Originally Posted By swissghost

quote from laurens:
"Not sure if it's a good idea.
I can remember that i saw a post of Swissghost that he got an broken pipes near the cylinder head. Could be caused by the wrapping ??"

laurens:
take a closer look at the crack in my exhaust!
this crack has nothing to do with wrapping. as a trained welder and metalworker, i tell you this is a material error! the pipes are way to thin for all the vibrations and the stress due to differences in heat and cold. if metal is stressed with different temperatures on the same piece, it begins to work against itself. that's physics. so, making sure (with wrapping) the temperature stays the same for the hole header (from cylinder exit to the cats), you release the stress on the steel. the wrap is made of ceramic and its very light. so no arguing cause of weight. this is not a normal stress caused crack. not at all. that crack would look very different. one other reason: material of the pipes and material of the header-piece (last 4cm) is not the same! also different ways of production of those two pieces.
so, making sure the engine breathes out very fast, means the exhaust-temperature has to stay very hot, and the hot exhaust fumes run the cats well, you have to wrap the headers!!! period! my brother in law worked for a company producing exhaust systems and diesel particulate filter, they all agree with those facts!
wraping the headers for the looks is one thing. but to do it for the reasons i do it, is a completly different story.
by the way: mmc and all the engine and exhaust manufatures all agreed with me when they saw the pic of the crack and heard on the specifics of our engine and exhaust configuration.


+1