Thoughts on thermal wrapping exhaust manifold

jonm

Full member
Points
23
Location
invergordon
Car
mg tf vvc
Hi all, does thermal wrapping exhaust manifold make a big difference? Will be doing an engine swap over this winter (mg tf vvc) and was wondering if wrapping the manifold would be a good idea. Running a stainless steal manifold already and will be easy to wrap before the replacement engine goes back in. Just wondered what was the consensus on it?
Thanks.
 
Hi Jonm, in my experience and what I have just recently done with my engine build is to have all the exhaust piping from headers to the turbo charger turbine housing and down pipe ceramic coated. This was strictly a DYI and not done at a shop. ceramic coating is the way to go with heat reduction between 20 to 30% if not more. Wraps and other stuff do not last and really does not cut down on heat significantly in my opinion.
 
Yes that was the same impression I had previously before my research on product and equipment needed for a DIY. It not very hard to do but tedious. What city and country are you located in, just curious to know.
 
Exhaust heat wrap tapes can vary widely in quality (you get what you pay for) and I had the turbine housing and dump pipe ceramic coated on my old car to help keep heat in them to help the exhaust gas exit speed as high as possible and the engine bay cooler.

Any pipes between the compressor housing and the throttle body were also ceramic coated and wrapped with heat reflecting gold tape.

A thermal / phenolic gasket was installed between the IM and head as well to help reduce heat transfer from the block in an effort to keep inlet temps as low as possible as cooler air helps make more power.
 
Going to be fitting cold air induction from side vent but the TF engine can get a bit warm when driving it a bit enthusiastically because of the lake of air flow so any reduction in engine bay heat will help.
 
Unless you get a truly verified thermal wrap of high quality, ceramic coating would be your best bet (but even then i advise caution), i mean, you can do the cheap wrap too but its going to degrade quite fast but you can wrap another one, depends on your budget and cost of said wraps and their lifespan.
 
I am happy with all the positive feedback's on ceramic coating, however there is more than just exhaust system coatings. Just a little bit of information to what I have seen and experienced and to what information and research I have gathered up on the net.

Most people are not aware of ceramics and how this is used in the automotive industry and I was one of those individuals.

Ceramics has been around for decades in the aviation industry and just recently has been introduced to the automotive industry. Used in catalytic converters, electronics and some other small stuff.

Not sure how it goes in the UK or Europe, but here in the US these products are sold to the general public in liquid form, a bit price but gets the job done and the application process is as follows:

Each component that is to be sprayed with this chemical coating that contains a percentage of the ceramic material is to be thoroughly cleaned and then abrasive blasted with certain abrasive materials such as aluminum oxide and then oven heated after the chemical is spayed on.

A very tedious process, however, very interesting to do. The ceramics itself is heat and chemical resistant and other materials that are available in the market are designed to be friction resistant called DFL or dry film lubricant that is used on piston skirts, engine bearings, valve train, cam lobes,crankshaft journals oil pump gears, tranny components and much more.

There are many companies that apply these chemicals to their engine components or can sell them as a DYI project and call it different names simply for their marketing process.

The ceramic material available in liquid form varies in temperature resistant levels and can go up as high as 2000F degress plus.

So I have invested in buying all the necessary equipment and have ceramic coated 90 percent of my entire engine build.

Now I can only imagine experiencing my engines full potential power without the need to alter fuel and air rations and to run everything in a stock setup.
 
Yep, EGT's are no joke when you start boosting things :D

I forgot to mention that wraps could be a potential fire hazard, because you never know the quality of it unless there is something backing up that products claim. I've seen people make aluminum heat shields of their own and similar stuff but they just wanted to protect tubes and cables and didnt care for the heat much. I mean, to each their own.
 
I am happy with all the positive feedback's on ceramic coating, however there is more than just exhaust system coatings. Just a little bit of information to what I have seen and experienced and to what information and research I have gathered up on the net.

Most people are not aware of ceramics and how this is used in the automotive industry and I was one of those individuals.

Ceramics has been around for decades in the aviation industry and just recently has been introduced to the automotive industry. Used in catalytic converters, electronics and some other small stuff.

Not sure how it goes in the UK or Europe, but here in the US these products are sold to the general public in liquid form, a bit price but gets the job done and the application process is as follows:

Each component that is to be sprayed with this chemical coating that contains a percentage of the ceramic material is to be thoroughly cleaned and then abrasive blasted with certain abrasive materials such as aluminum oxide and then oven heated after the chemical is spayed on.

A very tedious process, however, very interesting to do. The ceramics itself is heat and chemical resistant and other materials that are available in the market are designed to be friction resistant called DFL or dry film lubricant that is used on piston skirts, engine bearings, valve train, cam lobes,crankshaft journals oil pump gears, tranny components and much more.

There are many companies that apply these chemicals to their engine components or can sell them as a DYI project and call it different names simply for their marketing process.

The ceramic material available in liquid form varies in temperature resistant levels and can go up as high as 2000F degress plus.

So I have invested in buying all the necessary equipment and have ceramic coated 90 percent of my entire engine build.

Now I can only imagine experiencing my engines full potential power without the need to alter fuel and air rations and to run everything in a stock setup.

The one last thing to help get the absolute last once of power out of an engine is to cryogenically treat everything as it helps the stability of the components and durability,
 
The one last thing to help get the absolute last once of power out of an engine is to cryogenically treat everything as it helps the stability of the components and durability,
That is where engine coatings come in play, and most of the performance builds for racing such as NASCAR engines and dragsters are applying such coatings to engine parts with superior marginal gains in performance, durability as you have mentioned. Now if one does it to his or her daily driver, rest assured, it would be time for a road trip around the globe without the need of changing the oil after one circle:).
 
Don't forget to de dag the inside of the block walls and apply the special coating that sheds oil back into the pan faster.
 
Don't forget to de dag the inside of the block walls and apply the special coating that sheds oil back into the pan faster.
I am so glad you mentioned that, DFL coatings acts as an oil shredder and one can apply to certain areas of the engines internals such as you have mentioned the crankcase. It is always good to have the circulating oil drain quickly down into the pan when the engine is shut down. So at start up there is good oil pressure. At first I never understood the concept but after seeing what performance engine builders are doing to their builds and offering scientific explanations with test results I now understand, so what I have done in my build is to apply an excellent oil shredder coating just for the crankcase walls called Glyptol.
 
I was actually going to send you a picture of my block but dont know how to upload it, anyways here is a YouTube clip of the guy who did it to his block and valve covers, this is what I saw and did the same to my crankcase, and the valve covers I just simply used DLF coatings. Interestingly enough I could have just used the DFL coating on the crankcase walls but unfortunately to use such spray on coatings the component needs to be abrasive blasted, so unfortunately, the block was a wee to big bit to fit into my abrasive cabinet and not even mentioning how heavy it is:(, so I then just followed this guy's technique and it came out amazing. The crankcase walls need to be thoroughly cleaned and wire brushed then you simply apply this material by hand brush and then oven baked. I used my own oven but he had to take his to a shopB)
 
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
pat3d i need advise and thoughts please Engine questions 3

Similar threads


Please watch this on my YouTube channel & Subscribe.


Back
Top