I have had it with melting wires and shorting out. I sent for some exhaust wrap, pricey stuff so I hope it's a good grade. I was telling my buddy I'm goin' wrap these things, Performance Coated ,or not it's just too much heat. It's a SBC, pretty run of the mill installation on a chopped 39 Chevy. Anyway, my friend says the only way to do it right is "take 'em off" I know he's right. I don't wanna do that, I just got all the Stage 8 fasteners in place. You guys think I can wrap these on the car? I have access. And if you think I can. Do ya start at the top or bottom? And when I ordered the wrap I asked for the silicone spray and the Summit Rep said I wouldn't need it with this wrap. It that true? I have never wrapped headers on any of my bikes or car. Anybody made enough mistakes to head off some problems. I hate to make 'em ugly.
I don't know if you have enough room to wrap them in the car or not. Only you can determin that. Most of the headers I have seen wrapped were an afterthought and got wrapped in place if that helps. I would wrap from the top if it were me. But I can do anything wrong that anyone else can do right. I would say to read everything that comes with the wrap. The company probably gives some helpful tips.
itll probably look like **** if you do it on the car. i remember it not being real easy with some huggers off the truck. oH ya and from top to bottom so you can hide the cuts where they come together at the collector
Yeah, I know it's risk, I just hate to think of pullin' 'em off with the Chicagoland Nats 2 days away. Maybe I'll just try try is dry and see what happens, It doesn't look easy to get it all straight on tight tubes. Whatta' think of no silicone spray? Are they just trying to sell spray, or do think keep rain off of hot pipes is a good idea?
If there's sufficient room around the headers to work comfortably, try it in the car. But if the headers are frying wires, I suspect not. I'd remove the headers to install the wrap. Note that wraps need to be moistened prior to installing them, so it's a bit messy/hard to handle within the confines of a tight engine bay. Wrap each header tube from the flange on down, individually. Then wrap the collection pipe. That's how I've done it, doesn't take that long. I tie mine off so the ends don't unravel with stainless steel zip ties, available from Home Depot and Lowes, etc. No to the silicone spray. Hope this helps.
I'd look into running the plug wires under the exhaust, like they did with the rams horns manifolds on 57-70ish cars and into the early 80s on vettes. Wires come down the back of the engine, to near the bottom of the block, then forward. But I'm weird like that.
Antny, Thanks good advice. Squirrel good to hear from you, hope everything is cool with you in these hard times. That's is a great idea when I was between cars Bill Moody of Moody's Upholstery bought a 40 Ford with a SBC and that's how I solved the problem. Except he had Ram Horns a little different configuration. These Performance header do hug the block! I had to remake the motor mounts to get 'em in there.
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