Had my headers installed today (3.5) and the mechanic asked me if I wanted them wrapped. I mentioned that I hadn't heard of anyone wrapping them. He said that the one collector was a little close to the A\C compressor and might need wrapping. Anyone have any input on this? Will wrapping one tube cause any problems? Or will not wrapping cause a\c problems in the summer?

 

Wrapping them is said to damage the flex section. I though there'd be more heat under the engine bay/hotter oil since the pipe run right under the oil pan

No adverse affects with not wrapping them

 

i wasn't thinking of wrapping them all the way down, the tech mentioned it might be a good idea to wrap just the one because it was very close to compressor. I forgot to ask him to let me see that. I'll look when I go outside today.

 

Mine have been on for 25 months, unwrapped w/ no issues.

Pop your hood, look at the passenger side of the engine bay near the front header, and you'll have your look.

Shouldn't hurt, but I didn't do it.

 

Header wrap is bad, even in one spot. Ceramic coating FTW. If you're still worried, put some heat shield material between the header and the compressor, but don't wrap the header.

 

What kinda headers you got? If you have cattman headers, wouldn't even worry about wrapping because they are jet hot coated on a ceramic layer, heat dessipation won't collectively linger at the header section.

I have heard of wrapping y-pipes but none on headers on the maxima's so far. Let me know if you find something interesting along the way.

-Peter-

 

HUH??? Where did you get this info? Cattman's headers (the new ones, gen 2) are not ceramic coated. Cattman did not ceramic coat them since he used quality stainless steel this time around. Now, if you're talking about his Gen 1 headers, yes they were ceramic coated, but only semi-ceramic coated (not 100% ceramic coated) because he used mild steel; and it was done by HPC, not Jet Hot.

Just some background info.

One of these days I'll post a thread discussing and showing my Cattman Headers (gen 2) that are now fully ceramic coated (Extreme 2000 series) by HPC.

 

The new headers are actually Gen III (3). The first gen ARE jet coated, not sure about the 2nd gen.

 

Sorry, I was referring to the Gen I's. Mine's Gen I and that's what I was talking about, and sorry, I didn't realize that gen II's weren't ceramically coated till this new version, now called gen III's are fully coated. And apologies again that I didn't recall the fact that Cattman doesn't sell Gen I's anymore. However, I seriously think they should continue Gen I's just because fitment was perfect, performance was great, and that the material is just beefy and bulky. Plus it sounds so darn great since I got Cattman's Gen I Full Exhaust set.

Back to topic, so what's the outcome so far? Wrap, or no wrap?

-Peter-

 

Really?? Damn, my bad. I guess I have Gen III then.

No problem Peter. Looks like I'm the one confused now. I just bought these headers a month ago (first batch from Brian, gen III???) and the headers were not ceramic coated. I sent them out to get ceramic coated. What am I missing here?

I say no wrap. If the OP wants protection, he should put some sort of heat sheild protection between the headers and compressor IMO. DEI has tons of different things to look at.

 

I agree no wrap.

Here's when the gen II's came out

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=436779

 

I actually did my own research and I would not wrap them. If you want to keep the engine temps down than you should treat the headers with some ceramic paint or send them to be professionally coated.

By allowing them not to be wrapped...you allow the air to cool the surface of the headers.

 

The extra heat buildup by wrapping them is said to damage the flex section. Did that come up in your research?

 

if you bought them just a month ago then you have gen 3 cattman headers. maybe even the second batch of them. like everyone else said, no wrapping because it can hurt the flex section and with the quality of cattman's new SS, the under hood temps wont decrease much after wrapping anyway.

 

Actually it did. I believe that the welds are the first to fail. And b/c of this header wrap is not good. Its almost like your headers are going into supernova. Fantistic 4 Style.