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I took off my heat shields to send them out for powder coating. Since they've been off I've been wondering about header wrap, has anybody wrapped their headers? Will it fit under the OEM heat shields? Are there any performance benefits? Does it make a noticeable difference in the amount of heat radiated off of the pipes?
There was another thread on this somewhere and after reading it, I went and bought some because I was curious.
Unbelievably, it worked fantastic to lower the heat on the right side of the engine and it was super cheap.
The right side is now about the same temp as the left.
Note there are some potential downsides people like to "talk about", like your header eventually rusting, collecting moisture after rain/washes, and steam burning your friggin legs off etc, etc,
None of that has been an issue with mine so far. Still have my legs.
Good luck. Wrapping it was not great fun. I took the header off and did it on a work bench. Wear arm/hand protection...
Edit: Also, my heat shields don't fit perfectly now, but it doesn't bother me. Be careful how much you wrap and where you put the metal straps to lessen the interference with the heat shields.
I have wrapped mine and use the stock shields; the shields fit and look fine (I even double wrap the collector area and the rear cylinder pipe). You will hear that it causes the head pipe to rust, however it is a stainless head pipe (doesn't rust). It will reduce the heat felt on your leg, but as mentioned be mindful of where you place the retaining straps in relation to your shield clamps. Save yourself some money and forget the "titanium" wrap, it is harder to work with and IMO no felt difference on the heat. IMO it is easier to do this off the bike which allows you to use the ceramic coating also. Once you have done this there will be a period of time to cure everything, whereby you will be smelling it for awhile, but that goes away. Good luck with which ever road you choose to travel and keep the shiny side up.
An improperly wrapped pipe can cause water to be trapped between the wrap and the pipe, which in theory can cause rust issues. I had my pipes wrapped on my 2000 Fatboy and didn't have any issues.
So I'm finally getting around to ordering wrap. I see one vote for titanium, and one for not. I was looking at this kit on Amazon: Amazon Header Wrap Are all wraps fiberglass based? So really you just soak the stuff in water, then wrap it and band it with the clamps? Do you also wrap over the collector/cat?
If its best to remove the headers form the bike, I'm guessing you need to replace the gaskets? Are the gaskets the same for all "big twin" motors? I saw these on Amazon that say they are good for all Harleys 84-21. Any trick to installing them, I saw a tool but its $50 so that seems a bit crazy. And is there a torque spec for the flange bolts?
So I'm finally getting around to ordering wrap. I see one vote for titanium, and one for not. I was looking at this kit on Amazon: Amazon Header Wrap Are all wraps fiberglass based? So really you just soak the stuff in water, then wrap it and band it with the clamps? Do you also wrap over the collector/cat?
If its best to remove the headers form the bike, I'm guessing you need to replace the gaskets? Are the gaskets the same for all "big twin" motors? I saw these on Amazon that say they are good for all Harleys 84-21. Any trick to installing them, I saw a tool but its $50 so that seems a bit crazy. And is there a torque spec for the flange bolts?
I bought the titanium and did not wet the wrap (someone recommended against it - I forget) I'm sure it won't hurt anything to wet it - I just didn't and it went fine.
Yes, I wrapped over the collector and the cat some. I reused my exhaust gaskets, have several times, but Yes, they are pretty standard if you want to use new ones. Don't need a tool to install them...
Tip. Do two runs. For run one, start at the collector and work your way up to the front cylinder. Second run, start at the end of the cat and work you way up the cat, to the collector, then up to the rear cylinder in one shot.
If you do it this way instead of doing three individual runs (cat, cylinder 1, cylinder 2) you will be able to avoid having a bunch of metal tie wraps right at the collector - which makes it hard to get the heat shields back on...
Also, when you light off the bike finally it's going to smoke like crazy for awhile and smell bad for 100 miles or so. Normal.
I have the Ti wrap , don't know why it must of been the best deal at the time and I have no idea if it's better or not than non Ti , none at all.
When I go bigger cubes I'll use it.
If I was going to take my pipe all the way off the bike I just get a ceramic coated, My d&D's exhaust was ceramic coated made a huge difference moved on the S&S since then
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Wrapping/Insulating Headers on M8?
