Wonder how this wrap would work on some of these headers. https://www.designengineering.com/titanium-exhaust-wrap/
In the records of my car I found a long story about unprotected headers being installed and them frying 3 alternators. Eventually the PO rebuilt the headers and used the original heat shields. The extreme heat cycles almost certainly wear away at other surrounding components as well. Would love to get some real heat measurements of different header set ups. My headers get up to about 400-460 degrees on the heat shield surface, that's with insulation and OEM shields. Hard to compare different materials with different radiation/convection properties of course but would be cool to see how Tubis perform vs. Larini vs. ceramic coated etc.
Jackie and Bill on the forum told me the shields are not necessary, he has been running the Nouvalaris with no heat problems.....
Not many fabricators have access to the ability to produce shields. Tubi shields are designed from CAD with male and female aluminum molds for both top, bottom, left and right pieces. That is quite a bit in tooling investment.
Manifold shields are not. However I made shields for vulnerable items in the engine bay including better drive shaft boot covers as well as alternator protection. Also using heat shield material around and wiring and fuel pipes. Not a lot is actually needed.
.Not forgetting engine mounts and replacing the heat shield at the bottom of the oil tank. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Currently I'm repairing my muffler heat shield because the foil is shot. Image Unavailable, Please Login I'm using this. "Constructed with an embossed 10 mil aluminum face bonded to 1/8" composite glass-fiber core and backed with a high temp super strong pressure sensitive backing,....withstands up to 1750°F." Don't have it yet. Will arrive next week. It will be fine for the muffler shield but I'm wondering if it could be formed around the headers.(Also available w/o adhesive backing.) Image Unavailable, Please Login
pay attention to the fact that oem manifolds often melt, I know that they are made of 1.2 mm thick walls, but it's high temperature fault. The car comes out of the factory with manifolds that have thermal insulation and I think that each next should also have thermal insulation
Found that DIE makes a similar product as the one I used for my muffler heat shield which can be applied directly to headers. "Form-A-Shield™ can be applied to exhaust headers.... Formed from 10 mil dimpled aluminum bonded to a high temperature rated basalt thermal barrier material, Form-A-Shield™ can be applied directly to hot surfaces..." Based on my experience with the muffler shield I would think this material could be easily molded around headers with a top and bottom sheet, and then crimped or stapled at the seams.
Make an alternator heat shield. This was a POC version to determine feasibility before I had one machine cut and bent. I may do a run of them one day but no one ever asked. In the mean time its easy enough to make in a basic form. https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/alternator-shield-diy.604393/
I got some of the DEI fiberglass stuff, but just working with it I wasn't happy with all the fibers coming off. Even with wearing gloves, the stuff gets everywhere. Maybe the basalt matte is better. I'm planning to buy some of this, which is a formable ceramic, normally used in racing applications. Just 2mm thick. https://www.zircotec.com/zircoflex-form/ Might make a muffler shield (engine side) and alternator shield out of it.
Ian, here is a picture of the back side of the stuff I used on my muffler shield. The glass mat is pretty dense. Pulling on the edge of the mat, it's pretty hard to pull any fibers out. They aren't just falling off. You must have had a different product. Image Unavailable, Please Login
JP will also rebuild your cracked manifolds using better quality steel and refit the OEM heatshields.
