Engine header tip

header tip

if you put heat tape on your header it will give out more hp, just a tip for anyone who didnt know that.

but if you do it on a stock header, it would eventually crack.

aftermarket headers wont crack?

jspexase102 is correct. I think they used heat wrap back in the old muscle car days. But now that everything is ceramic coated you really don't need heat wrap anymore.

Mine have been wrapped for 2+ years and there are no cracks

I thought someone with a header did this before and it cracked. In theory it would also keep engine bay temp down wouldn't it?

yeah- i went through this- it sounded like a good idea at first- but after a painful installation, i was reading that many of the cheaper headers out there are prone to cracking as they cannot "breathe" and cannot cool down quickly enough therefore drastically cutting down the life of the header itself and causing future cracking issues- at least this is what i read- dont know if its true- but i figured that i dont wanna mess with installing a new header....so i took all the wrap off- man that was a pain in the ass..

Also depends on the material of the header itself and the thickness of the metal used. Wrap is still used on some drag and track cars. But generally not recommended for street duty. Ceramic coatings like Jet-Hot are actually applied inside and out - wraps only work from the outside. Sometimes not a problem - but quite a few have had cracking due to annealing issues of the metal, hot or cool spots, etc. compared to ceramic coated versions. But wraps will tend to keep the temps down better than ceramic coatings - sometimes by a few hundred degress - depending on the quality of the wrap and installation. A header, by its design, will run hot - how you deal with that heat is up to your budget and amount of time you can invest into it.