I hate to bother y'all with so many questions, but this is the first Dakota site I've found where you get good info quickly. The shorty headers on my 5.2 are not coated and really heat up the engine compartment. With the recent 100 degree heat wave we're having in Atlanta, any time sitting in stop and go traffic and its like a furnace under the hood! I'm thinking of getting some of the fiberglass tape to wrap the headers. Anyone have any experience with this and what brand, size, etc to buy? Any other ideas for limiting under hood heat? I've removed the rubber gaskets at the front and rear of the hood to let air flow out better during the slow traffic driving.

 

sounds like a good excuse to tell the wife to get a hood scoop

are your engine temps rising too or can your cooling system maintain?

 

Good question, the good news is that I have no engine overheating problems. Temp guage has never gone over 210 even on hottest day with AC on and crawling thru bmper to bumper traffic. I was hoping that an electric fan might help but I still haven't been able to remove the factory radiator fan!!!! I think the #$%&*@)(* fan is WELDED ON!!!!
I'd love to do the hood scoop thing but I don't have $500 plus cost of painting for a molded hood!

 

i still vote for the hood scoop, its bad *** and you wont ever get a better excuse for your wife. get an add-on one and just get it painted black, then bolt it on. scoop should cost you like $100. Jet coating your headers would help, i also think the header tape is a good idea but ultimately your problem isnt the end of the world if your engine temps arent rising. heres a link to the first hood scoop i found and the jet coating:

http://www.jet-hot.com/


http://accessory.accessoriesgiant.co...0&brandid=1839

 

Look into an aux. pusher fan - goes in front of the radiator and pushes through when you need an extra boost in traffic.

Header wrap gets mixed reviews - a lot of people say not to use it because it traps moisture and you'll rust out your headers really fast. Others say it's nonsense and not to worry about it. Me, I'm undecided. I spoke with one guy at Borla who said to do it, and a different guy who said not it.

 

i think the performance aspect is more debated then anything else, and i dont think it would help get any power. however i see it alot on hot rods with tight engine compartments using it for exactly this purpose and theres definately a difference in engine compartment temps

 

I run a Edelbrock 14" round air cleaner on top of the throttle body, so all that super hot air can't help performance. Also the MSD box is fairly close to the headers and it gets hot as a firecracker. I don't want a meltdown of the MSD. I'm leaning toward tape although I wish now I had spent the extra bucks for coated headers!



[IMG]local://upfiles/40233/A5CC8ACD9BE5433A8EF25125183B6004.jpg[/IMG]

 

just get the headers coated and then put a hood scoop right over that air cleaner [sm=happy046.gif]

 

I agree, if you can swing it, buy some nice new graphite gaskets, yank the headers out and get them cleaned up then jet-hot or ceramic coated and put them back in.

Mine are ceramic coated iirc and the underhood temps are still quite high, but no cooling issues normally.

 

jet-hot would be the best it will lower underhood temps some-for wrapping the headers on a daily driver won't last, temps are high under the hood a scoop would help-since you are not having overheating a fan will not help coat the headers and x-over
i build turbo and high-perf cars for a living if you want to run that air cleaner get a hood scoop or custom airbox and duct some cool air into it