EXHAUST HEAT WRAP HEADERS - GT500

[RICHARD77]

Has anyone used EXHAUST HEAT WRAP to wrap the headers of a stock engine Suzuki T500 / GT500 ?

I want to do it for looks only. Cafe Racer style. Not looking for any specs on performance or how it may rust my headers.

Thank you in advance.


Suzuki GT500 Cafe '77

[tz375]

I know you said that you don't want to hear it, but they do rust really badly with wrap. I have a set of pipes with great chrome but where they were wrapped is a spotty mess that will not come clean.

The issue is not whether or not it will rust or how badly, but what it does to the eventual resale price of the bike. That's probably not your top concern at the moment. If your pipes are not so good anyway, have at it.

So what is it that you would like to know? did it make performance better or worse or how to do it or ?

[Alan H]

Buy some crap pipes and wrap those. Keep the good ones in the loft.

[RICHARD77]

Thanks for the reply.

Really I just want to make sure it will not hurt the function of the bikes ability to run normally. Say over heat or put a hole in a piston.

The bike is a 77 GT500 that is not perfect but clean and complete. I powder coated a lot of components, changed the lights and bars and rode it all last summer. Runs great!!

Over the Winter I rebuilt the carbs and PetCock and now want to paint the tank and side covers, WRAP the HEADERS and recover the seat with something that can still be two up but look a lot better than it does now.

So my question is: On a stock bike, will wrapping only the headers in two inch wide HEAT WRAP with 25% overlap impede the bikes ability to run NORMALLY??

[RICHARD77]

Here's a better picture.

77 GT500

[tz375]

The pipes will run hotter than stock as you know and the question is how much will that temperature rise impact piston, barrel and head temperatures. Good question. I don't know, because I have not tired it but I would expect that with a load/or highish speeds it could raise temperatures enough to be a problem.

In a water cooled motor it would be less of an issue but with a big air cooled two stroke I'd err on the side of safety and leave it off.

[GT750Battleship]

Personally,I hate the look of the stuff on a motorcycle.Full Stop!!!
May keep under bonnet/hood temperatures down on a car.....but why do it to a motorcycle
Regards,
Roger.

[Allan k]

I know from experience that the exhaust noise level is lowered by adding wrap.. A few years ago i had VW VR6 with a raceland S/S exhaust header.. The sound was horrible from front of the car.. Like the header was leaking.. We took it out, added wrap (not knowing it would kill the bad sound) and the noise dissapered completely..

This is might not an issue with a stock system on the GT, but with chambers it might help a lot on the exhaust noise especially in stainless steel..
But yes I believe the exhaust can or will rust by adding the wrap.


My 5 cent

[RICHARD77]

It's too bad this is starting to sound like a bad idea. I like the look of the wrap, adds another layer of depth. but I'll let you know what I decide.

thanks for the help guys.