M6x exhaust manifolds: Heat wrap or Ceramic Coat

[P Arkus]

Been doing some research on this and wondering what the majority here have done. Though i've read most of the build threads, I cant remember the exact details of each one but I wanna say that most of you have no heat wrapped your exhaust manifolds.

If you were to do it again, which one would you choose? Do you have any heat shields that reflect the heat elsewhere? Do you find the manifolds give out too much heat and should be wrapped?

I appreciate any opinions and discussion about both methods!

[CorvallisBMW]

wrapping is definitely cheaper, but it can also cause corrosion as it can hold moisture against the metal in damp climates. Ceramic coating doesn't have this problem, and it looks better IMO. Though it is more expensive. Some OEM manifold are already dual-wall, meaning they essentially have heat shielding built in. I would think you'll be OK with OEM m60 manifolds unless you want to do it for the bling factor.

[Chris916]

I heat wrapped mine. You may also find heat tape (that gold stuff) is useful to use against the firewall. Amazing the difference a bit of tape can do.

[NateE30]

I'm with Chris. I heat wrapped mine, and used gold reflective tape on the firewall. On a side question would you put the gold tape on the bottom of the hood?

[P Arkus]

Thats good to know. I should have mentioned that I have full intent to use the gold heat tape as well. My biggest worry is like Corvallis said, I dont want to develop moisture in there and have the manifolds corroding on me in a couple of years.

I'll admit i'm kind of leaning towards the ceramic coating option because a) its much less of a PITA than wrapping, and b) I think it looks much better as well. However I would like someone to convince me otherwise if this is just a plain bad idea. As much as I want my car to look nice when the swap it complete, having it running properly is far more important to me!

[CorvallisBMW]

check out www.jet-hot.com

[smalcol]

The stock manifolds are already dual wall. I used the wrap myself, it's all stainless as well, is there really a worry about corrosion?

[P Arkus]

Thats actually a good point. The manifolds i'm using are the Garagistic manifolds. Though I know they are stock manifolds modified for the swap, I dont know exactly what modifications are done and how those modifications would affect heat transfer.

Can I ask why you did the wrap? Was it because you believed it would be better, or was it more budget related?

[JGood]

Garagistic most likely does what I did, which is cut through all layers and weld them together. So they're still dual walled.







I don't have any issues with under hood temps with my uncoated headers. 25k miles and counting. The power steering lines are very close to the drivers side header though, so I bought DEI hose protectors for them. No idea how well they work, or if it's even necessary.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dei-010474

[smalcol]

I did the wrap just to reduce the underhood temps, my drivers side header is super close to my steering box. I didn't research the effectiveness of ceramic coating vs. wrap. I decided that I could do the wrap myself rather than send off parts to someone, it's easy.

[P Arkus]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice guys! And thanks for that link to the hose protectors, I might invest in that too just for peace of mind!