wrapping the head pipe

[powderider87]

Hey guys, well our head pipes get real hot as you know, and i was wondering if it would be helpful to exhaust wrap the head pipe to keep the heat contained and away from the engine??

[mooseracerX]

I wrapped the exhaust and it kept me from burning my riding books and pants.

[bigredisb]

Some claim its not worth it and that its rusts the pipe because it lock in moisture. I personally have noticed reduced heat by my leg (nice when I am cruising in flip flops and shorts) as well as the moisture is cooked out of the pipe wrap as soon as the engine is running. I soaked my wrap in water, wrapped it and fired up the machine and it is really tight.

[powderider87]

did you take the head pipe off the machine when you did it?

[bigredisb]

Yes I did. I would recommend you take it off to get a good clean and tight wrap. Some wraps like the one you see in my post are recommended to have a silicone spray put on them but I never did it and it still looks new after one season of riding. I picked up that wrap at Advance Auto for 30 bucks or so. If I could do one thing different I would by good stainless hose-clamps to secure the wrap but mine has not loosened at all yet. I just dont trust the stainless zip tie's I bought at advance.

[powderider87]

alright sounds good, and i notice you ground down the header welds? which welds exactly do you grind down? and how far down? just so there flush with the pipe?

[bigredisb]

Yeah it s good idea to grind down the welds while you are in their. There are a couple of posts on here showing pics of before and after of the grind process but you are basically taking the welds flush to the inside diameter of the pipe outlets. One of mine was really good and the other was really bottlenecked with weld.

[MtnEX]

I've bounced back and forth about wrapping mine.

Anything to reduce the heat these quads put off would be nice.
I hate it though because my head pipes are so nice looking (Yoshi).


Just burned a hole in my pants last time I rode.
Mine doesn't even have the heat shield.

[bigredisb]

I just helped a guy with a fmf header a week or so ago. He didn't want to wrap the pipe but needed a guard. I cut his stock header apart to get the factory lugs that the stock heat sheild bolt to and tig welded them to the fmf pipe. We then mounted the factory heat sheild to it. We then painted the muffler flat black with the end cap unpainted. It's a sleeper to the non ex lovers. You could add the sheild to your yosh as long as it is bare stainless.