Heat wrapping a 20v downpipe in a mk1?

Is it worth doing the above for the mk1? sticking the downpipe in soon and i know it sits close to the steering boot, rather not have that melt now they are discontinued and to replace.

will it have any ill effects of doing so?

 

nope, do it..

 

keeps bay temps down too.

 

I only wrap the area adjacent any`boot` (8v / 16v)

 

Make sure you wrap it tightly, I’ve seen some flap around and come loose once the cars been through a few heat cycles

 

I couldn't be bothered to do mine, shocking I know. I just kept checking it for the first hundred miles....and it's rather close due to the position of the output from the turbo.....

I've done probably three thousand miles in mine now and there is still no damage.

You are running a ko3? When I had the ko4 in mine there was A LOT more room....

Pics.....(were taken before I had driven it)







Just for piece of mind I'd wrap the boot tho mate.

 

Lol, just actually noticed as you may have...looking at the photo's my boot is split!!

(not from heat tho like I said I hadn't driven the car in these photos!)

 

lol @ mike

it split at the thought of being cooked.. kak'd itself.. hehe

 

plan on wiring the bugger on so it doesn't come loose. I know you have to wet it before wrapping it and not to be worried when it smokes the first time it gets used.

Plan on getting some sort of heat shield stuff for the boot/bulkhead as well, the little jackets seem a good idea. That 20v corrado in members motors has them.

 

What I did find with my old 3 door was the wrap would get nice and moist in the rain then it would dry off when sat in traffic and steam like a good un....papped myself to start with + when I unwrapped the wrap when disasembling the car the welds looked proper rank...but it was a 5 minuite knock up job in mild steel so not suprising!

at above photos tbh!

 

For the cost and ease of doing, it`s a no-brainer IMO...much easier than fitting a new boot...

This mine on the Mk2. It`s wrapped right from the turbo flange, because the flexi is almost touching the boot. Also protects the PAS pipes too. I`ve also got some heat mat (actually a Mini starter motor blanket. ) that I`ll use to cover the boot and part of the bulkhead.

 

when we wrapped the race exhaust we gained 4bhp got to be done

 

Good point about covering the pipe around the P/S pipes, quite a few people complain about the P/S not working or becoming noisy on the track days.

I used some of the silver tubing off a spare set of gear change cables on the P/S pipes as well

 

I'v applied aluminium heat reflective tape on all pipes etc near the turbo and downpipe, keeps radiant heat away a treat

Some wrap out there is no good and as soon as you get high EGT-s it falls to bits

I am ordering some stuff i found from states, claims a lot higher max operating temperature then usual wrap

Link http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300383066012

 

I read a book a few years ago about performance tuning cylinder heads, in which heat wrap was mentioned. The authors experience was excessively high head temps in race conditions, resulting in damage. When reading posts on the Vortex around the same time someone advised against heat wrapping downpipes for the same reason, as number 2 cylinder stem seals (been the shortest runner) could be cooked by the higher temps.
I wrapped mine regardless due to the lack of space, and ended up cooking number 2 cylinder stem seals.
Could be coincidence but I can't say that I wasn't warned. I don't have the heat wrap anymore but do use the reflective tape on the steering gaitor, which seems to be ok.
I suppose that a lean condition could have pushed the temps over the edge when combined with the wrap.
Anyone else heard of this?

 

only had gains from ceramic coating the manifolds and downpipes... keeps heat in and fires it out of the back, it does'nt run hotter externally, but cooler. hotter more gas speed

 

i didn't realise how close the two sat together, even seeing mikes pictures didn't prepare me for it.



thought something was wrong!

jacket required for the boot

 

I had the same reaction with the Mk2!

It`s just as close as your`s is Jon, so I was thinking of suitable `jackets` and was idly flicking through a Moss catalogue, and came across a blanket for a A-series engined Mini starter motor.

Much cheaper than other solutions I`ve seen, and should fit the bill nicely.

(I`d give you a link, but I can`t find it on their site... )

 

will have a hunt for one, cheers for the tip Stu.

 

I was looking at my boot again the other day, I've still not wrapped it or the downpipe, done thousands of miles as a daily driver....still no deterioration apart from that original split! I really wouldn't get too concerned.