Heat shield for my header

[diirk]

I have an Ecotec powered buggy and need a heatshield for the header.

What's a good way to do this?

Can I weld bungs on the header and mount the shield directly to it?

Or should I have it "floating" above the header, coming off a cross bar or something...that will have to be fabbed.

I also plan to Jethot coat the header and exhaust.

Thanks...

[racer56]

Just use a good quality header wrap. It is cheap and easy to install. Works great.

[TreyP]

Just use a good quality header wrap. It is cheap and easy to install. Works great.

Bingo! We have a winner. The stuff is cheap and works.

[diirk]

Well, the header tubes are so close together that I can wrap them individually. I was considering using a header blanket that does all of them.
But, I'm told that wrapping the header weakens it over time.

[Wild bill]

Just for a data point.....I rapped my headers on a BBF and the fiberglass turned to glass and fell off in 200 miles. I chipped off the "glass" and used a .060" thick aluminum sheet with 1/8" of fiberglass sandwiched between the two pieces of aluminum sheet. I built some standoffs and mounted the shield about 1/2 from the header to allow some air to flow around. Worked like a charm.

[diirk]

How did you mount the heatshield?

[Wild bill]

I built some 1/2" tall aluminum spacers and used stainless steel exhaust ties to zip tie the shield to the header.

[diirk]

That's a great idea.

[scottm]

I have used stainless steel foil, aluminum sheet metal shields, and insulation wrap. Stainless foil works well where the tubes are too close to wrap individually. Header wrap is good if you have room, but you want to leave the first 6-8 inches from the head unwrapped. Thats because the tube gets too hot there, which leads to carburizing and embrittlement if its wrapped. Wrap is great for the collectors back to the muffler.

[craigincali]

DO NOT wrap them, you will distroy the headers. I unwrapped mine and they are now paper thin and useless.

[diirk]

Further research by s@ndm@n and myself gave us this idea...

Using these with SS Hose clamps
http://www.tessco.com/productimages/120x120/279190.jpg

with the ThermoTec Micro Louver as a heat shield bolted to the above clamps.
http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/prod/large/the-11720_w.jpg

[gil_caz]

Further research by s@ndm@n and myself gave us this idea...


please take pics if you go with this... i want to see how this turns out.

[diirk]

Sure thing. It's likely to be a few weeks though.