:::RHMT::: Real Home Made Turbo

General Category => Forced Induction => Topic started by: patsmx5 on October 23, 2009, 12:37:26 PM

Title: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: patsmx5 on October 23, 2009, 12:37:26 PM
I'm thinking about wrapping the cast iron manifold on my car to help spool. I could pretty easily wrap it with some header wrap stuff. But I've read a bunch of shit where people claim it makes shit rust and crack. I just don't see it being a real issue on a thick cast iron manifold. I also already painted the manifold so it's not rusting anyway.

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Robb on October 23, 2009, 01:05:03 PM
I'm thinking about wrapping the cast iron manifold on my car to help spool. I could pretty easily wrap it with some header wrap stuff. But I've read a bunch of shit where people claim it makes shit rust and crack. I just don't see it being a real issue on a thick cast iron manifold. I also already painted the manifold so it's not rusting anyway.

Thoughts?

Probably not worth it.  Cast iron doesnt loose heat quickly like thinner walled stainless tubular mani's do.

Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Joseph Davis on October 23, 2009, 01:29:44 PM
I'm thinking about wrapping the cast iron manifold on my car to help spool. I could pretty easily wrap it with some header wrap stuff. But I've read a bunch of shit where people claim it makes shit rust and crack. I just don't see it being a real issue on a thick cast iron manifold. I also already painted the manifold so it's not rusting anyway.

Thoughts?

Probably not worth it.  Cast iron doesnt loose heat quickly like thinner walled stainless tubular mani's do.



Not worth it on those, either.  There's a couple orders of magnitude more heat in the exhaust mass than either casting or tubular runner can thermally transfer.

Answer: you wrap manifolds to cut down on engine bay temps.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Kenny Rogers on October 23, 2009, 01:31:08 PM
I wouldn't wrap it either.  Cast iron retains heat very well.

If you do decide to wrap it, keep in mind that trapped moisture under the fiberglass will lead to rust.  I bet it won't crack if it's pretty thick.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: ktown powder coating on October 23, 2009, 02:10:16 PM
You could always ceramic coat it yourself, just sand blast it with anything but glass and then spray with a paint touch up gun and let air dry.  It will fully bake from the engine heat.
http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/techline/index.html (http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/techline/index.html)
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Joseph Davis on October 23, 2009, 02:26:07 PM
I wouldn't wrap it either.  Cast iron retains heat very well.

If you do decide to wrap it, keep in mind that trapped moisture under the fiberglass will lead to rust.  I bet it won't crack if it's pretty thick.

I've noticed wrapped items tend to be prone to cracking, or maybe it just seems that way to me.  The whole ceramic coating idea might be a good one.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: ktown powder coating on October 23, 2009, 02:34:40 PM
I spray  a buddies manifold for him a few months ago in it and have not had him call to say there was any problem with it.
(https://realhomemadeturbo.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg26.imageshack.us%2Fimg26%2F9919%2Fmanifoldceramic015.jpg&hash=5fd7e121b17c4352d3fa42c75a833825e7364a7b)
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: speedjunky01 on October 23, 2009, 06:22:53 PM
i have mine wraped no issues thus far

i did it to keep the AC from lighting on fire not really for performance

(https://realhomemadeturbo.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ak-snc1%2Fhs116.snc1%2F4712_113145526270_563321270_3196320_4848646_n.jpg&hash=fa633dcbb1c2e3a79e0f7347aed20841f4d58e00)

it does help underhood temps a bit
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: patsmx5 on October 23, 2009, 08:22:48 PM
Yeah I'm not gonna do it then. I will likely be building a tubular manifold next summer anyways so if I wrap anything it will be the new manifold.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: SloS13 on October 23, 2009, 08:47:22 PM
Miatas are so gay, I'd suggest double-wrapping it.  :P
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: patsmx5 on October 23, 2009, 09:01:41 PM
There's no covering it up.  :P
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: reddevil on October 24, 2009, 01:59:07 AM
I wrapped my exhaust manifold, uppipe and downpipe.....

But since I have a "hood scoop" and I live in Portland Oregon I get

STEAMY STEAMY STEAMY steam coming out of my engine bay every morning.  Annoying.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Henry on October 24, 2009, 12:01:49 PM
I wrapped my old D16Y7 manifold that I welded a T3 flange onto. That fucker would be glowing even after normal driving. I could turn the car off, get out, and pop my hood and through a few opening between the wrap you could see it cherry red still. The car ran fine also. I never noticed anything negative from wrapping it. The engine spun a bearing bearing(it was a y7 with a 100k before even boosting it) before I could get test out the longetivity of it being wrapped if it would crack or not.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Joseph Davis on October 24, 2009, 12:03:54 PM
I'm mainly thinking tubular/headers when I said that.  Although a crackalicious old school Drag manifold is much the same.

Most of the current castings are pretty thick and robust, not crack prone.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: patsmx5 on October 24, 2009, 12:08:03 PM
Here's a better topic. Where should I look to learn about manifold design? Any good books? I've got a divided turbine, so I'd like to build a manifold to take advantage of it. I remember spiker talking like he knew what he was doing when designing his mani. Where did he get his info from?
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: Joseph Davis on October 24, 2009, 12:10:46 PM
I remember spiker talking like he knew what he was doing


HAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAA
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: DRQPQUT on October 24, 2009, 01:26:17 PM
Here's a better topic. Where should I look to learn about manifold design? Any good books? I've got a divided turbine, so I'd like to build a manifold to take advantage of it. I remember spiker talking like he knew what he was doing when designing his mani. Where did he get his info from?
THE INTERWEB.....you have no idea you get spiker and marcus in the same garage they will argue about anything and everything but low and behold they created some bastard child for a turbo manifold that has turned into CHUCKY killing everything in site including street bikes...and im not talking 500cc ninjas either
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: HiProfile on October 24, 2009, 02:42:38 PM
Wraping makes a rediculous difference in engine bay temps. I don't have my turbine wrapped, but that chunk of cast iron doesn't give off as much heat as it should. Even the cast section of the stock manifold I use don't get too hot. I do have the elbows, steel tubes, and downpipe covered. I can do a few beat runs, pop the hood, and hold my hand on the wrap indefinately. It would be a bit hotter, except I used a 1/16" layer of ceramic insulation under the cheap fiberglass I got.
Title: Insulate a cast iron manifold
Post by: D.Alomb on October 29, 2009, 02:52:24 PM
niiiiiice manifold, i had to cut one of the studs down also to fit my pacesetter tubular on......time for some videos of your car now? yes yes i think videos are in order.....
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold
Post by: Joseph Davis on October 29, 2009, 08:46:07 PM
niiiiiice manifold, i had to cut one of the studs down also to fit my pacesetter tubular on......time for some videos of your car now? yes yes i think videos are in order.....

You're four posts deep with no n00b intro thread, I think one of those is in order.
Title: Re: Insulate a cast iron manifold?
Post by: CRX304 on November 12, 2009, 11:20:52 PM
NO JD... Nekid pics of his bitch (or EX's) are in order.... PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!!!