Heat shielding after headers.Long Post!

[GTS Bruce]

After installing CDI headers which prohibit the installation of the stock heat shields I discovered that components facing the headers were too hot to be touched.In addition some of the primaries ran almost right up against various ac,brake,cooling system hoses etc.My solution was to use ThermoTec aluminized heat barrier with adhesive backing.They also make non-adhesive backed products.Got mine from summit.It is aluminum over FG mat over adhesive.Supposed to reflect over 90% of radiant heat up to 2000 deg F.Coated everything with a view to the headers.Air box,air box motor,ac line,brake lines foot wells etc,etc.Used approx 4 of the 1' by 2' sheets.Does it work yes.Stick NO!It tries to peel off starting at the edges when hot.Can't pull it off when its cold.Told thermotec that their product SucXed and peeled off in the heat.They say it was the first they had heard of it and I said BS.They offered money back and I explained how long the install took and that I wanted a solution.They say that they recommend the use of 3M super weatherstrip adhesive pt # 08008 to bond their non-adhesive backed product and I said I would try it.I called 3M and they were unaware of its use for that purpose but assured me that it would withstand at least 300 deg F.It does work.After a drive I check for lifted edges and seal them down with the 3m product.Its black.Smells like old model airplane glue,but works.Clean up recommends water?.I tried detergent which also does not work.However mineral spirits will remove it from your car,hands,headers etc..before it is completely dry and hardened.Sure wish DC would have insulated these pieces better at the factory.I sure wish they would have run some lines in different positions.Second I wish I would have done the shielding with the stock headers off before installation of the CDI headers.Maybe you don't need the shielding and I'm just being anal.I just didn't like that I couldn't place my hand on the air box,air box motor and various lines without burning my fingers. Bruce

 

[GTS Bruce]

Yes they are jet hot coated.I feel that coated headers are an absolute must to keep engine compartment temps down.One of the recent hot rod car mags showed coated headers to run a surface temp around 300 deg less than ucoated.BTW I have no cats and a Corsa 3" cat back.Engine temp according to the gage use to run on the far right mark over 190 indicated.Now it runs at the center mark and only goes to the right mark in stop and go traffic.Also I always have that blower motor on high to keep air movinig through it.Have heard that high header temps without shielding have caused a melted air box.The side,bottom and side of blower motor are coated with thermotec on my car. Bruce

 

[GTS Dean]

Bruce,

A lot of folks who put headers on their cars without the heat shielding and then run hard at the track have brake problems. The radiant heat can contribute to boiled fluid in the hard lines below the brake booster.

 

[red98GTS]

Bruce....some time ago, I had the EXACT same experience with the self-adhesive Thermo-Tec tape. I posted the results here and thought it might prevent anybody else from the "no stick" situation and laborious removal of it that I went through. Don't ask me how I got it off...but you know from trying yourself, it was a nightmare of sticky, gooey adhesive. Yikes! How anybody can manufacture something MADE specifically for high heat situations and then have it not stick when it heats up is beyond me! I told Summit, but of course, they could not care less. Sorry you missed my post...pete the ex glass guy and hot rodder

 

[JonB]

Kind of a commercial:

Considering headers? Consider this:

Headers can glow RED HOT in performance driving situations. There was a Viper Mag cover photo of a glowing hot CDI-headered race motor a few years back.

Coated headers run 250-300 degrees cooler than uncoated.
But that means cooler than their normal, uncoated operating temps. Stainless runs hotter out of the box. That's why we see 1700-2000 degree coatings used on stainless headers.

Coated Headers of alumanized steel (Belanger) operate 180-220 degrees COOLER than coated headers of stainless. Belangers are kinder-gentler to those underhood components and toe-boxes. Many street-drivers dont even use the heat shields! When Belangers factory installs headers, they dont even install the steel plug-wire shields, juts use HiTemp wires, minus the metal shields. The tube ROUTING of the tri-Y vs long-tube stainless results in even kinder/cooler components as well.

I used a hand-held pyrometer at a Viper Days event in Phoenix (HOT!) way back in 1997 and spot-checked some headers and some underhood component temps. (We were less sophisticated with insulating back then.) Some stainless-equipped Vipers had boiled not only fluids, but ruined the Power Brake boosters. The alumanized headers were indeed much cooler.

 

[GTS Bruce]

red98gts.I think I did mine before you did yours.Wasn't willing to try to peel everything off.The solution for me was to tack down the loose ends using 3m super weatherstrip adhesive which does work.Too bad it adds so much extra work to the orig project.Thermotec should be ashamed of themselfs. bruce

 

[95Viper]

Do you think using the 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive #08008 would be good for gluing my insulation back on? I'm removing the rivits in a 95 and gluing instead.

 

[GTS Bruce]

I don't know and I don't think so.Call or E mail them and they will tell you what temp the adhesive is good for.If the adhesive held dc would probably be using it there already.If I remember the adhesive is only good to 250 to 300F.The temp its exposed to depends on the insulative and reflactive ability of the shields.Let us know how it works out. Bruce