[C5] Exhaust wrap

[Rich Z]

I spent today wrapping the rest of my exhaust system with the Heatshield armor exhaust heat shield I just got in. These lengths of exhaust pipes were relatively straight and a whole lot easier to get to than the pipes going over my differential. But still not exactly a picnic, since the pipes are so close in that tunnel area that getting my hands to some spots were a real challenge. A couple of times I had to pull my gloves off simply because with them on, I could not fit my hands where they needed to go.

I used a TON of stainless steel wire wraps. Luckily I found a bunch of the 14 inch long and wider wire wraps on Ebay for a ridiculously low price ($15 per 50), otherwise just the wire wraps alone would have cost a pretty penny. Also covered most of the seams with Heatshield armor weld tape, made specifically for this product, but I ran out before I could get all the seams done on the back pipes. But i can finish them up another day.

Anyway, turned out pretty nice, I think.











I'm wondering if this might even reduce the noise a little bit inside the driver and passenger area.

Anyway, this stuff is actually real easy to work with. I was using metal shears to cut it, but even a good pair of scissors will work. And I was able to even use a razor to cut out holes to go around a couple of O2 sensor bungs. Yet, it feels robust enough to not rip easily at all. And being a shiny surface, it should clean up real easily when needed. Not that anyone else but me will ever see that.

Hopefully I won't have to pull off my exhaust any time real soon. I did try to cover each pipe individually, and only put seam tape over the exhaust clamps, so it shouldn't be too bad when that time comes. I left the clamps right at the header collectors pretty much uncovered, thinking that if I do need to remove the exhaust, why not just remove them at the headers and the rear pipes, leaving the rest of the exhaust together? When I run the car and have it up on the lift, I'll use my temp gun just to see how hot those clamps get and decide if I should cover them after all.

[Rich Z]

While I was tidying up the new Heatshield exhaust wrap I had put on the car, I checked out the wrap by Thermo-Tec that I had put on the back collector areas of the headers. For what little driving I have done after installing these Thermo-Tec covers, I'm not real impressed with their heat handling capability.









I'm thinking I might have to pull that stuff off of the headers and get more of the Heatshield product to recover them. Like I said, not real impressed with Thermo-Tec at all. I do hope that fiberglass or whatever it is doesn't just catch on fire.

[navy2kcoupe]

Got any of that stuff left over? I might take a scrap piece and a blowtorch
to see if it WOULD ignite. If it does, it would be off of there in a New York
minute if it was MY car! Just sayin'....................
Andy