Ok, I've read things saying wrap is good, and posts saying wrap isn't necessary. Frank at motorvate makes a good case for it http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/520 but alot of people just don't use it. I bought some wrap anyway, so I'm going to use it. I just want to see what people think. Thanks for playing the home game.

 

I've actually heard from a few ypipe manufacturers (Cattman, Warpspeed) that they do NOT recommend using wrap because it makes the metal TOO hot, cutting it's life in half. It actually voids their warrenties. I don't have my pipe yet, but unless I really don't like the sound I won't use it.

 

I have my Warpspeed pipe fully wrapped but it came that way when I bought the car so I couldn't tell you about the noise difference. From what I've read it helps the exhaust flow.

 

I too, am interested in comments on changes in regards to both sound and under-hood temperatures.

 

I heard the same thing , the metal cant hold the temp. and the flex pipe cant either. I also hear it doesnt help much.

 

I read about that in your GD. The warpspeed rep told you that... what I'm wondering is a wraped y-pipe so bad that are more likely to just fall apart... I mean, is that what the manufacturers are saying?

 

Why wrap the pipe?

My Warpspeed Y pipe is silent.

 

IIRC, your y-pipe left both pre-cats in place so you cant really compare it to the other 95-98 Fed spec y-pipes...

 

i think when you wrap your Ypipe it creates moisture or traps in moisture, therefore making it more prone to rust. i have an aluminized warpspeed Y and its not wraped and is silent

 

Again your max is a Cali spec so I assume your pipe has pre cats on it like someone before on this thread already mentioned.....

Coming from chicago and owning a non-cali aluminum ypipe from warpspeed I dont notice any type of hissing after I put the pipe on but it did make A LOT more noise out of the rear end of the car. i.e. muffler

ps. I am using a aftermarket 2.75 dual tip straight through muffler w/ everything else stock exept intake.

 

Ive heard that wrapping makes the exhaust gas stay HOT because it helps insulate the gases from the cooler air outside the piping.

Hot exhaust flows faster (just like hot molecules move faster) and the hotter the exhaust gas remains on its 'journey', the faster it clears out.

Thus wrapped exhaust piping supposedly clears its gasses out of the exhaust system quicker meaning a modest improvement in flow meaning a modest improvment in power. I THINK that this improvment would be more noticable if somewhere in your exhaust system there is still a bottleneck.

So now I really start in with some off the top of my head thoughts:

For people who have already modded a Y pipe and a good Catback, I would bet that most of the exhaust bottleneck or exit velocity limiting agent is gone (for NA cars).
So... I would guess that you might only see an improvment of 1-2 HP but that is truly a guess. Why do I think this this? Because I went with a Warpspeed Metallic Hi Flow Cat to finish off my exhaust, and in conjunction with a UDP saw relatively little gain in the highest RPM range- where I would expect the most exhaust to be generated (the gain was probably because of the UDP)

(see 3rd dyno chart)

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/362498/5


On to the manufacturers suggestions:
Stillen does not recommend wrapping as they say it would damage the metal and that they powder coat the metal anyway to insulate it but hmmm that sounds like it would do like nothing in terms of heat insulation rather I think they were implying that it would muffle the sound.
But I can only imagine if they didnt powder coat because I have a VERY LOUD car... It measured 93 decibels at Laguna for a black flag! (92 max @ track)

Thats my brain dump I hope you found portions of it agreeable!

 

hmm.. i dont think you should assume things
heres a part of a pic of my warpspeed Y
i see no pre cats...unless you know something about my car that i dont

Edit: top right corner is the Y, sorry this is the only pic i have.

 

dont wrap it! I wrapped a section of my WS Al/steel pipe, it rusted badly in 6 months. Gains are minimal if any and pipe is silent as it is.

 

I did not wrap my Warpseed stainless steel y-pipe to get any sort of additional performance from it. I did it to quiet down the annoying bees in the can/cruiquet type sound that my car made after getting the y-pipe installed. I talked to Dallas and he was helpful regarding the bagning noise issue, but could not really point to why my pipe made the other noises. He did tell me that they do not recommend wraping the pipe. I checked the pipe for leaks myself , just ran my hand all over it to see if there was any soot (Dallas told me to do this). After I found no soot I took my car to get the pipe checked for leaks at a shop, and none were found. The guy used some stethescope type instrument. Finally I wrapped the pipe. I did the flex section at first, even double wrapped it but was not satisfied with the noise reduction. I then wrapped my y-pipe from just below the O2 sensors all the way to where it meets the catalytic converter. The first time I drove the car after wrapping the whole pipe I had a big smile on my face. I finally found the solution to the problem. If I have to get a new y-pipe down the road due to it falling apart because of the wrap I will not mind. This was a trade off that I was more than happy to make. I hated driving with the windows down before I wrapped the pipe, not a problem any more .

Let me say one more thing some people have been lucky enough to not have the noise issues I had, but there are many that have had these issues. For the people that are worried about the pipe falling apart prematurely, I would suggest that you put the pipe on first. If you are one of the people with no issues that is great. If you are not then wrapping the pipe is an option you have. You just have to ask yourself if the noise reduction is worth reducing the life of the pipe, for me it was.

 

You're right, you don't have any precats. You can tell some people a dozen times and they still don't get it. THERE ARE NO CALIFORNIA SPEC Y PIPES FOR 95-98. They are exactly the same as the federal spec. Same number of o2 sensors, no precats, everything. It's only the 99 californias that are different. They only remove 1 or zero precats.

 

I appologize for the mistake, Sorry i didn't check every detail of the guys personal profile but just quickly looked to see if he had a cali pipe maybe since he does live there....some people take things to seriously before beating on the n00ber. lighten up....

now we all know only '99 cali spec pipes are diffrent!

 

Ok, here's what I got so far... the consensis is that the Warpspeed Y is well made and "silent", which I assume means no "bees in can" sound, or extra loud exhaust noise... therefore there is no need to wrap it to quell the bees.

However, there are some Y-pipes out there that make some annoying noise, as well there are some small gains from "thermal efficency" which seems minimal.

Seems like I'll be putting my exhaust wrap back up on eBay.

 

Completely wrapped warpspeed SS y-pipe + test pipe = PIMP

HAHA J/K

I wrapped my entire length before it was ever on my car so I dont know the difference, but it is in theory better.





Wrap It!

 

I just hope your "flex section" can still flex...

 

what is the difference between the cali spec aftermarket y pipe and the other one....................... im confused are they just as good and have like less or more o2 sensors or something else...?????????

 

i wrapped the flex section of my budget-y because it sounded like a rattle snake. i'm not sure if that's my fault during installation, which i highly doubt, or if the flex section was simply flawed, but either way, it's now quiet so i'm happy. if the flex section rusts out, i don't care, i'll then get a nice lined one put on for $30 and no longer need the wrap. that's how i look at it.

 

I would keep the exhaust wrap until after your y-pipe is installed. Hopefully you will not encounter any noise issues, but if you do you have the wrap on hand.

 

Don't worry about it. Didn't mean anything by it. Just had a bad day, I guess. This same thing comes up all the time. It's fine.

 

kinda of a dumb question but would it do anything to wrap you catback to??

 

yeah sure, if everything is wrapped. (y-pipe-cat-catback) It do much at all. Only do it if you can get 100FT of wrap for cheap, Like $30.

Also dont wrap anything if you dont have Stainless! it can trap water and cause rust faster then normal. You CAN spray the wrap with a HIGH TEMP Silicone spray but thats another $15 online IDK why, They don't have it at checker, napa.

 

Since the majority of people that have responded to this thread own Warpspeed Y's I decided to read the stuff on their site.
http://www.warpspeedperformance.com/nissan.htm

And for $50+shipping you can order a lined flex section from them to replace your noisy one. http://www.warpspeedperformance.com/retrofit.htm
Heh, I sound like a rep now!

But seriously, I'm glad I'm getting a WS from the group deal. I know I'm gettin some quality stuff.

-W-

 

Well, eventhough I bought one of their SS y-pipes with the lined flex section I still ended up with the bees in the can noise. With that said, I am very happy with this mod, more now that the wrap made it a lot quieter. I am reminded that it was a good decision to buy it whenever I need to go WOT when merging onto the freeway .

 

Anyone have any problems with wraping Fed-Spec Budget Pipe?? So far all replys have been Warpspeed. I want to wrap the pipe, but i do not want to risk rust or cut the life lenght of the pipe.

 

I'm assuming that the Y is easier to take off after I've already gotten it on. Like, it seems the hardest part is initially getting those rusted bolts closest the engine bay off.