Suggestions please...

[Internet Annoyance]

As to the wraps,, I dont know why the motorcycle world is so slow to figure this out. Its been well known for many many years in the hot rod and performance car world. You dont see many if at all ANY car applications where the headers were wrapped, back in the early 1990s it was briefly popular when the header wrap tapes became widely availible, people,, then magazines picked up on it too,, that pipes rot out quickly when you wrap them. especially in the radius's.
Hot Rod, Car craft, Popular Hotrodding, Super Chevy and other magazines all ran articles on why its a bad idea.

Its basic physics and metallurgy. By insulating the pipe with an exterior wrap the pipe cant radiate the heat, it cooks it, and thin wall metal doesnt last long that way. BUT if you ceramic coat it. it protects the metal inside and out. the heat passes OUT the pipe as opposed to cooking the pipe.
Pipes break down very quickly with header wrap, its been proven over and over, look up old car magazine articles on this.

The benefits of ceramic coating are well established. A good reputable coating shop warrantees their work, my local shop i use has a lifetime warrantee. see <http://www.finishlinecoatings.com> (hope that link works, if not look them up)
So, besides protecting the integrity of the metal pipe,,,,, by passing the heat OUT the end of the pipe,, you dont produce as much heat into neighboring parts, which the bike runs cooler, you also scavenge the exhasut gases slightly better (more power).
Im sure some will disagree, and im not trying to be offensive, but IMHO, pipe wrap signals to me the owner doesnt have a clue. Much like some fart pipe tuner car with a big honkin wing on the back and V-tec stickers all over his moms Camry. Sorry,,,,, but thats what i see when i see header wrap or pipe wrap.
the only exception to that is protecting a critical part from heat such as a exhaust that passes right by the starter like on a V8 Chevy, But a heat shield is more effective than a wrap, but thats about the only exception where I think a wrap might be acceptable.
Feel free to disagree, Im not trying to be offensive, but you asked, and in my opinion thats why its not a good idea.
Some coating shops offer some good colors and finishes as well, Gloss, satin, and many color options.
I also restore classic bikes, and on new chrome we coat the insides of the new chrome pipes, after resto is completed, we break the bike in and do the final tune and break in with some rat pipes i keep in the shop, once the bike is dialed in and covered some miles, we put on the new chrome. I have the ID of the chrome pipes coated with ceramic, As long as you dont allow air leaks, the chrome DOES NOT BLUE. I have people look at our restored bikes and say "Nice bike,shame you dont ride it" Not true,, look at the odometer sparky, My buddy won best of show on his 1940 Triumph Speed twin against several hundred high dollar cars and bike at the regional ALL BRITISH show,, lots of trailer queens, But Tom rode to the show and rode the bike home. The trailer queen owners just were dumbfounded, "Oh my God,, he is riding it!"

[Internet Annoyance]

HYLOMAR. Is awesome, but like anything, it can be abused, Im a federally licensed Aviation mechanic (A & P) and in one of my old classes a very wise old guy teaching the Powerplant theory course used to say,,,,
"Gaskets are for sealing, and RTV is for F**King it up", well, he also would ask, "Does it run in SPITE of you, Or
BECAUSE of you?" which is actually a great question applicable to many things in life.

So Hylomar is not commonly availible,, it never got very popular, and the most common source in the US was Permatex, you had to special order it often times. They stopped making it for a while and now back but limited availibility But a search on Amazon theres a number of companys offering it, and i recently stocked up large tubes for pretty cheap. shop and compare.

Its a NON HARDENING sealant. just like regular RTV, if you use a lot of it, its a sure sign you are an idiot. Nothing screams incompetence like big gobs of Orange RTV oozing out every gasket surface. More importantly,, how much ended up INSIDE your engine? Id hate to see your oil passage ways.

So, use Hylomar sparingly,. where it excels is on surfaces that tend to weep. a very thin skin on gaskets and seals works wonders, Rocker box and base gaskets on a Sporty or Buell are prime areas that weep, Hylomar is excellent for this if used PROPERLY and in small quantitys.

I use it a lot on old British bikes that are well known for spewing oil and marking their spots.

With the alloy top ends of the Sporty and Buell design, sealing is a challenging task,, so much expansion and contraction present extreme design challenges.

While working fleet maintenance on 18 wheelers we used gobs of RTV in caulk guns, everything got a big squirt, but in my experience,, regular RTV doesnt ever seem to seal very good. So i prefer a good quality gasket and a very light skim of hylomar if i know that surface weeps, but other places i just use a plain gasket.

On cars i only use Fel-Pro gaskets, no exceptions unless they dont make it for that application. I do not know yet which Harley gaskets are the best, but i hear good things about James gaskets?

[Negative]

^^^^ great info there...

[snrusnak]

Replace intake seals

[mtnmason]

thanks, IA. So is it possible to ceramicoat just the OD and not ID? I could see that doing the same thing as the wrap. Also, does coating the inside, in effect, decrease the ID? If so it must be a negligent amount even though I would have an odd feeling about a coating on the inside of my pipes that I would never be able to see. Moreover, it was my understanding that some of the older wraps were more prone to cause corrosion and that the newer 'titanium' stuff was a great improvement. My main goal with the header wrap was just to try and cut down a bit on the ambient heat.

As for the plugs- I put iridiums in there about 5K ago so they should be fine, may pull 'em just to get a look see.


Thanks everyone for the responses. I need to be wrenching, not typing.

[Internet Annoyance]

Ah thanks MtnMason, someone liked it, i got a rep point overnight :), I suppose you COULD coat just the OD and not the ID, But im not sure why you would. It might or might not create the same problem as the wraps, but generally, most shops would try and talk you out of that. I frequently coat used pipes on vintage bikes as few shops will rechrome a used pipe, the exhaust residue is bad for the chemical tanks, so i come across cool rare pipes for vintage bikes and ceramic coat is a good solution. However from a performance standpoint its a good solution as well.
as to only coating the ID, the reason we do that is specifically ONLY on NEW Chrome pipes to prevent blueing.
I do mostly vintage British bikes, used to do a little American, but now just old Triumphs, BSA, Norton, and they look amazing restored and the chrome stays nice with the ID coated with the ceramic coating. You CANNOT allow leaks however as that raised the temp to insane levels and it will blue regardless,

I have no knowledge of newer vs older wraps so i have nothing to contribute there, I do look for good heatshield materials and have almost used up my stash of Aircraft brake assy heatshields for Car applications, Chevy starters get cooked by heat from the exhaust, and I like to shield that as much as possible

as to dimensions changing, none that you will ever detect on a exhaust pipe such as the ID or OD, now its a different story on Pistons as i also used Moly and ceramic coatings on Pistons and combustion and exhaust chambers, which is a whole other topic, but we are talking decimal points that are very small, If you run your pistons at 3 thou, then run it a little looser for the coatings,, say 3 and a 1/4 thou, Coaters say you dont have too, but ive found in experience you do need to. Nothing to concern yourself with exhaust parts.

thats also a good suggestion on the intake seals. Im going to check mine as well as im dropping mine to repair exhaust studs and yes,, im coating my pipe and on my Ducati as well, but my bike has some weird history so i dont trust the intake seals so im going to replace mine just to be sure while its apart.