Wrapping headers?

[carpeonnel]

Bout to put some regular ol' Hedman headers on my truck and my friend swears by wrapping them in the ceramic tape, or whatever it is, to keep the heat down. I've never wrapped any before and never had a problem with the hedmans I ran on my old k5 putting off too much heat. So my question is it worth it? Will it really extend your starter life, etc, etc or should I just run em nekkid like?

Also, I always heard that wrapping your headers will reduce the life span of them by holding in all that heat. Any truth to that? Your input would be greatly appreciated

 

[k20]

Ive always heard wrapping them will cause the headers to rot b/c any moisture that gets in there when the engine is cool is basically trapped and held against them til you start it again. Pretty much every header manufacturer says that if you wrap em, there aint a warranty anymore against anything.

 

[USSkoval]

Don't. They will rot out faster than a cheap muffler. IMHO, heat isn't really an issue at all with our trucks.

 

[Thunder]

IMO. Unless you are having problems with under hood heat. There is no reason to wrap headers. Holding in the heat only weakens and breaks down the metal. Epically in cheap headers with thin wall primary tubes. Thats why header makers wont warranty wrapped headers.
If you are worried about your starter getting hot. They make heat Shields for them. Much easier and cheaper than wrapping headers.

 

[carpeonnel]

Don't. They will rot out faster than a cheap muffler. IMHO, heat isn't really an issue at all with our trucks.

That's what I figured. I'm not really worried with starter getting too hot as I've never had a problem with it, I just wanted it make sure that my thinking was along the right lines. I haven't planned on wrapping them, but I didn't know if there was something beneficial about wrapping that would outweigh the cons