can you expand apon that? no rusting? no brittle headers?
Here are some of the "Myths" about header wrap that I have been told and have not been able to find any actual facts to support.
Header wrap causes rust.
First of all headers rust. Around here we have road salt and calcium, high humidity in the summer and of course, if you hit the mudholes they'll get wet. Condensation on the pipes is gona happen. The question becomes, does header wrap accelerate the process? Not in my experience. First of all if the header wrap gets wet while the vehicle is running it doesn't stay wet for more than a few seconds. So while the vehicle isn't running and the headers are cold, moisture at some point may condense onto the headers. This is gona happen, wrapped or not. With the wrap you have some sort of barrier there. It's not air tight but neither is no wrap at all. Road salt and calcium and such, again, wrap is a barrier and can be washed at the car wash. Either way the salt is on the wrap now and not the header pipes themselves.
"they'll crack."
Every header pipe, goes through its hot cold cycles. over and over and over again. I'm not a metalurgist but I'll tell you this much, when I heat a piece of metal and rapidly cool it, it may crack. If I heat a piece of metal and cool it slowly it is less likely to crack.
When I heat a piece of metal and rapidly cool it, it becomes harder or more brittle. When I heat a piece of metal and cool it slowly it does not become harder or more brittle.
So that being said, my header wrap should make my headers become less brittle by holding the heat in the pipes longer and allowing them to cool slower.
"The wear out from the inside out."
This is called erosion. When you expel a flaming gas out of the exhaust valve and it bangs into the first turn, the pipes are going to errode. Absolutlely gona errode, no way around it and that is all there is too it. I think the myth here comes from guy a comparing the life cycle of a pair of headers made from 16ga. tubing that were cheap as hell and wrapped to that of a guys headers that were made from heavier wall tubing. Who knows. I have yet to find anybody that has bought two pair of headers and done testing side by side that would lend any imperical data to support this claim.
Last one that I hear often and love the most.
"Header Manufacturers won't warranty the headers."
You mean they don't want to give you a set of headers for free if they can think of a reason not too? Curious.
Now, on the plus side.
Lower your underhood temperatures.
Potentially create more power.(couple different ways)
remove potentially harmful heat from nearby objects such as spark plugs, wires, starters and so on.
Wear less burns on your arms from accidentally bumping your arm against them. They're still hot but it gives you just that instant of "Hello!" before you leave meat behind.
I have donned my fire suit so flame away.(It's made of header wrap.
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