41 replies to this topic

[ash]

Hey,

Is there any difference in the quality of exhaust heat wrap between the stuff on eBay for a tenner e.g. this stuff

And the more expenses stuff I have seen in one or two of the official mini shops?

Thanks
Ash

[sazal]

Ive got the Thermotec one, but have no idea what the quality of the other stuffs like! I only bought that brand because I needed it quick and it was sold at a car suppliers thats local!!

Ive not had any problems with this stuff, but ive heard a lot of people saying not to fit it...

[Gangsta]

it can cause your exhaust system to rot (even stainless), great on a race car, and handy to keep temps down but does cause some problems.

stainless is self healing - it uses a chemical reaction with air to repair its surface, when you wrap it you prevent this from happening. If the wrap gets wet from a puddlesplash etc and is not totally dried out before you park up it holds water against the metal, this can speed up rot in standard exhaust steel.

[mini_kel]

Maniflow will not guarantee their exhaust manifolds when wrapped in it. as it causes corrosion and distortion when wrapped with it!

[philc]

i have done it on mine for years and never had any problems, always bought £10 stuff

[ash]

Hmm some mixed views there. I'm a little bit worried about it 'corroding' and 'distorting' my manifold. The main reason for wanting it is to keep the heat away from the feed from petrol pump to carb and also because I thought it was good for performance to keep the heat it.

[Gangsta]

Hmm some mixed views there. I'm a little bit worried about it 'corroding' and 'distorting' my manifold. The main reason for wanting it is to keep the heat away from the feed from petrol pump to carb and also because I thought it was good for performance to keep the heat it.

Performance wise it makes a much bigger difference on a turbo'd car keep the heat in. Mabey you (or a mate) can make an alloy or stainless heatshield to protect the bits that need protecting? Just a suggestion.

[rozzer1275]

I have used thermo tec and a cheap version called le mans, the thermotec was better, neater, where the le mans one was just heavy woven fiber glass but worked fine, i have used heat wrap on maniflow lcb and 3into1, on the downside i found both wraps lead to the lcb cracking at the weld at the Y section within a year, maybe avoided if you don't wrap that area, so far the 3into1 has been fine wraped.

[sazal]

Hmm some mixed views there. I'm a little bit worried about it 'corroding' and 'distorting' my manifold. The main reason for wanting it is to keep the heat away from the feed from petrol pump to carb and also because I thought it was good for performance to keep the heat it.

I took my mini to a rolling road and was told to get a heat shield for my carb after I fitted a stage one kit, but I fitted heat wrap instead. I was told that the manifold was heating the petrol in the float chamber of the carb and making it way too hot.

[dklawson]

I read this thread to see how divergent the posts would be and I was not surprised. Every thread I've ever read on the subject of wrapping invites the arguments presented above... both for and against.

I would like to offer the following comments and I'm a person whose header is wrapped.

There are many fully substantiated reports of damage to headers when they are wrapped.
Ceramic coating of headers is neater looking and by all accounts equally effective without damaging after effects... but it costs a lot more.

That said, my advice would be to wrap your header if it is:
1) cheap, or 2) old

I would not wrap a new header. My car's header was old and when I cleaned it up I found several perforations that needed repair. Once patched and painted I had nothing to loose by wrapping. If I bought a new set of pipes I would spend the extra money to have them ceramic coated. Wrapping did lower the temperature under the bonnet... at least it appeared lower when I was doing things like tuning carbs.

[Gangsta]

Im not against wrapping, just think that there needs to be a real need for it, eg youve moved things or changed things causing more heat than standard or things are now closer than they were before. Id always try heat shielding first though.

[rozzer1275]

agreed if you have heat prob or just want to keep intake air temp down, but I have found welded tubular exhaust manifolds crack at the welds like lcb Y pipe (not a problem on a 3into1), it also broke up my mates mitsi GTO front tubular exhaust manifold he took the wrap off welded it and its been fine since.

[icklemini]

the maniflow manifolds fall apart on the mighty minis that use this wrap - seem to last about 5 race weekends...

but then the sevens and migs dont have near as many issues...

am sure how the engine is tuned has a big part to play in the longevity of the install...

ttfn,
Dave

Edited by icklemini, 06 January 2009 - 10:16 PM.

[rozzer1275]

the maniflow manifolds fall apart on the mighty minis that use this wrap - seem to last about 5 race weekends...

but then the sevens and migs dont have near as many issues...

am sure how the engine is tuned has a big part to play in the longevity of the install...

ttfn,
Dave

not just me then are migs and sevens using 3into1s what are mighty minis using?

[icklemini]

the mighties use the SPi flavour of the maniflow LCB (minispares: C-AEG374). they do literally fall apart like cardboard!!