I had a general question regarding under hood temps. I installed Pacesetter long tubes on my 94 25th TA. They are coated but the underhood temps are very high. Hot enough that the plastic glue/filler in the steering shaft right next to the drivers header is oozing out.

What is considered normal for under hood and header temps?

Any ways of controlling the temps under hood while keeping the stock hood?

Thanks All

 

Wow....I can almost hear crickets. Thanks any way.

 

Which plastic part are you talking about? There's one that covers the shaft where it enters the gearbox and theres another right off the firewall the covers the U-joint. Most header install instructions say to discard it because its too close to the primaries. On mine, I left the lower cover but had to modify it a bit.
Yes, it will be very hot 1 inch away from the primaries.
To help get air thru it, you can remove the rear rubber seal at the bottom of the windshield to let heat escape. I've never looked at doing this, but you could make the stock hood scoops functional.
All else, get a Suncoast Predator hood with the rear heat extractor mod...but keep your original since its a 25th Anniv. car.

 

What about header wrap? I don't know what the pros/cons are of using it, but I know it's supposed to make the headers more efficient (keep the hot exhaust gasses inside the pipes instead of just dumping the heat to the atmosphere) and I'm sure they would reduce under the hood temps.

 

The wrap will ruin the coating thats on the header most likely, but it will definitely reduce the under hood temps, BUT if you get oil leaking on it, then you'll have yourself a fire IF you use, be very careful about where you use it is my advice, a dripping valve cover could cost you your car.

 

I never even bothered reinstalling those plastic covers for the steering linkage. They came so close to the headers that I knew they would become a gooey mess in a days time.

 

The plastic I am speaking of is fitted inside the steering shaft. Almost like it is injected into 2 small holes in the shaft. The outer covers have been removed.

 

Header wrap will shorten the life of your headers and possibly cause a crack.

 

Substantiate that please. I have a set of Kooks stainless wrapped on an ORR car with NO problems and it doesn't get much more severe than Open Road Racing. Have you seen this occur yourself? Without firsthand experience, this needs to be classed as internet misinformation.

In my case, the wrap lowered underhood temps considerably - you can lay your hands on the wrap at operating temp. FWIW, my engine has NO oil leaks to soak the wrap.

 

I cannot, but a few users once told me it happened. I belived them when I inquired about getting some wrap myself. Maybe I should look into it further....

 

Stainless headers will not have a problem being wrapped. Mild steel might, I've seen other mild stell manifolds/etc crack under extreme heat at the welds, not necessarily from being wrapped though but wrapping would cause greater temps inside the header.

 

This sure is interesting.......I had no idea that steel headers/manifolds could crack if they were wrapped.

Learn something new everday.

 

I would imagine a wrap could also accellerate corrosion if they were to get wet....

 

Agreed. And it is dangerous --- Get some oil on that wrap and you will look like a torch going down the road ( I worry about it constantly). The wrap is expensive, it is a bitch to put on and makes you itch like crazy. When I scrape the collectors it tears off and has to be replaced. I would NOT recommend it for a daily driver--no way!

 

I would think only if they stayed in a wet/damp environment. But if they simply got wet somehow, fire up the engine and evaporate the moisture ... no problem.