bigbore468 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 I got paid, so I ordered some DEI "titanium" wrap about 100 ft. of it, so maybe I'll have some extra to do some other things with it and a set of those KMJ SS headers. Looking into those phenolic spacers and spark plug boots. I appreciate everyone's feedback. Ultimately, I decided against the jet-hot/swain option just because I'm going to end up getting new headers, wrap and heat shielding for everything else for the price of the cost of just the coating. If I melt or blow a weld on these headers I might look into getting a set of stock manifolds, polishing and radiusing them myself and send them off to get some kind of heat treating. Although, with cast-iron I imagine it'd be less of an issue to begin with. :/ The wrap will help control the under hood temps, as you already know; as well as doing all the other stuff you mention. My experience with different wraps on steel tube headers are they do cause the pipes to crack or fail over the years. My first three sets of long tube headers were wraped and they all failed. I was told the wrap put on too tight causes the pipes to deform when they get hot, and eventually cause them to crack at a joint or bend. As the other poster noted, the Jet Hot Sterling coating does almost nothing to help control under hood temps, and will probably fail due to overheating the coating. My current set of Hooker headers have the Jet Hot Sterling coating, and started to show signs of failure within a few months. My Z is only a weekend driver, and even that limited use caused the Sterling coating to fail. The people at Jet Hot Arizona are first class. They were willing to redo the coating for free, upgrading me to their Extreme 2000 or whatever their top of the line product is. But I never got around to pulling the headers and spending another few hundred bucks just for the shipping. When these go bad, my next set of headers will the stainless steel. I like the flow and sound of long tube headers. I did have excellent results with wrapping the exhaust pipes, from the collectors going back to the muffler. Hope this helps you out with your final decision. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamikaZeS30 Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 bigbore468: Am I reading your post correctly when you say you have long-tube headers for your Z? Where did you get them/have them made? As far as the wrap, I think I am going to do to from the manifold flange to just a few inches past the collector. I want the rest of the exhaust to be able to bleed off heat. I guess the next step is getting some heat shielding for the underside of the floor boards, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunlop Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I had to get steel block huggers to fit with my angled spark plugs. Ended up coating them and also putting exhaust wrap on them. so far soo good!!! Heat isnt that bad, but am mostly concerned about them being to close to my brake lines. I will prob just reroute them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbore468 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 bigbore468: Am I reading your post correctly when you say you have long-tube headers for your Z? Where did you get them/have them made? The headers I'm using are Hooker 2109. Hooker used to make a SBC install kit for the 240/260/280Z along with these long tube headers. But these headers are not an easy fit if you have the JTR mounts. There are a couple other companies that make long tube headers; do a search and something should come up. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbore468 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I had to get steel block huggers to fit with my angled spark plugs. Ended up coating them and also putting exhaust wrap on them. so far soo good!!! Heat isnt that bad, but am mostly concerned about them being to close to my brake lines. I will prob just reroute them. Yeah...forgot to mention that if you have angle plug or 18 degree heads with raised ports, etc., the Hooker headers will not work. With stock hight exhaust port angle plug heads, the #4 pipe on the passenger side header needs mod to clear the plug boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamikaZeS30 Posted May 18, 2011 Author Share Posted May 18, 2011 The wrap and headers are supposed to be here, tomorrow. I probably won't install them for a while, yet. It's finals week and I'm still working on some other issues with the car, also it'd be nice to wrap them before they're on the car to make things easier. I need to do something about my exhaust mounting in the rear of the car, the mufflers are able to move around so they keep slapping the inside of my fender and the noise makes driving the car intolerable. I have no idea how to solve this issue, I don't think I have any unused brackets or mounting points left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbore468 Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 bigbore468: Am I reading your post correctly when you say you have long-tube headers for your Z? Where did you get them/have them made? As far as the wrap, I think I am going to do to from the manifold flange to just a few inches past the collector. I want the rest of the exhaust to be able to bleed off heat. I guess the next step is getting some heat shielding for the underside of the floor boards, lol. Hey guys, My bad! The correct part number for the Hooker headers are 2147, not 2109...it is listed as one of their Super Comp line of headers. Sorry for any confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamikaZeS30 Posted July 28, 2011 Author Share Posted July 28, 2011 Long awaited update, hope I don't get hammered for thread necromancy but this is a legitimate update. I finally got a free weekend to work on my motor mounts and installing the new headers w/ wrap. I got two rolls of the DEI "Titanium" 2"x50' exhaust wrap. The manufacturer claims it will withstand temperatures up to 2200 degrees F. The headers are stainless steel 1 5/8" Primaries, 2 1/2" collector with 5/16" flanges, I got them from KMJ Performance on eBay. The headers seemed well-made: good welds, nicely machined and finished flanges and the interior welds were ground and polished and it came with good quality stainless hardware. The motor mounts I'm using are the ones from MSA, the car is lowered so I didn't want the lower JTR mounting position for fear of damage to the oil-pan or exhaust. With the mounts now properly installed (welded to the K-member) the headers and wrap clear the steering shaft nicely. They were also a breeze to install, the only thing I had to remove was some of my intake plumbing, but I know a lot of people here are not running a dual-filter cold-air intake. As far as the performance/heat issue: other than the new headers smoking for a little while after they were installed (I used chemical cleaners and was doing other maintenance + dirty fingers, so a little smoke was expected) it's quieted the car down a lot (it definitely has the "sleeper" effect I wanted) and drastically reduced engine bay heat and thereby reducing cabin heat, too. I wrapped to just above the weld for the collector flange, so we'll see how long these last with the wrap on them. They look really nice, too, because I went for the metallic/carbon fiber looking wrap. Much better than the "bent turd" headers I had before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris280z Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Stainless steel holds the heat for a very long time, ceramic/jet hot coatings are the way to go. Ive used both & the ceramic coated exhaust will disapate heat 5 times faster than stainless. I can actually touch my headers after cooling for 1 to 2 minutes, the stainless hookers would stay hot for 4 to 5 times that of the coated. Underhood temps are greatly reduced. Finish Line Coatings in Milwaukie Oregon coated both my headers for $100, huge difference! Summit also sells their own house brand block huggers that are ceramic coated for $279.00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandyZ Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Header blankets about $80. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunlop Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 (edited) First got the cheapo steel huggers, would have gone stainless but failed to find them at the time. I coated them and heat treated them, and put exhaust wrap on. This seem to keep the heat out rather well. I do however have the bigger upper hood vents on my 280 and also plan on doing side vents out the fenders. Touch your headers after the engine is warmed up....i can Edited October 2, 2011 by Dunlop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240zBoy Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Another tip as for your wires, I am guessing your starter wires are the ones concerned about getting burnt. In my case I had similiar problem and what I did was bought the sparkplug protector sleeves and slid the wires through them on their way down to starter. Worked great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MONGO510 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 For what its worth, make sure your timing is not retarded. Retarded timing equals lots of heat. Mongo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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