I gave my brother in law a set of Bbk stainless headers. They keep melting plug boots and wires. He has everything too wrap the headers. Just wondering if this will hurt them at all? We just bought the sleeves for my plug boots and wires and it solved the problem on my car but he wants too wrap his so much for a quick easy fix

 

The wrap itself won't hurt the headers in any way. Now, from what I understand, it will promote rust on the headers a lot faster than normal, but nobody will see that anyways since they are wrapped.

 

I thought stainless didn't rust. I heard it traps moisture but don't understand how considering how hot they get.

 

I got some frabic insulators that are about 6 inch's long and go on and cover the boot and some of the wire. Works great. Just make sure they are not directly on the header. Used zip ties to keep them clear and hold them in a good spot.

 

I use the same on my car but my brother in law wants too be a pita and wrap his . He thinks he wil get massive performance gains. Im sure there are some gains too be had from wrapping headers but man is it really worth all that work?

 

Yeah, they definitely won't trap moisture since they get so hot. Check out the thread below and it will explain the science about header wrap and rust. I don't know if it still happens with Stainless or not, but still interesting..

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=347250

 

Just like your brother in law I wanted to wrap my headers at first just to stop them from burning my wires but when I started asking people about wrapping headers every single person told me NOT to do it. I went to a local auto parts store on 2 separate occasions to buy the wrap but they wouldn't even sell it to me when I told them what I was gonna do with it. It was one of those things where I wanted to do it just because everyone told me not to. Eventually got over it and just bought the boot covers. From what I was told just like everyone else here says, the header would get alot hotter than it normally would and after so many heat cycles it would make the metal brittle and weak. Also if you read the instructions and warranty info on just about all headers the warranty is void if you use header wrap because they know the metal isnt made to go through insulated thermal cycles.

 

A lot easier and look a lot better, four colors to choose from.... http://cableorganizer.com/insultherm-spark/

 

The steel doesn't rust because of moisture - it's too hot to "trap moisture" as you noted. It rusts due to the oxygen in the air combining with the iron in the steel, due to the extremely high temperature. Mild steel is the worst. Stainless steel will not rust as bad.

Used to be an F-Body shop called Tom Byrne Motorsports. He was a supporting vendor, great place to buy stuff. Tom lost his LT1 F-Body when the header wrap started an engine fire. Appears it got soaked with oil.