heat tape wrap pipes?

[Nikon]

Yay or nay? No real rhyme or reason just kinda want to wrap em. My KLR pipe is showing some surface rust so I was thinking of wrapping it. Reading about it seems to add some performace but, lets be honest, I ride a KLR so performance....well, what performance.....

+ & - of doing it?

[R1]

I had it in the works for my r1 for temperature reasons.

i say yay

it also looks pissah!

[GixerJockey]

The wrap will trap moisture against the metal thus accelerating the rusting process...

[Pittenger5]

I did my KTM cause it kept setting my pants on fire. Its still hot, I dont notice performance, and its kind of ugly. But at least my pants arent getting set on fire.

[GixerJockey]

I did my KTM cause it kept setting my pants on fire. Its still hot, I dont notice performance, and its kind of ugly. But at least my pants arent getting set on fire.

So, you have successfully extinguished the fire in your pants?

[Pittenger5]

So, you have successfully extinguished the fire in your pants?

Only until the next time you talk dirty to me.

[SVRACER01]

Wirelessly posted (Instinct: Mozilla/4.1 (U; BREW 3.1.5; en-US; Teleca/Q05A/INT))

The heat from the exhaust will evaporate the moisture. you could get a wheel for your drill and go over the rust and then paint it black with some grill paint

[Sheppo]

header wrap is best if you take it off at the end of the season and redo it every year. On the racecar it trashed a pair of headers until i started re-doing it every year. It does hold moisture over the winter.

[whynot]

BBQ black spray can -- Rustoleum or Ace works great.

I you do decide to wrap, you could take the overkill route:
-- paint the pipe
-- wrap the pipe
-- paint the wrapped pipe.

Maybe just paint is the way to go for the KLR.

[Cerberus]

here's the problem with wrap, it holds the heat in

well duh, right?
no. the headers themselves are able to dissipate a lot of heat to the air if they are left original. if you wrap them, the temperature that the header will experience is significantly higher, and as we all know, increased heat ruins any heat treatment and increases reactivity in chemical reactions (like rusting for instance).

long and the short of it is that it typically will cause a rust/failure of the header fairly quickly.

better option is ceramic coating, which is actually done both inside and out, which protects the pipe from the heat instead of forcing it to experience more of it.

but both work.
your money, your call.

[Nikon]

thanks guys - i was really looking to do it for looks cause i wasnt really plannin on gettin any performance gains...maybe i'll just spray it like everything else on the bike

[TheIglu]

I spray mine, works like a charm.

[Brendin87]

Instead of starting a new thread I figure I'll just use this one.

I wanted to know if any of you track guys have done this? I did it on my R6 because the pipes are causing issues with the fairings. I also put a sheet of aluminum heat shield on the fairing.

[eboos]

I had to do it on my Buell because the heat from the headers melted my cam position sensor.

As far as cons for doing it, I stained a pair of jeans while wraping the header on my lap. It goes on wet and can be messy.

[SVRACER01]

Wirelessly posted (HTC EVO "DROID" )

I had my full exhaust done at one point. Started falling apart after a few years of abuse. I still have the mid pipe done because my boot is there.

[Doc]

Hawks headers are done, definately keeps some heat away from those areas.

Cons, if it gets wet and doesn't dry quickly it can corrode your pipes.

[Brendin87]

I should probably include that I have stainless pipes.

[ecd2004]

you mean the wire brush wheel? I've been meaning to paint my headers because theyre really surface rusted.

Also, are header gaskets crush gaskets? do they need to be replaced every time the header is removed?

[Brendin87]

The gaskets are a copper ring. I don't replace them everytime

[xrocket21]

I use it on my sti, and I plan to do the ATK so I stop burning my leg

Before, stainless headers:



wrapped



coated in black silicone header wrap spray

[Stoneman]

On a side note: the heat wrap also comes in REAL handy if your woodstove uses little strips of similar material to line the clips of your door that hold your glass...

[Paul_E_D]

New England Stove Riders?

[island boyeee]

you aren't going to get a better how-to or pros/cons than here: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2303664

he uses a new kind of wrap that doesn't require soaking it to install. just wrap it on and you're done. I'm going to use this on my car as well as the mid-pipe on my Triumph

[HO-HUM-R1]

I did the stock exhaust on my r1 and i thought it looked great. They have the black wrap at pepboys. Also if you use the black silicone sealer like you are supposed to, then moisture isnt an issue at all because water won't soak in and when was the last time you saw condensation on your exhaust pipes?

Go for it and don't look back... it looks and works awesome and the negative stuff being brought up is either a different application or myth.

[markbvt]

I wrapped the pipes on my Bonneville; looks good on that bike since it's set up as a cafe racer. But it also had a practical benefit: when I removed the Secondary Air Injection system (which injects fresh air into the exhaust to combust any unburned fuel; this has the effect of heating up the headers and by extension the cylinder head), I found that when riding at 60-65mph or so in fifth gear, ie, low revs, high airflow, in cool temps, the bike had a tendency to stumble as if it needed some choke. Which, in effect, it did, because it was being overcooled. The header wrap helped keep the exhaust temp up, and the stumbling went away.



--mark