Easy one really.
Had too much time on my hands tonight. Getting ready to apply the wrap tomorrow.

 

It's a tray for serving after dinner mints.

Did I win?

One thing you can do for an uncoated header to have it last longer is VHT it so that it is sealed. The wrap holds moisture which, with heat causes it to rust. Using the exterior sealer on the wrap is a great idea ( have not seen that ). I have a Stahl header, w/wrap, on my 66 spitfire that has been on the car since 89 & it's still in good shape ( VHT w/wrap ).

 

After having spent a good part of the day doing the header wrap I can say these things;

I really need a blast cabinet

The exhaust noise is suppressed some. The wife noticed

The sealer stinks and smokes pretty bad. Quite amusing at a stop light. Of course many stared but no one offered any warning, advice or even pointed.

Unfortuntely my cheap temp gauge only goes to 150º so I can see what the max temp change was before and after

At first blush it doesn't appear to have helped intake temps. I'll know more in a couple days after making some data notes. My intake is devcently insulated so that makes a difference.

No matter what vehicle, no matter what decade, getting that first header bolt started is a pain in the a$$. Next time I will have some threaded rod or long set screws on hand.

And yes, after finally getting a personal close look at the OEM manfold I can see replacing it with a 4-2-1 header and cat just moved up the to do list. That thing is fugly

 

That alone might make it worth my while...I like quiet but I want a header (already have a JCW "crap-back" exhaust).

I'm wondering if it would be a wash, noise wise, to add a header with a free flow cat and wrap it all...probably not, but one can hope. Obehave, do you have a cat-back exhaust and if so which one?

 

Funny you should say that. I have about 20 feet of wrap left. The OEM manifold is short so I have alot left from the 50 ft. roll.

Tomorrow AM, while it's still below 90º I'm going to wrap the resonator and possibly the head pipe. I'll let you know how it goes.
TBH doing just the exhaust manifold didn't effect the Magnaflow cat back very much. I can hear the SC whine better now though.

Same time same station.....

 

What I had left covered the front resonator and about a foot to 15" of pipe after it.
2' wrap with an approximate 1" overlap.

In a nutshell. If you want top take the edge off the exhaust tone I think this will make you happy.
Almost cetainly wouldn't shown up on a dv-cam microphone so recording would have been useless.

Bear in mind I also have supression material under the back seat, in the doors and in the boot. My car sounds much more solid than even a new MINI.

 

Well we'll all get to see if the wrap causes the pipe to burn out as some say. Then you will have the excuse to get a 4-2-1 header anyway.

 

All part of my eeeevil plan

I don't want much though. 4-2-1 header with cat, coated, less than $700

Please let's not bring up the DIY header thing anybody.
Too old, too lazy and there's no warranty.


Happy 4th Norm

 

I too would like a 4-2-1 header at a reasonable price. And by reasonable I am saying $250 to $300, or less, not including the cat or coating.

I've considered the OBX but the accuracy of the positioning of the pipes to the flange seems to vary from unit to unit. And the only other reasonably priced header I've found is the Megan unit, which is a 4-1. I don't know anyone locally (Dallas area) who has a Megan...is the quality on it better than the OBX? I'd be willing to go with it even though it isn't the design I prefer for the price. I'm just not willing to spend $700 on a header when quality units for other 4 cylinder cars are so much less expensive.

Geez...I've hijacked my own thread.

 

You can do that

 

If you don't already do so, check Craigslist reguarly. I was able to get a SuperSprint header, with stock cat for 300 bucks. The deals are out there!

 

obehave: Your PM box is full, so I'll ask it here, since you posted on this thread and it's related. Did you post regarding the sound treatments you installed to reduce road and exhaust noise? My Megan with wrap is very loud and I need to do some in-car sound control.
thanks,

 

While TonyB has made a good suggestion; I would not hesitate to pick-up a OBX Header. If you look at the OBX comments - most have had minimal issue with bolting it up. In my case 1 bolt gave me a problem which was solved with shaving a bit of the flange off the bolt. Others bought new bolts with smaller heads. Before you buy double check the return policy.

OBX header with stock cat recycled should run you under 500 bucks installed!

 

TonyB - question for you. How did the SS bolt up? Did any bolts fight you at all? stock bolts?

 

Altogether I have done
Dynamat in the doors( 1 layer)
under the back seat (1)
boot floor(2)
header wrap on stock header
header wrap on resonator of Magnaflow system.


The doors and under the rear seat greatly reduce road noise, not much for exhaust suppression. The boot knocks the exhaust noise a bit but agin, not much.
The header and resonator I like. Took just a bit of the edge off.

All together I think the car sounds more refined now. After driving MINI loaners quite a bit( don't ask) I prefer the sound of my car over any of them. My wife does as well.

TBH though if my MINI was not doing double duty as family/auto-x car I don't know how much of this I would have done. The header wrap was for heat and not noise. The noise reduction was a plus. I knew it was coming since I have done wrap in the past but it wasn't the main reason for installation.

I've cleaned out my Inbox so if you want any more info PM away.

 

Add in $200 for coaating and we're back to my baseline dream of $700.

Honestly though if nothing comes to market this is a good option along with Tony's suggestion of Craigslist, etc.

Has anybody gasket matched an OBX?

Thanks again everybody

Happy 4th

 

I suppose I'll find-out next weekend. I have the header with a local ceramic coater now, and I hope it will be ready to pick-up later this week, but the holiday schedule might complicate matters...

The SS header, I believe, was the first available for the MINI Community, so there are quite a few out there. I have not heard anything about misalignment or other issues. The person I bought it from said that it was a piece-of-cake install. He was selling his MINI, and getting it back to stock...

I'll probably start a new thread when the time comes.

 

more stuff

 

I've done header wrap and silicon spray sealer over it all and ran it at track, autocross and on the street for about one year (10,000 miles).

While it did cut a little under bonnet heat, I did not notice that much difference for overall performance. My Milltek cat failed and second O2 sensor threw error codes that led to replacing the entire header which is stainless steel.

I looked at the wrap and it was cooked and brittle- paper thin and flaking off it had burned out. Track sessions were up to 15 minutes x 4 sessions in one day but mostly less than that. Autocross about 4 to 6 one minute runs each month all year. Street driving usually pretty easy.

I would not recommend header wrap and I think that it hasn't been tested with various MINI headers and would probably reduce the life of the header except under easy use. Better would be to use ceramic coating which is what I did with my new Milltek header- costs more at $175. Slightly lower under bonnet temps and no really big difference in sound or performance that I can tell. No problems with 02 sensor or any check engine lights.

I installed the header wrap myself, it's easy with the header off the MINI.
It did burn and gave off alot of smoke initially. It worried my mechanic as he thought the MINI was on fire. It burned off and did ok. At the time I did the wrap there was no good option in my area for ceramic wrap but that did improve later.

I did not notice any difference in sound with the header wrap installed.

 

I got my ceramic header coating done here in the NE Atlanta area for $134.

 

175 in the Bay Area, internal and external coating... as explained to me, it's maintenance-free, good for up to 2,400 F, and is guaranteed for life. i hope to find-out how it looks tomorrow!

 

Sweet

Next....how it works eh?

 

Looks like not today... Drat. I guess I can't install it until the weekend anyways...

 

FYI. I have used the wrap on my 930 for more than 15 years w/o any problem at all, as you might know the 930 is air cooled + turbo and heat in the engine compartment is an issue. I recommend the wrap 100% to keep the heat from the exhaust gasses where it supposed to be = inside the headers to the tail pipe.