by 
Table of Contents
Exhaust Wrap Pros and Cons
Heat control is crucial in the performance of car engines. Too much of it can make you end up with serious performance problems.
One excellent way to reduce under-hood temperatures is by using exhaust wraps. Its a common question - does exhaust heat wrap work?
Well let’s see, wrapping your exhaust pipes and headers will reduce under-hood temperatures as much as 50%! Moreover, modifying the exhaust is one of the easiest ways to add horsepower to your car.
Exhaust wrap pros and cons
Whether you decide to go with Fiberglass, Titanium or EXO wraps, you can be assured that your choice will deliver outstanding heat reduction and improved engine efficiency, which of course will lead to the increased overall performance.
Moreover, your headers will look awesome! Yet, exhaust wraps do pose some risks that are very important to be aware of if you decide to use them.
In this article, we will look at the pros and cons of exhaust wraps. These exhaust wrap pros and cons are essential, and you should take time to familiarize yourself with them before wrapping your exhaust.
Exhaust Wrap Pros: Exhaust Wrap Benefits
Here are the most outstanding pros of exhaust wraps that you need to have in mind before you make your next buying decision.
1. Reduces Engine Temperatures
Using exhaust wraps reduces the temperature of your engines. These wraps are metal, and they conduct heat quickly from other parts that are in contact with them.
But given that they are not thick and also fresh air passes over them at all times, they lack the ability to retain the heat for long.
Exhaust wrap heat
They also quickly transfer the heat to the air. As this process continues, it ensures that the temperature of the engine is under proper control.
The low temperatures are essential for improved efficiency and performance of your car.
2. Prevents Exhaust Tubes from Cooling Down
If you want to guarantee the efficiency and performance of your engine, you also need to ensure that the temperature of your exhaust tubes remains high.
There is no better way to achieve this other than using an efficient exhaust wrap. Why? When the degree of their hotness remains highest, the temperature of exhaust gases also remains favorably high.
This increases performance in several ways.
Exhaust wrap heat issues
This high temperature helps to increase the speed at which the exhaust gases move. In this way, your car’s engine is able to release waste gases into the air efficiently.
If you are using engines that are fueled by diesel or gasoline or you have kerosene heaters and stoves or lean-burn engines, you will surely reap the most from catalytic converters.
These exhaust emissions control devices will ensure that the wastes that your engine releases into the air are safe.
Your catalytic converter will reduce the harmful gases when you use them with internal combustion engines by catalyzing redox reactions.
When these oxidation and reduction reaction processes are slow, you may be responsible for the pollution of the air that you and others inhale.
This can lead to severe health and performance issues. In this way, you will reap triple benefits. Your vehicle, yourself, and the environment will be safe, and you will efficiently operate if you combine using your exhaust wrap with a highly efficient catalytic converter.
3. Preserves Your Engine
Another significant benefit of exhaust wraps is that it pulls away heat from some parts of your exhaust system to secure your engine.
As you may know, the moving parts of your vehicle do not want too much heat. There are several moving parts in your engine.
So, when you are using exhaust wraps, your engine parts will last longer and serve you for many years.
4. Gives More Horsepower
The efficiency of your car is measured in horsepower. You see, the higher the power of your vehicle, the higher its ability to serve you.
You do not want to own a car that cannot climb a hill or pull a handcart. Do you? Exhaust wrap removes all the limitations that prevent your engine from operating at the optimum capacity for longer than others do.
Without this light metal, your engine will always throttle itself because of unrealistic temperatures.
Using water too cool your engine may not help the situation in these circumstances. In other words, using exhaust wraps is necessary if you want your vehicle to sound good or are a racer.
Of course, no one should take risks with their car’s efficiency. So, you need to think about getting efficient exhaust wraps irrespective of your driving goals.
5. Serves Plenty of Your Auto Needs
Another excellent benefit of exhaust wraps is that they give you the opportunity to wrap anything literally. There are not strict rules.
You are free to choose the other parts of your car the practically deserves to get the exhaust wrap.
As you have seen, you can use it to wrap the header. That is not all that you can do with it. You can use this device can actually wrap the entire of your exhaust system if you want.
So, the next time you go the market to buy an exhaust wrap, bear in mind that you can tailor-make it to meet a wide variety of your exhaust-system requirements.
6. Saves You Money
Other than being able to use your exhaust wrap to cover anything, you can handle the entire application process yourself.
Moreover, it is cheaper than other options in the marketplace. Exhaust wraps are also easily accessible. Some people say ceramic-coated parts can offer you an excellent solution.
That is not entirely true, given that they are highly costly and challenging to find. Consider all these various factors, and you likely see why we say they will give you the value for your money.
Exhaust Wrap Cons: Exhaust Wrap Issues
As you know, every good thing on earth must have a demerit. This rule does not exclude exhaust wraps.
Before you choose them or their alternatives, you should consider the pros and also the cons so as to make an informed decision.
Here are the top cons of using exhaust wraps that you never ignore for your own benefit:
1. Only Insulates the Exterior
A significant problem that you will encounter while using exhaust wraps is that they only shield the outside of the parts of your vehicle’s engine.
There are many advantages to having an alternative that insulates all the parts. When you use exhaust wraps, you may not get your intended objectives as first as you desire due to this limitation.
This delay may be costly in the long. However, if you are asking which one between having absolutely no insulation and insulating only the outside which one is better, the answers so obvious.
The former option, despite its disadvantages, outweighs the latter by far.
2. Engine Takes Time to Warm
This appears to be a great advantage. We have just said that little heat on the engine of your car is a beautiful thing.
It is a benefit. Of course, that is true, and we are not about to contradict it. The point here is that you may face lots of difficulties during some seasons, such as winter, to achieve the desired temperature.
Basically, too much is unnecessary. At the same time, too little is undesirable.
As you may have noticed, the temperature of the engine determines the response of the thermostat.
So, before it starts blowing hot hair, it goes by the heat. We can put it this way; if your car’s engine warms up as fast, there is no way the heat can also pick up quickly in the same proportion. Excess heat only destroys.
3. Encounters High Temperatures
One might say that the next con is also a benefit. It also pertains to the high temperature of your exhaust.
As we have seen, heat is not necessarily good or bad. The exhaust needs to be hot to enhance the speed at which your engine emits the unnecessary gases.
I hope you can remember what we have said about the role of your catalytic converter regarding this point. If you have an efficient one, it will play a vital role in the emission of these gases.
But there is a problem that comes as it regards the safety of your catalytic converter. By using an exhaust wrap, it will be overworked.
This way, you indirectly increase the chances that it will fail much sooner. Remember, it is a costly part to replace.
In a way, you need to guarantee proper care and maintenance of these parts.
Otherwise, you may end up footing too many preventable bills. In some states, you must have an efficient one for the authorities to consider your vehicle road worthy.
For that matter, you may have to consider whether you will be willing to give your catalytic converter more work or not.
Drivers have different priorities, and you may have to do a careful, independent analysis of your wants. While at it, consider the cost of having no insulator at all.
4. Holds Moisture
The ability of your exhaust wrap to hold moisture and trap it should probably be one of your biggest concerns.
Many of the demerits may be nothing to you, depending on your circumstances. Water always has negative impacts on most metals.
If your exhaust wraps hold any amounts of this liquid and you do nothing about it for a while, your car’s metal parts may end up wearing much sooner than you think.
You need to spend a little more of your time and money to prevent the corrosive effect of moisture on these metallic parts.
Every so often, check your exhaust wraps to determine whether it has trapped some water. If so, dry it up.
Alternatively, get stainless parts. But this last option is also not perfect too. These parts can also rust with time. Apparently, you need to take proper care of your car to mitigate these risks. And, this is a costly process.
5. Presents Fire Risks
Experts will tell you that if you want the right exhaust wrap, you cannot use any material you find on the market.
The extreme temperatures that some engines, especially turbo-charged petrol ones, the encounter can cause a fire.
The right solutions have to be inflammable. Other than that, they must be rated far above the operating temperatures of your own engine. If you want to avoid this, you must take your time to choose high-quality wraps.
6. Requires High Precaution
While you can apply the exhaust wrap alone, you must do due diligence to benefits from it as you want.
Your wrap needs to be tightly wound. Moreover, since you need to cover the previous wind with another, you must ensure that your exhaust wrap has a double thickness.
For all these things to happen seamlessly, you must maintain an extremely high degree of hygiene. The entire surface of the system must be clean and free from oil, dirt, and rust. This requires you to be a person who is attentive to detail and does not take shortcuts to achieve your goals.
If you observe these tips, you will increase your chances of success. But you will still have no guarantee.
So, you will need to do more, which demonstrates that the degree of due care that you need to take is not ordinary.
The very last thing you can ever want to hear is that you bought the best exhaust wrap, but it unwinds and entangled itself in your car’s belts and pulleys.
For you to avoid this story, know how to apply a metal clip or any other similar heavy duty clip to the end to make the wrap adequately firm.
If possible, you may also learn the best way to add another clip part along each and every branch.
This way, you will be sure of the security of your engine. Well, this process appears involving. And that is the point here. You must be a quick learner to be able to apply your exhaust wrap independently within a short time, especially in the first few days after owning the car.
Recap
Excess heat in your engine can spell serious performance problems. That’s certainly not good for any performance driver.
As we already explained, by wrapping your headers will keep the heat within the headers that would otherwise dissipate to the rest of the engine.
This will, of course, improve the flow of unwanted exhaust gasses through the engine and then efficiently expel them from the engine.
Combine that with a highly efficient catalytic converter, and you’ll gain some serious performance benefits. Still, there are several aspects of header wrapping that are disadvantages and must be taken into consideration. We genuinely hope that you get a good sense of exhaust wrap pros and cons to make an informed decision.