating?
The coating protects the manifold from corrosion, as well as does not trap moisture like a wrap does. Beyond that, a coating is simple once done, unlike a wrap which can come loose, fall off, be a pain to install, be a pain to work around, etc.
And if you find the right person, coating doesn't cost that much more once you factor in the labour of wrapping correctly, and how much that wrap costs 
Be careful not to get the inside ceramic coated. Those coatings can flake off, and flakes rushing towards a spooled up turbo is not a good thing.
I was considering having the manifold and downpipe off of the saab coated.. I will have to check prices
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