Heat taping the entire length of a header.

Hair · Oct 18, 2009

Are there any ill effects to taping the entire length of an exhaust header? I live in the desert where it is dry most of the time. I live with the bike boiling gas on almost every ride. On my latest ride I had a dry leaf start fire. The leaf wasn't too bad. But had it blown out of the bike after it was burning that could have been bad. So I want to remap the bike. Tape the exhaust. And push all that heat out the back.

CodeMonkey · Oct 18, 2009

Some people claim that taping the exhaust will cause the pipe to rust, but I have seen pipes that were wrapped long term that had no more than normal corrosion despite having been used in wet climates and riding. Also, IIRC, part of the header pipe on the new bikes is titanium and I think that which isn't is stainless - although stainless can corrode if the moisture is alkaline enough.

The other issue is that because of the routing of the exhaust it heats the fuel in the tank as you noted.

I have heard of some people lining the tank with heat shields to prevent this, but wrapping the exhaust would serve the same purpose. Also, I have noticed that when I stop for a breather on a trail, significant heat comes off the engine - wrapping the exhaust should help with that too.

DaleEO · Oct 18, 2009

Hair said:
Are there any ill effects to taping the entire length of an exhaust header? I live in the desert where it is dry most of the time. I live with the bike boiling gas on almost every ride. On my latest ride I had a dry leaf start fire. The leaf wasn't too bad. But had it blown out of the bike after it was burning that could have been bad. So I want to remap the bike. Tape the exhaust. And push all that heat out the back.

HI Tim,

I used DEI heade wrap on my 09 from the just behind he 02 sensor, which isn't used as we have found out, all the way to the connetion with the muffler.

I believe that the whole system is stainless unless you buy the titainium akro header from the hard parts catalouge. I wanted to keep the heat away from the shock and the fuel tank, but didn't know what effect it would have on the O2 sensor so that's why I didn't run it there. That will be changing here in the near future once I remove the 02 sensor.

The header runs really hot, period. If you are sitting still and it's somewhat dark with the bike idlling, you can see that front section glowing red, and my bike has the competition map.

The DEI brand has a spray that you can buy to sprak on the wrap once you are finished to keep it looking dark and nice. Just be sure and following the instructions they give you and it will be an easy but time consuming job.

Hair · Oct 19, 2009

Thanks Dale
I will get on that.

DaleEO · Oct 19, 2009

Hair said:
Thanks Dale
I will get on that.

No worries.

Be prepared to fiddle around with the upper exhaust/engine mount. When I did mine it took some time to get everything all lined up again. I followed the instructions in the shop manual and the mid pipe did not line up very well. I suggest leaving that mide mount loose and getting the mide pipe mounted with the muffler attached and then tighten the screws taking care to make sure you have adequate clearance between the shock spring and the pipe. There isn't much to start with, and the header wrap makes it less.

You have a 2010 so I don't know if that was changed but, a solution is to add a spacer of some kind between the muffler mount on the subframe and the muffler hangers.

And what I meant about following the directions from DEI was that they suggest soaking the headwrap in water to help with wrapping it on. I have not done that in the past and wished that I had. The wrap is quite stiff and I just kind of twisted and stretched it around a bit before hand to make it more flexible and that seemed to work pretty good. Also, you might consider getting some thin saftey wire, I think mine is .027" to use to tie it down.

BRN2RDE · Oct 19, 2009

Soaking the header wrap makes things go sooo much easier. In fact, I wrapped my pipe from the O2 sensor back to near the exaust can without removing the pipe or the tank. The little metal heat shield under the tank had fallen off previously, so that was not in the way.

BRN2RDE

DaleEO · Oct 19, 2009

BRN2RDE said:
Soaking the header wrap makes things go sooo much easier. In fact, I wrapped my pipe from the O2 sensor back to near the exaust can without removing the pipe or the tank. The little metal heat shield under the tank had fallen off previously, so that was not in the way.

BRN2RDE

Wow! That's impressive. How long did you have to soak the wrap?

BRN2RDE · Oct 19, 2009

Soaking may be the wrong word. You actually just 'dip' the stuff in a bucket and pull it straight out. The water that is on it will soften it up pretty good. And it was quite a feat to get it done that way. I was worried about the tank/subframe bolt issues, and I had a bit of a problem with the seal at the fuel pump early on that I did not want to re live.
To be fair, if the missing heat shield was not missing, it could not have been done that way. Funny thing about that: The heat shield lost both bolts, but was never actually lost. There is almost no way for it to fall out of where it is while riding. I kept hearing a slight clanging like cowbells ringing. Must have stopped and looked for the source of the noise a dozen times, and then just had to live with it until the end of the ride and a long needlenose pliers to remove it.

BRN2RDE

sethro · Oct 19, 2009

I wrapped the whole pipe, works great with no problems, except I put my clamp on upside down, gives it that custom look.

Sethro

spanner · Oct 24, 2009

To keep the carby cool.

fedge · Oct 24, 2009

Spanner I would like to know were you got your steel braided coolant lines would love to pick-up a set for my 06 450.

thanks fedge

spanner · Oct 24, 2009

Hi fedge,

I made them up myself from superflex you will need some machining skills.

Cheers spanner

Heat taping the entire length of a header.

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