Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Headers...coat, wrap, or paint?

OK...for a while I've been wanting to do something with the headers on my Thruxton. Originally, I was planning on ceramic coating them because I really don't want any chrome on the bike, and the extra heat dispersion would be much welcomed to help my bike possibly run cooler in NYC traffic.

Then I considered just using hi-temp bbq paint because...well...it's really cheap to just go and buy a couple rattlecans and have at 'er.

Lately, I've added wrapping the headers to my list of possibilities. But, I've gotten mixed reviews about wrapping. Some say to do it as it will increase above mentioned heat dispersion. Othes say never to wrap your headers as it'll do nothing except completely ruin your headers because it traps extra heat on the pipe.

So here for my question...Does anybody out there know anything about the header modifications listed above and have any advice on which direction to lean towards? And remember, cheaper is always appreciated since that will...of course...leave extra beer money in my budget.

The wrap won't add anything to the performance, but it looks nice. The downside is that it traps some heat in the headers. I've heard that your headers look nice and purple if you ever remove the wrap.
I have a four year old at home that loves my bike. With the wrap if he ever walks up and touches the hot headers the wrap might prevent a really serious burn (I'm sure it would still hurt though).

Ok...it won't add any performance, but will wrap act anything like a ceramic coating and help your engine run any cooler by allowing more heat to be pushed straight out of the mufflers? Or will it act in more of an opposite manner by forcing more heat to be trapped in?

I wrapped the header pipes on my Speedmaster. Granted, they have a double wall, but it looked really cool with the D&D slip-ons. I took it off about three weeks later. My bike would create steam in the mornings (October in Texas). I mean a LOT of it- we're talking a cloud at the stop lights... and it stunk. I had to soem mother's to it to get the funk off the chrome. There is one place right at the head that did not come out. I'm going ceramic. I'm working on the new pipes now...2" headers with 3" pipes- no crossover. Good luck.