That's probably from the temperature differential between wrapped and unwrapped areas on the header.

Yeah, uniform high temp coating is definitely better.

It's not an 80's mustang. Have them coated or don't do anything at all. I recommend coating, though, as it will keep them nice.

When I bought my FI LTH's, Tony advised me that if I was going to do something to trap heat, to go with the coating instead of a header wrap. His logic was that the header wrap would trap moisture (from humidity) against the metal in the mornings and lead to premature corrosion of the metal, it kinda makes sense.

Keeping the heat trapped in the LTHs btw, aside from possible keeping the engine bay slightly cooler, helps keep exhaust velocity higher as well.

anyone who winds up with moisture issues wrapped their headers very wrong.


I put about 40k on my first jeep and 20k on my second one, with significant time offroading, in water, etc... had wrapped headers, no issues. On the heat front, my S2K saw much higher EGT's than you guys ever will, had no issues running wrapping downpipe, etc.

You need to wrap a cool pipe, and spray it when you are done.

lots of misleading info in here!

that picture needs to be taken down...

I agree to some extent since those were steel and don't apply here

Just going to echo Semtex's opinion here on the shorty headers, even though you're adamant: if you haven't dropped the money yet, you really shouldn't. I also ran them on my car at one point, and I consider it an early mistake. (a) the short headers do virtually nothing for this car, (b) they're a total PITA to install or remove, which means a bunch of sweat and work on your part, or a bunch of install money.

There are probably thousands of better things to spend time and money on for this car than shorty headers. If you're done with other breathing mobs, some random ideas from the thousands of other things: get some nice seats, put in a roll cage, get your hood vented, get a good aftermarket LSD, upgrade the coilovers, buy lighter wheels and/or brake rotors. Lots of those things will stick with the car even after you go FI, too.