Stainless manifold advice.

[Jigga]

hi guys happy new year!! i've jus purchased a stainless steel manifold for my s15 and just wanted ur advice on wether its a good idea to wrap the manifold in fibre glass wrap as i want to not damage my engine bay with the extreme heat generated by the manifold, but i really want to know if this wraping of the manifold will shorten its life (make it crack)??? thanx

[Sydneykid]

Hi Jigga, we have been wrapping stainless exhausts for many years. Never had a problem with shortening their life.

But you do have to be careful that the manifold can support the weight of the turbo. I find a lot that have no bracing at the head flange and they break at the welds.

I have also seen a couple of sets that were made out of too thin a gauge stainless and they simply sag under the weight. Exhaust wrapping would make this worse, but it would probably still happen even without the wrapping.

Regarding weight I would strongly suggest you have a mount for your exhaust at the gearbox to engine join. I have seen a few cars lately where the whole exhaust hangs of the turbo at the front and a couple of mounts at the rear muffler. This breaks turbo flanges, wastegate mounts, causes the turbo to manifold bolts to shear and I have seen one where the turbine cover itself broke from the weight.

Stainless manifolds don't like all this stuff hanging off them, so it is even more important to support the weight somewhere else.

Hope that helps

[Jigga]

thanx for the information sydney kid the manifold i've got has a brace between the turbo flange and the block flange do you think this will be enough support?

[MrMayhem]

I think wrapping would increase teh life of the manifold.... differential contraction would be slowed probably lessening the chance of cracking just wear a mask and wet it when wrapping .... dirty job

[Sydneykid]

Hi Jigga, if it has a good sized bracket from the turbo flange to the head flange then that will be OK for carrying the weight of the turbo itself. I would still make sure the exhaust is supported somewhere near the front though.

Hope that helps some more

[KamikazeR33]

sydneykid will fibreglass wrap be able to stand the heat the turbo and manifold makes (even when the turbo is glowing orange)

[KamikazeR33]

bumpage

[Sydneykid]

Hi KamikazeR33, I only use designated exhaust wrap which is rated to 1200 degrees celsius. That's way more than you will ever see an exhaust manifold or a turbine cover get to. Red is around 850 degrees, pink is around 900 degrees. So no problems if you use the right stuff.

Hope that helps

[KamikazeR33]

cheers dude

yeah ive seen a turbo at probably the pink to red colour, and the car had just been givin a 2 min drive cool down so no idea how hot it was before the cool down

[RHiSC]

dont wrap stainless manifolds... they will quickly weaken and crack

Edited September 20, 2005 by RHiSC