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Wrapped headers..?

rolf j

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
70
Pete Roper, I see that in the picture of your race bike (with rider Rob next to it, in the thread "75 T3 Race Bike questions") that you use wrapped headers. What is your experience with those? I've seen in pictures of ol'Guzzi racers from especially the US that this feature is popular, but more seldom seen here in Europe.
 
While waiting for Pete Roper's reply, I would suggest that wrapping headers is a bad idea. This is based on my experience in racing cars. Wrapping the headers raises the heat inside the header, walls which leads to weakening of the header walls. Many a racer has gone to remove their wrapped headers to find them brittle and often breaking off near the header flange. No serious car racer wraps their headers anymore, a practice relegated to ratrod builders. I reason that this could also happen on motorcycle headers.

Personally, I strongly believe in Jet-Hot or other ceramic finishes on headers.
 
That is a common problem if you wrap non-stainless headers. Stainless or other high quality steel headers should be fine.
Yes, the coatings are likely superior.
 
Thanks for replies so far. Besides the fact that there seem to be practical problems in making the headers themselves survive the heat, what is the engine/performance theory behind the whole arrangement? What actually happens of good performance things in the engine and how large would such effect be? (assuming there is header material to be found that can survive).
 
The pipe stays hotter which helps maintain the speed and velocity of the exhaust gases improvint the scavenging effect. The JetHot treatment inside and out will do the same thing and the headers will last damn near forever. The performance gains are not that big, but if you are racing in a very competitive class, its one of those things thats claimed to have a small advantage.
 
Thanks for shedding some light on the topic, surely new to me!

My own race bike needs quite a few larger improvements before perhaps going down the wrap/jet-hot road, not to mention the improvements that the rider needs. ;) .

In the exhaust department my seat-of-the-pants-dyno tells me that scrapping the Lafranconis and building my own system out of 60mm tube and a huge absorption damper (see avatar pic) seems to have made a surprising difference. The first 150mm of the original headers were retained for easy attachment to the engine, but a gradual increase in diameter was required until they gathered 2-1 under the belly of the bike. From there: 60mm through a big&old Acropovic off eBay, following 60mm through to the end. No science involved in this at all, except the great welding skills of a friend of mine. The purpose was primarily to meet the noise limits, but to my surprise the engine seems to have liked it! and it is quite a bit lighter than the Lafranconis even though they were a chopped-off effort by somebody.

Btw racing, in a couple of weeks the last half of the Classic Racing season starts here in the Nordic countries. Sweden 2x in early and late August and Denmark in September. These are meetings gathering just over 200 riders normally, participating in a large number of classes that we seem to have lost in the world of modern racing. Great atmosphere, as always where folks doing classic racing meet. Lots to look forward to!
 
rolf j said:
Pete Roper, I see that in the picture of your race bike (with rider Rob next to it, in the thread "75 T3 Race Bike questions") that you use wrapped headers. What is your experience with those? I've seen in pictures of ol'Guzzi racers from especially the US that this feature is popular, but more seldom seen here in Europe.

Sorry Rob, haven't followed this one.

Yes. Rob wrapped the headers. My opinion? A load of insufferable wank that makes precisely zero difference to the way the bike behaves in any real sense.

Rob's opinion? Exactly the same apart from the fact it makes the bike look more serious!!! :lol:

Pete
 
pete roper said:
Yes. Rob wrapped the headers. My opinion? A load of insufferable wank that makes precisely zero difference to the way the bike behaves in any real sense.

Rob's opinion? Exactly the same apart from the fact it makes the bike look more serious!!! :lol:

Pete

Great, Pete, clear speech as usual, I wet the seat! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

rolf
 
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