zane9000 Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 It has been hot here lately, about 100+ degree kind of hot. I have been out doing a bit of work on my car, in the sun :S and noticed something odd. My MSA Coated Headers (http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/PEC03) are the coolest part of my engine bay. Even when its so hot my intake manifold is really unpleasant to touch, my headers remain cool. And again today I noticed that after letting my car warm up, they were the first items to cool down. This leads me to think that they radiate alot of heat, which I dont think is really desireable to have in my engine bay, immediatly below my intake of all places. Is this a normal occurance? Is this something I should even worry about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veritech-z Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 It's probably because of the thin metal used in the header construction. I'm sure the "aerospace" coating has something to do with the heat not making it to the outside of the tubes as well. That's what it's for, after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zane9000 Posted July 25, 2006 Author Share Posted July 25, 2006 I don't think its so much that the heat is kept inside better, I think the headers are actually dissipating heat very quickly. My engine bay is much hotter ever since I did this build up. Also the headers do get extremely hot very quickly, they just also happen to cool pretty quickly. My thought was that the coating was supposed to keep them from heating quickly, or as you suggest, keep the heat from escaping, this does not seem to be the case. However, I think you are right about it being due to how thin the metal is, I hadn't thought of that before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veritech-z Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Here's the other part of that: do you still have your heat shields in place? Originally, whether carburated or fuel injected, there would have been a thin sheet metal heat shield in place to prevent heat soak into your intake manifold... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zane9000 Posted July 25, 2006 Author Share Posted July 25, 2006 I have never had a heat shield on any of my builds. and I can definitely say that my engine bay is definitely hotter with the MSA Headers than it was with my old Nissan Comp Headers. But its ok, the car isn't having any running issues yet, I just thought it was a bit weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2126 Posted August 10, 2006 Share Posted August 10, 2006 I believe veritech-z has it correct. The coating does reduce radiated heat by about 40% (according to their advertising and testing)....thats one of the reasons it is applied to headers. Another reason is to keep the heat in the exhaust gases. Hot gases flow quicker than cooler gases....hence a slight performance increase. Also, due to the thin nature of the header material they will cool off quicker than say the intake manifold, which is certainly thicker material. Hope this helps explain it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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