RichJ

I bought my Evo off this board about a month ago and the previous owner wrapped the Buschur downpipe with an exhaust heat wrap. He did a very neat job and it looks great.

I've noticed on Buschur's site that they sell some exhaust components with optional heat wrap (at an extra cost of around $50) and on Ultimate Racing's site they show their downpipe with heatwrap on it.

Here's my worry. The down pipe goes under the engine and the oil pan, and if I ever had an oil leak it would likely end up on the downpipe. My understanding is that while heat wrap is not flammable, if it becomes coated with something flammable, the surface will burn (as in flames). I personally know of at least one serious engine fire on a Camaro with the headers wrapped and an oil leak and I've heard of others on the web.

I've never heard of someone having a problem with a turbo downpipe being wrapped though. Has anyone here?

I guess I'm debating whether to remove the wrap and have the pipe high temp coated, or just leave it as is.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

YellowFever

iTrader: (24)

this is a really good question

YellwTyper

iTrader: (1)

The only thing about that is, you would have to look at everything. ALmost everything is a fire hazard once there is fuel placed into the picture. I probably could be hazardous, which should make you that much more cautious with those components. I guess keep a close eye on those things.

alex_alex

iTrader: (7)

great points on both sides.

That IS a concern...but like Yellow said, ANYTHING with leaking fuel on it will burn.

But i see the concern, b/c cloth would seem to burn longer and easier than metal...which, well, doesn't burn

Airgiod

thats not true...think magnesium..and if i remeber correctly thermite is made of aluminum and iron oxide

alex_alex

iTrader: (7)

true, magnesium can catch fire...and several others, but nothing on the car is magnesium.

Airgiod

Valve cover

BeenWaitin4Evo

iTrader: (1)

Most likely if it's oil it will just smolder off. Ever dripped some oil out onto an engine and smelled it driving down the road? It doesn't catch fire, just makes a helluva stink when it "burns" off.

Gas, on the other hand, would be a bad bad thing to have drip on something hot. But then again, just 1 or 2 drips probably won't result in any huge fire if it even ignited.

You have to consider the amount of oil/gas that may hit the downpipe. A few drips here and there aren't going to do anything major. But if your oil plug falls out and oil comes streaming out onto the downpipe, well, I'd pull over and run.

5StarSuzuki

I've had oil hit my exhaust manifold on a different car before. No problems, its not that flamable. Although I don't know why you put heat wrap on in the first place?

puckadog

iTrader: (4)

i have seen roadracing motorcycles w/uncoated header wrap catch on fire several times. both were on bikes that had oil leaking issues, did take a bit to soak into the fabric and voila, fire, fire. i wraped my dp because of it's proximity to the oil pan. the stock dp has a fairly complete heat shield on it for a reason. the sucker gets hot! however, i did use an entire can of black vht paint on the black wrap that thermo-tec sells for the wrap. it will keep oil from soaking into the fabric (if
heaven forbid, yer car gets leaky) and keep the wrap from fraying.
my 2c

RichJ

Just to clarify one point -- I know that it's harmless for oil to drip on exhaust parts generally. I've had my share of oil on headers and other hot exhaust parts from leaking valve covers, intake manifold gaskets, rear main seals, poorly sealed plugs and leaky oil temp gauge fittings. Yes, oil will just smolder on a hot exhaust pipe and do no more harm than just create smoke and a stink. BUT, I've been told that when it gets on heat wrap, that it will stay on the wrap without burning off because the surface of the wrap is a lot cooler than the pipe underneath. So the oil can accumulate without burning off. Then, if for some reason something gets hotter than normal or there is a spark, etc., the built up oil on the wrap will burn all at once. I've heard (but I don't know how reliable this info. is) that someone poured oil on some heatwrap and then put a match to it -- instant fire. Anyhow, it sounds like no one here (so far) has heard of a turbo heat wrap fire incident, which is good...

MalibuJack

iTrader: (5)

Hmm.. Never gave it much thought.. However my only concern is if it were glowing red-hot.. That is the only time it would be hot enough to ignite oil or gasoline (Just so you know, the Vapor from gasoline is what is flamable, most of the time it will just evaporate unless its near something hot enough to ignite it, so just the fumes under the hood could be more of a risk than it dripping on anything hot)

I think the theory is if the wrap (silica wrap is what most header wraps are made of) is if it gets saturated with something flamable, it will be retained in the deeper layers.. If you have something like a stainless header, that glows red-hot, it could potentially burn.

You could remove the wrap from the downpipe, and only use a small section of adhesive thermotec insulation in the sections near the oil pan to prevent transferring the heat to the oil. Otherwise wrapping the downpipe isn't really all that useful. The parts most beneficial to wrap with insulation (If you would elect not to have a thermal coating applied to it) is the hot side of the turbo housing, and the header (exhaust manifold) since keeping the heat in the exhaust has several benefits, first, the expanding gasses will help the turbo spool, second, retaining the heat inside the header will mean less of it is shed under the hood..
You could also have an aftermarket O2 housing (Stainless steel) coated, however I don't know of any direct benefits other than potentially preserving the metal.

RichJ

Thanks for the heads up on the high temp paint on the wrap.

puckadog

iTrader: (4)

i tried the adhesive thermo-tec stuff and two weeks later when i changed my oil all that was left was a little crinkily peice. crap baked right off. not a proper application i guess. but, since the stuff crisped up that quickly - i decided to wap the pipe.

RichJ

Decided to just remove the wrap and get my Buschur downpipe coated by Jet Hot. Only cost $78 for the super high temp Jet Hot 2000 stuff. No more worries about fires now and good heat insulation