The header wrap actually quited the down Y Pipes the weed wacker noise about 60%.When the car heats up it is almost un-notacible.I wraped just the flex portion of the stillen pipe and clamped it on with two clamps{it did not involve taking the pipe off luckaly}.The job only takes about half an hour to do,so if you have not done it then give it a shot.

 

Just worried about it rusting, so i havent tried that. Dont know if its worth it, since my stillen intake can out-do the ypipe anytime. :>

ive gotten used to both, theyre not that bad.

 

This thing sounded like a weed wacker in mothion,it seems like some of the pipes are not to loud and others just make a ruckis.It may be you don't have a cat back system and that makes it quiter.

 

I was about a day from making this exact thread. The header wrap works, fellas - it works wonders. If you want to get rid of the weed wacker, hissing, can of bees, whatever you want to call it, w/o spending $200 for a RT Cat - do this. I originally wrapped just the flex portion of my Stillen Y, too. About 2 months ago. As stated, it quieted down about 60% of the racket. This past Saturday I jacked the jar up, slid under there & wrapped from the cat forward all the way past the junction of the two down pipe (so now the flex portion in double wrapped). I can't begin to say how pleased I am. Its almost as quiet as stock. If I'm declerating from around 4000 RPMs and the pipe is still cold, I can hear a little bit of the bees, but that's it. The only thing that you really hear now is that sweet intake growl. This is, without a doubt, the best thing that I've done to the car since the pipe. I absolutely love it.


(thanks JeffK & JimW for your help on this particular mod)

 

Like Dave said, what about rust? I've been wanting to do this to my Cattman JH-Y for some time now, but living in Seattle I'm concerned I'll ruin the Y. What effect does the Wrap have on the half-assed jet hot coating?

Thanks.

 

I've referred your question on to JimW, he's in NY and done some inspecting on the topic. As stated, I've only had mine on for five days, so its a bit early to tell. : ) Plus, I live in Northern California, where - as the song goes - it never rains, let alone snows. So this is really not a concern of mine.

 

My Y pipe was underneath my car for 2 NYC winters, and was wrapped for the 2nd one. When the Y was removed and the wrap undone, there was no rust whatsoever.
This has been another hot topic about the theory of the wrap holding moisture and causing premature rusting. Think of this.
The Y-pipe is located before the Cat. This is the hottest section of the exhaust system. Not much moisture is going to exist there, as the high heat will burn it off quickly.
The coating on the Stillen pipe I had shows absolutely no signs of any damage at all, I would imagine the JH coating on the Cattman would fare just as well

 

I have on of the older Cattman Y-pipes with the jet hot coating (actually Edwin's pipe) It had themo tec wrap from end to end, when I instlled it I was amazed at how quiet it was since every one on the BBS was making an issue of the noise. Then some other people started experimenting with wraps with simmilar results as mine. However after a month someone removed to wrap to expose a substaintial amount of rust on the pipe. I looked at mine and sure enough the jet hot had bubbeled up and blistered off the Y-pipe. I immediately removed the wrap and then only later wrapped the flex pipe with minimal reduction in noise (I also have the RT cat which helped). Now I was originally told by Cattman that this wrapping would void the JH warranty, to be honest the JH coating might have blistered off on its own as it did on other pipes sold at the time (QC issue). This was done in the middle of winter on LI and they were salting like hell so I don't think that helped. If you live in an area where it snows or rains I would not wrap a JH pipe. In my experience the thermotec did trap moisture even when reaching operating temperatures Soon enough I will have to replace my pipe and this time its SS.....

 

that the 'angry bumble bee' noise comes mostly from the fact that the Y-pipe is thin walled, right?? Obviously, some of the noise comes from the flex section due to the irregularities in exhaust flow caused by it. But most of the noise is due to the thin wall tubing. by adding the wrap, you're adding more mass to deaden the sound.

a couple of examples for you non-believers: I slapped on a header on a SE-R and it had the characteristic noise.

Slapped on a downpipe on a GSX and had ZERO 'bumble-bee' noise.

Why? the SE-R's header was made of 18 or 16 gauge tubing, while the GSX's downpipe was made of 14 gauge SS tubing (SS is heavier than mild steel, even w/ ceramic coating)

So for those who want to quiet down their pipes even more, wrap the whole thing, from flange to flange.

 

Good point and I agree. But doesn't the turbo on the GSX a big noise reducer anyway? I'm saying even w/ a thin wall w/ the turbo you might not get noise. Nice resarch on the SER header. The thing is, Jet-Hot and header wrap don't seem to like each other.

 

I'm saying even w/ a thin wall w/ the turbo you might not get noise


Well, there are quite a few DSM tuners out there who make downpipes. Perhaps the most popular being Buschur Racing. Their downpipe makes the 'angry bee noise'. The reason?? They use a 2.5" aluminized press bent design w/ 16 gauge tubing. There are quite a few DSM owners who have complained about this. But I've heard NOBODY complain about this noise using the Archer DP (14 ga, SS). I've heard other car's w/ the thin-wall DP and you can absolutely tell that they have the thin-wall version. Some people actually like the sound, but personally, I hated it w/ the SE-R.

As far as the Jet-Hot and header wrap combo, Jet-Hot claims a lifetime warranty. Use it. Or better yet, get a SS version and Jet-Hot the sucker.

One other benefit of wrapping the pipes up: lower oil temps. Many DSM racers wrap up their pipes and have noticed a significant decrease in their oil temps when racing.

 

My custom y pipe has no rust(even through a winter in NE), and no hissing. And it only cost $250 installed too..

 

I have a decent amount of noise/hiss with my vg y pipe when on the gas at even 1/4. I think the vg's always have this.....umm....hiss...stock that you could hear bounce of cars when going by. I have heard many obviously stock vg's....good condition too....not stud leaks. BUT it totally got worse witht the y. No its not leaking...just the fact that the pipe is paper thin. I think I may go ahead and wrap the entire pipe. I mean....I got it installed in Jan. By March....granted buffalo winters but still...by march this ***** was flacking like a kid with bad dandruff. It seems like the lower half of the pipe flacked off and now it just is coated in rust. I would imagine that even still it would take a couple years to make a hole so I'm gonna wrap it. Even if it damages the pipe.....i don't care. I don't know what I'm doing tomm let alone a year from now

BTW: the Jet hot warranty/return is a joke. Ok....how again was I gonna get it recoated? My y was bascially done when I got my cattman. So.....I'm susposed to pay a shop to take of the pipe and then let the car sit there for 2 weeks untill I get it back.....yea right!

Mike S.