Evening friends. I'm thinking about wrapping my pipes for a new look, but am curious as to wether it will harm the pipes in the long run. Only concern I can think of is perhaps after washing the bike, if you don't run it long enough to dry out the wrap,will it degrade, (rust), the pipes. Concerned if going back to heat shields one day may be possible. Anybody been running wrap for years, and if so, what long term effects have you been witness to?? Thanks fellas.

 

I've read about pipes cracking because of the extreme heat that can't escape fast enough..........others i've read have no problems.......seems to be a crap shoot.

 

Gonna peel the chrome , but hey it's all about being popular isn't it who cares about whether it trashes things or not to look cool .

 

I don't think the pipes themselves are plated, just the heat shields.

 

Wrapping the exhaust won't generally rust the pipes. What happens is that it won't let the heat escape which make the metal really brittle and starts to flake. This was on some mild steel headers that were in my S-15 Jimmy with a 350. Not sure if the same would happen on these pipes as they are chromed as well.



cheers

 

It will degrade the metal yes. There are companies that will coat the pipes/headers with a special coating that works better than tape and they can do the insides of the pipes too.

Tape looks cool though.

 

I have wrapped my pipes on my last 2 bikes 06 softail and 10 Ultra havnt had any issues at all but I dont make it a habit of soaking them down with water when I wash my bike there might be problems with letting them sit to long wet over extended periods of time.

 

Never was crazy about wrapped pipes. Reminds me of The Mummy.

 

I've got friends who claim the wrap made the metal brittle and their pipes cracked down the length however I haven't seen it for myself.
I've been considering wrapping my pipes. The heat radiating off of my propipe is insane compared to my old stock pipes.My only concern is that it will affect the cooling off of everything while in motion.

 

Physics applies.

The pipes will be hotter than before the wrap. That is the purpose of the wrap - retain heat inside the pipes. The hotter the exhaust gases the more velocity they have. More velocity may (other things involved) result in more power as the cylinder can be evacuated faster.

Next part of the physics is what alloy the pipes are made of. The steel, usually a mild alloy (1010) will oxidize from the heat. The hotter the pipe the more oxidation that happens. Oxidation means losing material - the pipes will weigh less than when new. At some point they'll be too thin to hang together.

Next physics part is that I've read somewhere (can't remember where, so gots nothing to "ratify" this) that the higher temp will cause carbon to migrate out of the steel, and cause the steel to become brittle.

Practical - I've wrapped several sets of pipes. I did it because I liked the look, and because the pipes I had were rusted, scratched, dinged, and I'm a cheap bastid. When the wrap was later removed the pipes were in worse condition than when first wrapped. They were severely pitted in a couple areas that had been in less than pristine shape originally.

If you wrap pipes, do it with the expectation that the wrap will cause the pipes to degrade more rapidly than otherwise. At least with that in mind you won't be disappointed.