Has anyone used this exhaust/extactor heat wrap on thier mini and found any noticable difference in performance or has it caused problems

I understand the principals behind it to reduce underbonnet temps etc but given that these cars are not trying to get 400+horsepower to the ground therefore the minis underbonnet temps are not as high and alot of the mini manifolds are not water heated is it really worth the trouble

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU

I have no practical experience as yet but, like you, I see that the various websites claim substantial heat reduction in the engine bay (and I presume radiation onto the firewall).

So....I'll be wrapping my exhaust...if I ever get to that stage

Especially since it's not a lot of cost

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Regards,

Mike
"He who dies with the most toys wins."

we could always fit those fancy heat sheilds like all the new cars

"Straight to the firewall..." to paraphrase Darren in the Castle...

http://www.fuelsafe.com/store/parts-accessories/heat-safe.html

I believe Bond Roll Bars in Sydney are the agents in OZ.

http://www.bondrollbars.com/

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Regards,

Mike
"He who dies with the most toys wins."

Talk to Morris1100 about this - HQ series racers have been wrapping extractors for years (as well as ceramic coated pistons) for the power gains etc.

So, I guess there is a poofteenth advantage and enough poofteenths make a woofteenth.

Mike

I wrapped a set of medium bore LCB extractors in my Rover, lasted ~18 months before they cracked badly at the branch. As I didn't have extrators before it is not possible to know if there was any tangible benefit from the wrap but the guys at the exhaust place claimed that the wrap made the extractors more brittle (not sure how this science stacks up??) but 2nd pair of LCB's unwrapped appear to be working fine after 2+ years.

My 2c

Disclaimer: I am not a Mini expert.

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1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

Might be the metal runs hotter because it can't disapate heat.

If the metal got really hot it might get softer and therefore possibly be prone to splitting? It would be a soft rip rather than brittleness.

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Regards,

Mike
"He who dies with the most toys wins."

I understand that with the exhaust gas speed is flowing at a much higher rate than a street car and "race cars" are prone to breaking parts but the engine bay temp would already be lower than a street car as it doesn't spend so much time idling nor "tootling around" town with a massive reduction of air flow. The HQ exhaust/extractors are on the side so it does get some air flow through the radiator but a minis is at the back and has very little to no way of reducing the exhaust temp and as fat boy dave said with his they "got brittle and cracked".
Personally I have not used this wrap on my car as I see no need for it but a customer wanted me to put it on his and wouldnt let me persuade him to change his mind.
The extractors being "bare" and so close to the inlet manifold would help with heating the inlet manifold (twin su set up not water heated) would also help with the fuel atomisation in the manifold prior to the charge being drawn into the cylinder.
Anyways anyone had experience with this stuff.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU

On a Holden it worked in a number of ways. It reduced the inlet manifold/carby temp from the exhaust heat. I could run more advance before it pinged. So it gave more power.

It also reduced fuel vaporisation on re-starts. If a race was red flagged on the first lap they would just grid us up and switch off the engines till the track was clear. So you have gone from a hot motor to a switched off motor which is soaking heat into the carby! Then they would give a 1 minute board and no warm up lap before re-starting the race. The cars would start Ok but when the boiling hot fuel in the fuel line hit the carby the motor would just stop then stutter stutter and take off again. It was Ok because everyone else's car was doing the same thing! But with exhaust wrap the car would just run fine.

The HQs were running really hot under the bonnet. All the air is coming through the radiator and is hot by the time it hits the motor.
The Mini has a lot of air going around the back of the motor. It has to exit from the engine bay somehow and it does not all go out through the radiator.

I would run exhaust wrap on a quick Mini. I think that there would be a benefit.

The two main benefits in a mini are:
1 Reduced heat soak into the carby on the start line
2 Reduced heat soak into the driver in between runs

The floor & firewall can get bloody hot in between runs at hillclimbs & sprints. I'd do it again just for this reason.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

If your using wrap on normal metal finished extractors they won't last long.
The extractors should be ceramic coated then you can wrap them and they will last a hell of allot longer.

I got the extractors for my old HQ in 1990. They got wrapped in 93 and they are still on the car now. They were not painted or coated before wrapping. The car lived mostly outside in the Blue Mountains (wet!) till 2000 before coming to Goulburn (dry).

Scott, I have both the cooper and clubbie wrapped, not for any performance gain, only to keep the heat away from the carbs and also the floor under the driver. So far no problem with either but I did have an exhaust mob say that it causes problems.

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1964 998 Cooper , 1968 Morris 1100

Heat wrap tape is good value on a MK II S heater hose where it comes from the firewall inside the car to the side of the plastic heater in the passenger footwell, a perfect position to scald the passenger's leg if they're not wearing pants!

from personal experience my wifes daily drive warm 1100 had a set of Perrys that were wrapped and were inspected prier and wrapped by me which at that time I did not have an idea what I was doing. But i did start from the the flange and worked up. The Perrys were wrapped for at least 4 years but have no idea how they were used prior. They have been Unwrapped for the past 3 years and have had do problems with weld or the pipes themselves. I/Wife feel they it is a little warmer i the cabin and a knock is more pronounce (which could be due to a number of things) but the connecting between heat wrap and extractors/LCB is only down to the quilty (Eg exhaust) of the product but not the idea of the the wrap

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It