Topic: How to: DEI Titanium Exhaust Wrap - Wrap Your DP and Exhaust!

[jonymac]

So, I just ordered and received a catless DP from RPI (BTW - don't throw away the $35 copper gasket - ahem...) and Eloy from RPI and many others recommends wrapping the DP and exhaust for a number of possible reasons:
 
  1. MAY Keep the engine bay cooler - DEI claims up to 50% - not sure I believe that, but...
  2. MAY Keep the exhaust gasses hotter in the pipes - hotter gas moves faster - faster gas prevents back pressure - and increases HP - Eloy says they slowly neck down the exhaust to keep the gasses hot as well.  Lord knows nobody likes bad gas...
  3. MAY Decrease the resonation and drone at speed from the big 3" exhaust pipes - will want this - especially with a catless DP - I want the catless power without a ton of noise

So with these things in mind, I set off looking for exhaust wrap.  Advance and other auto parts stores carry the normal DEI wrap in either tan or black, stainless straps to tie the wrap on, and a silicone sealer to seal the wrap once applied.  You have to wet the wrap to make it more pliable - it is some sort of high temp fiberglass.  I got some and worked on the DP - fiberglass everywhere - not much fun - returned it not liking the look.  Talked to a speed shop and they said it also turns white over time because of the heat.

I went on DEI's website and found they have a new DEI Titanium wrap that looks cool as sh*t.  It looks like carbon fiber.  It is made with lava rocks (guess it can take the heat) is super flexible, doesn't require wetting or silicone spray and doesn't discolor over time.  Cool.  Ordered some through the speed shop - $54 for a 50 foot by 2" roll.  Last night I wrapped the DP tight in a half hour.  Check it out...

RPI Catless DP:


DEI Titanium Wrap:




Stainless Ties:


DP Wrapped!


Now off to install the DP this weekend - should be fun.  While I am down there, I will attempt to wrap the exhaust - pics to follow!

JonyMac 

[lil goat]

After you told me about this I went out a looked it up, they have a Titanium turbo blanket too, comes with a 15'x2" roll of the wrap and some steel ties. It's not out yet but I preordered it, I have the old style exhaust wrap on my downpipe, already had it in the garage

[jonymac]

Cool - I'll probably do the same - wonder if I can fit the shiled over the top of the blanket?

[lil goat]

It will fit under the one I have now for sure, I will get it fixed on day I have a brand new beautiful chrome heat shield, and no way to attach it.

[TempeRacerGuy]

For heat management, performance and protection from the elements, NOTHING beats White lightning Thermal Coating by Swain Technologies.  Better Heat management, and thin enough to fit under your heat shields.

[Imaj]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering why things seemed hotter and I had a rubber smell since I installed my Solo high flow cat. I guess I better order.

[jonymac]

Yeah - I would love to do the swain coatings - but it costs so much and and I don't know about shipping off my whole exhaust system to be coated!

[jonymac]

OK - so to continue this thread - I got the DP on today and wrapped the RPI exhaust to the mufflers.  I ran out of DEI ties, so tomorrow I will pick up some more and finish wrapping from the front of the mufflers to the tips.  It took me 6 solid hours from crack of first beer to close of garage door.  No kidding, this is a challenging mod, but doable with enough liquid lubrication and time.  Two of my bolts were seized HARD - one on the stock DP the other on the bracket that secures the stock DP.  I had to use penetrating oil and a ratchet tie down hooked to my 15mm box wrench to loosen them - that was 2 hours of the 6.  Wrapping the whole exhaust with the car on ramps was another 1.5 hours.  I would HIGHLY recommend doing this on a lift rather than ramps!!!  But again this is totally doable with ramps and normal tools.  I can't say enough about the quality and precision of the RPI stuff - amazing...

INSTALLATION OF THE RPI DP:

Like I said - one seized bolt - outer lower.  the other three took 5 mins to get off - the last took 1 hour.  Use a medium sized extension for the engine-side lower nut - 15mm - also you must have a 15mm box wrench.  I removed the engine cover and loosened the fuse box bracket (4 bolts) to get a better grip on the seized bolt.  PITA - 3 busted knuckles, lots of curse words and 2 beers used here.

Under the car - removing the bracket that holds the stock DP - one bolt was seized - used a ratchet strap - commonly used to hold motorcycles on flatbeds - a MUST in your tool box - hooked one end to the forward cross frame engine mount - the other end to my box wrench and ratcheted until it popped loose- 45 minutes and 1 beer on this bolt.

As stated in the RPI instructions, in order to get the stock DP out, you turn clockwise and pull down - when in doubt, however, push UP and turn - took some finagling, but 10 minutes later and the stock DP was out - no need to pop an engine mount as stated elsewhere.

Put some liquid high temp red gasket maker on both sides of the new $35 copper gasket sent to my by Eloy because "someone" threw out the one that came with the catless DP - put it on the turbo side and slid the catless DP up from the bottom - mated it and loosely put the nuts on.  I had to take the nuts off again to put the lower O2 sensor on - Eloy should mod the instructions for this...

WRAPPING THE EXHAUST:

Tightened everything up and moved on to wrapping the exhaust.  Bought some DEI high temp tape to cover each DEI metal tie strap.  This stuff is STICKY and seems to work well.  Worked from front to rear with a new 50' roll of the DEI Titanium Wrap and had 1 foot left by the time I got to the front of the mufflers.  To wrap the DP and the mufflers to the tips - (2) 50' 2" rolls should be perfect.

Do yourself a favor - whether you think you need to wrap the exhaust or not - DO IT BEFORE you put the exhaust on the car - otherwise 1.5 hours and a 2 beer penalty.

I ran the car without the exhaust hooked to the DP for a minute to see what is sounded like and MAN did it sound pissed off!!!  Guess that's what a cutout would sound like...

The car sounded AWESOME running in the garage for 20 minutes - will take it out tomorrow when I take my son to his soccer game and see how it feels.
 
All in all a 6 beer project.  Here are pics of the completed install:

Wrapped exhaust:




DP headed aft - notice the DEI cool tape at the top:


Wrapped to the front of the mufflers - will continue to tips tomorrow:


Upper O2 sensor - hole cut in the DEI wrap for access:


Stock cat and RPI adapter:


Let the car run for 20 minutes - wrap smoked like a mofo for the first 15:


Wrap smokin'


My son asked if his car could get the next exhaust mod:


JonyMac

[DeepBlueGXP]

That's a lot of werk, good write up.  I especially like the beer penalties.

[lil goat]

I have mine wrapped with a lesser wrap and told Lyndon about it here is his quote, I was very surprised, I did it to reduce under hood temps but thought there were other benefits.

Exhaust wrap keeps the heat 'in' the pipe. Depending on where it is, this helps exhaust volocity, but moreso can be a method to reduce under hood temps. I don't see how it reduces backpressure ?

I still think the theory behind exhaust wrap is unsound--and would like to prove it out on an engine dyno someday. As exhaust 'cools'--there's a pressure drop. If you keep the heat 'in', the pressure and velocity remain constant. Cooling the exhaust causes a pressure drop, therefore it should increase velocity.

Lyndon

[Sol Asylum]

I have mine wrapped with a lesser wrap and told Lyndon about it here is his quote, I was very surprised, I did it to reduce under hood temps but thought there were other benefits.

Exhaust wrap keeps the heat 'in' the pipe. Depending on where it is, this helps exhaust volocity, but moreso can be a method to reduce under hood temps. I don't see how it reduces backpressure ?

I still think the theory behind exhaust wrap is unsound--and would like to prove it out on an engine dyno someday. As exhaust 'cools'--there's a pressure drop. If you keep the heat 'in', the pressure and velocity remain constant. Cooling the exhaust causes a pressure drop, therefore it should increase velocity.

Lyndon

But this is just hearsay

[snaponbob]

I have mine wrapped with a lesser wrap and told Lyndon about it here is his quote, I was very surprised, I did it to reduce under hood temps but thought there were other benefits.

Exhaust wrap keeps the heat 'in' the pipe. Depending on where it is, this helps exhaust volocity, but moreso can be a method to reduce under hood temps. I don't see how it reduces backpressure ?

I still think the theory behind exhaust wrap is unsound--and would like to prove it out on an engine dyno someday. As exhaust 'cools'--there's a pressure drop. If you keep the heat 'in', the pressure and velocity remain constant. Cooling the exhaust causes a pressure drop, therefore it should increase velocity.

Lyndon

Following Lyndon's line of thinking ---- if wrapping exhaust was such an effective method of whatever, why is so rarely seen in racing applications other than engine compartment heat control?

[Sky 5]

Following Lyndon's line of thinking ---- if wrapping exhaust was such an effective method of whatever, why is so rarely seen in racing applications other than engine compartment heat control?

Same reason why they don't use coolers for the exhaust; the difference is insignificant and in that case a net negative with the vehicle weight increase. The exhaust really "cools / pressure drops" about 10 feet down the line, at the end of the tailpipe. Main purpose of the wrap seems to be resonance dampening and insulating the underbody from the intense heat while shoving more hot air out back away from the car.

[jonymac]

Finished the wrap up today.  After driving it around for about an hour today, when I got back under the car after letting it cool off, the wrap had hardened almost like a fiberglass cast - kinda cool!  Here it is now from the front of the mufflers to the tips...

Passenger side done...




Used a stainless tie and covered the tie and wrap end with hi temp tape:

[sol_man]

That looks great!  Can't imagine how hard that would be to do with the exhaust on the car so kudos and more beer to you!    

A lot of drag racers will wrap their exhaust to keep the heat away from the engine and inside the car.  Not sure about road courses or things like that but just what I've seen from coating them to the wrap becoming very popular.

[spicy3480]

Any sound difference now that it's all wrapped?

[jonymac]

Yes - definitely - the difference from having the pipes unwrapped to wrapped to the front of the mufflers is noticeable, then having them wrapped to the tips is noticeable too.  My 8 year old was bummed that the car didn't sound as "mean" as before.  I still have to wager that it will not be wife approved when she returns from her trip at the end of the week...

So, I talked with William Coates - who I bought my IC from and had the same RPI setup that I do, and he said he used internal baffles ahead of the mufflers to further decrease the sound without appreciably impacting the performance - they seem to be easy to swap out too.  I called Car Chemistry who makes these and talked to the guy there and he recommended the 3 disk baffle, leave off the end caps - good decrease in noise without loss of power - may order a pair and see what it does.  Here is my convo with William Coates (email thread - read backwards...):

William's response:

Drastic reduction in noise and larger reduction in the resonating that comes through from the thinner wall of the RPI exhaust.   The resonating was my biggest issue.   At 70 on a trip I want to hear the ipod not the drone.

William J Coates

To: william.coates
Subject: Re: Baffles for RPI exhaust...

You are the MAN! Thanks - so you found performance wasn't hurt, but the sound was decreased - any guess on what percentage decrease in noise?


From: William Coates
To: McINTIRE, John
Sent: Mon May 18 09:51:47 2009
Subject: RE: Baffles for RPI exhaust...

Good to hear from you.   The baffles do help a lot.   If you have RPI exhaust the best place to insert them is in the first Vband where you clamp the mufflers.   I had to smooth some of the weld on the exhaust pipe where RPI had welded the V-Band to the pipe so that they would slip in the pipe.   This location has a bend in the exhaust in front of where the insert would go in so it would keep the insert from moving up the pipe.  Then there is another bend on the pipe that the muffler is in that keeps it from moving back.   This way you do not have to insert a hole to thread a screw through and secure the baffle.   I did not want a hole in the pipe even though that is the normal method of securing the baffle.   I also used a drimel tool to grind down some of the out side of the baffle disk to make it a good fit.   My inserts would just go in after doing the work and really never moved.   They can go forward or backward at that point.   I order them through Car Chemistry Shop. 

http://www.carchemistry.com/shop/index.php?l=product_list&c=11

If I remember right they were 3 disk inserts 2.5 inch diameter.   The inserts come with caps to close the center pipe but I never used them.   I wanted to reduce without really hurting the performance.

From: McINTIRE, John [mailto:jdm@nei.org]
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 3:13 PM
To: william.coates
Subject: Baffles for RPI exhaust...

Hey there!  I was the guy who bought your RPI Intercooler – I now have the catless DP and have wrapped the exhaust from stem to stern as you suggested.  You also mentioned baffles for the exhaust to keep some of the noise down – can you point in the right direction on which ones and where they go?  Also how well did they work?

 Thanks!

JonyMac

[Dan]

Nice write-up, and it looks great.  Question--since it hardened into a "cast" after it heated up, would it come back off (if you wanted it to) or is it pretty much fused now?

[jonymac]

Yes - I was tightening the bolts on my DP tonight and generally checking things out and had the same question.  I unwrapped the top part of the DP a turn and it comes right of - crackles a bit and holds its shape, but no problem.

BTW - I also put on the DEI Versa-shield blanket over the back end of the turbo where it meets the DP and reinstalled the heat shield - well, when I took off the heat shield to tighten the bolts, the blanket was partially burned away - and I mean GONE! That thing was rated for 2000 degrees!  This happened over 2 days worth of driving. 

It is made of fiberglass with some sort of aluminum foil type covering and the package boasts a "hook and loop" closure - no hook and loop now!  The foil looks vaporized.  The fiberglass is still intact, but blackened.  The inside of my heat shield is blackened too.  The package states its good to 2000 degrees and even shows a pic of it wrapped around what looks like a turbo... 

I may remove the rest of the aluminum foil stuff and put the fiberglass back on to see what it does.  Either way, I will call the company tomorrow.  If you see a fireball low to the ground moving VERY fast, it's probably me...

[Sol Asylum]

I hate to tell you this but that last picture is a starter motor, it would only give turbo like performance to a Yugo.  Which is only fair because that starter motor probably has twice the HP of a Yugo not to mention all the torque.  Come to think of it the starter motor's core fee is probably twice the value of a Yugo too.

[jonymac]

LOL!  Hilarious!  

Either way - WTF on the blanket!  How hot does the turbo get?  North of 2000 degrees?!

[Sol Asylum]

I think maybe the 2000F is a little optimistic given that aluminum melts at 1220F.  Which would be about 800F short of the goal.  Now if it was stainless steel it could make it to 2000 but I think it would depend on the alloy.

I'm not sure how hot the turbo gets but you can burn up aluminum foil with a zipo and if you have any type of flammable material like a light oil on the foil it makes the disappearing metal trick work even faster.

[jonymac]

Optimistic!  That's an understatement!  How about fire hazard under the hood make car go boom!!  Now, I am not metallurgist, and don't really know what its made of, but it seems aluminumy to me...

[lil goat]

I had a real turbo blanket for a while it lasted a couple of months before it fell apart. Our turbos get to over 1800 and I have seen mine glow red more than once.

[Uranium-238]

Ours actually get that hot? wow. I opened the hood after a hard run the other day, and the right side of the plastic dust cover thing was too hot to handle. After that I've been curious as to how warm our turbos will get.