Since I have a turbo(RMT), I would like the headers to have both to keep the hot air going to the turbo.

I know wrapping is more efficient in alot of cases than ceramic coating since it can last longer and can hold in heat better, but it can also retain water which causes rusting. I know ceramic coating can flake off and doesnt last long.

My question is that since the OBX headers don't have the thickest piping, will coating and wrapping them cause the pipes to over expand and crack do to the extra heat held in? Should I do both or just one?

 

I would paint them, wrap then paint again.

 

if you drive the car daily the mositure from the wrapp shouldn't be a huge issue but I would go with ceramic and heat shields. Cause doing both may cause the headers to crack over time.

Personal I am most likely going with this stuff on my turbo headers and crossover pipe, wrap the downpipe and wires then make a heat shield for the starter

http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=8537&catid=19694

 

If I paint them, I am def going to ceramic coat them. I know they sell that spray to put on top of header wrap to keep moisture out. I hear it works well, so I will prop use it.



Well, I am not too worried about the heat in the engine bay, for me it is mainly keeping hot air going all the way back to the turbo. I also like the swaintech but I don't wanna ship the headers, the local place will coat mine for $150.


Maybe I should get the headers/ypipe coated, but only wrap the ypipe; leaving the headers ceramic coated. This should help from keeping too much heat in the headers without losing spooltime for the turbo I hope. I also plan to get any of the weak looking welds on the headers redone since they WILL crack under the heat.

 

I never understood how wrapping headers could keep moisture in. I would think that any moisture would quickly evaporate when you drive the car.

Plus the pipes stay hot for a while after you drive the car.

But like stated above, I would either do one or the other. My OBX v2 headers cracked at a couple places with no wrap at all, so I would think the extreme temperatures would only make it more prone to cracking.

 

why is it beneficial to have hotter air spin the turbo?

 

forgot that your rmt, I would redo the welds like stated and spray and wrap the headers and y-pipe then coat the exhaust. Or depending on the weather down there wrap everything. In my area we that get snow, alot of road salt and flooding from time to time and the worst thing is the humidity in the summer so wrapping the exhaust on a DD to me is a no no.

 

btw, a turbo blanket will help spool times also. I picked up a few rpm when my was installed

 

I have my current exhaust setup wrapped from the ypipe to the turbo.

Yeah, tomorrow I think ima drop off the headers to get rewelded. And hopefully tuesday drop the headers off to get coated.

 

Also would it be best to tell them to cut the old welds out and reweld or to weld on top of the old ones? I am not the best at welding knowledge so I figured I would ask.

 

ain't like you going to keep that car for that long little GXP loverboy ha

 

Ha, you right but still.


Took the headers to my welder and he said not to reweld it. He says all the welds look nice and if it cracks it will crack at the top of the weld(the crack that people get on the front header at the turn). So he says just run it till it cracks. And I agree, if it goes 1-2 years w/o cracking ill be happy.

Sometime this week/next week they get coated.

 

So I changed my mind and am not gonna coat the headers. Ima save the 150-200. I am gonna paint the headers with bbq grille paint tonight and wrap later. I will coat them later down the road if they ever crack. If they do crack I can just unwrap, reweld, and ceramic coat them.

 

VHT Header paint - that makes a nice ceramic coating when cured - usually by driving, or by heating an Altima LIM in a gas grill !

Auto parts stores stock it - O'Reilly's locally.....

 

Btw forgot to ask, are your headers SS or mild steel. If SS wrap them *****es, if mild steel ceramic coating

 

Suppose to be SS. I put a coat of BBQ paint on already. I was gonna use the VHT paint but... i dunno what happened lol.

Ima wrap them tomorrow/thurs. Hopefully put them on this weekend.

 

Wrapping them tomorrow

 

Anyone know what car I can get the front 2bolt gasket from?

 

I get from them from a ford, sorry don't remember the part # or model

btw, if these were not installed on your car already you might want to confirm fittment cause a buddy buy these new and the front header two bolt flange did not line up with the rear and I had to cut it off line it up and reweld it

 

Yeah, I have read that some people have to do this, while others have not. Now are you talking about the holes lining up clock wise(ie if I bolt them up right now the front headers would be turned) or the two flanges don't meet up properly?

 

the two bolt flange from the front and rear do line line

 

so how you make out

 

Was busy on the beach

I will prob install them next week. Just got the header gaskets in from rockauto today. I'll be too busy this weekend.

 

For future reference, Victor Reinz gaskets = da bess!

Nippon Reinz is a subdivision of Victor Reinz and these gaskets are made in Japan. Look great and feel of high quality.

 

I ran out of wrap, ima buy some more and then wrap the rest and double wrap areas of the headers where I couldn't get it normally.

 

Tip for others:

1989 Supra oil drain bolt = o2 sensor plug bolt. M18x1.5mm Most toyo dealers have these in stock and advance auto has um for 2 bucks each. A cheap alternative if you cant find an oxygen sensor bolt.

 

I had to buy more wrap to finish up the headers, all they had was tan in town. No biggie to me. I "loosely" wrapped the flex, it is loose enough for it to allow the flex the move but tight enough that it won't come loose.




With the leftover wrap I re wrapped over some areas that were exposed and due to lack of hose clamps I had to share hose clamps with the two different wraps. But all is tight and it shall work fine.



Here is the Supra oil drain bolt

 

Headers should go on tomorrow

 

Nice work. I like what I see.

 

"That is the sexiest thing I've ever seen."

 

have fun with the install...im sure youre aware of the cutting the engine mount, trimming the cross member, extending o2 wires, dropping the PS pump... yea that was a fun day for meeeee. but its all worth it!

 

Yea, not too worried about that.

I am already pissed off lol. Before lunch it took me an hour just to take off the rear header heat shield. Now I gotta take off the rear header bolts and i'll be good to go.

 

It's been a while now.....have you noticed any difference in the temp under the hood since you heat wrapped and installed the headers?? I have cattman headers (not installed yet) and I'm considering heat wrapping them as well.

 

Yes the under hood temps are definitely less than they were previously.

 

Did you get a new flex section welded in while u were at it? Mine failed after 4k miles and just had a new one put in. I know some other people had similar issues. It also eliminated a bees in the can sound i had before.

 

how much better is your spool

 

No I did not Flex looked decent and if I have the bees in the can noise I cant hear it with the engine noise and turbo spool

Since I have the new headers/cat/muffler, spools about 400rpm faster which is a big difference. Car feels very fast as well I have some vids I will post(but music is on so you cant really hear the exhaust, it was mainly just to see the speedo ).

 

http://forums.maxima.org/8169456-post419.html

Vids in there

 

Care to explain why you put plugs where the primary O2's are supposed to be? BTW, thanks for the '89 supra drain plug tip! It'll definately come in handy for me.

 

The one on the front header I used since it clears the rad. The rear header one hits the steering rack IIRC, but moving it to the loop by extending the wires it gets the same reading(since it is after the merge of the 3cyl but before the Y merge) and clears everything.