To insulate or not?

[dieselrealtor]

My new mandrel bent crossover pipe came in today ($75 shipped w/pyro bung), aluminized steel.

Should I insulate it or install it as is?

If so, how should it be done? This is somewhat of a high salt area in the winter.

[MTTwister]

I wrapped my factory one with exhaust manifold 'tape' and then sprayed it with Hi-temp paint - aluminium color that I had left over. Did it in-situ. messy, but W-T-Heck.

[More Power]

I'd be inclined to use it as is. Wrapping the pipe would help to trap any road salt against the pipe. ...

Jim

[BuffaloGuy]

I've wrapped mine - twice. Both times the road gravel sandblasted the wrapping off. in short order. I've given up on wrapping the lower portion but still have plans to wrap the upper parts as I believe it would help keep some heat away from the nearby components.

[ercaduceus]

You could always have the crossover ceramic coated. For just the cross over I don't think it would be super expensive but I'm not sure the benefit is worth the cost. It would help protect the pipe better and not trap salt like the wrap. Eventually stone chips would occur. If rust is a major concern you could get a stainless crossover.

[DaveBr]

I'm thinking your X-over will run so hot that any salt will be burnt off. I used to live in a long winter / high salt area and the x-over pipe outlasted the rest of the system around 3:1. save your bucks and put it to good use elsewhere.

[Robyn]

Personally I think the cost and fooling around with this are of minimal value.

If you had/have a super trick set of manifolds,with a custom turbo that will really flow some wind,along with ported and tricked out heads,then the coated Xover to retain that last tid bit of heat that might be lost would be great.

For a basic stock turbo setup even with a large exhaust the returns are going to be very minimal if any.

Save the $$$$

Best

Robyn

[GMC Hauler]

I wrapped my stainless steel pipe. It dropped trans temp 20 degrees. It has been on for 2 years now with salt and all. However, I had some "industrial" reactor grade pipe wrap that is thicker than the stuff you can get from Summit.

I would not wrap a non stainless steel model.

I didn't really see any performance gain. The trans temp drop was enough for me.