Prodrive CAT-HeatJacket came off, needed?
 

Had the Prodrive CAT on few about 2yrs, brought 2nd hand so age is unknown. When I had it fitted I put x4 metal tie-wraps round it for good measure, but now the heat jacket has aged and fell apart and slide down the exhaust system, so I had to remove it totally due to lack of a ramp lift for now.

Question is, is this heat jacket needed?, if so probably best to re-do it in that heat wrap stuff yeah?

The CAT is fitted on my 05 STI Impreza and is the wide bell mouth model.
I read that the later models had a steel heat shield which is all ribbed, which is the same as mine being all ribbed, does this make mine the later model and therfore no jacket is needed?

Thanks for any info guys & girls!.

Such a coincidence, mine did today as well. My mrs noticed it hanging down. Id be interested too!

LOL typical aye. I'll pop to my tuners in the morning see what he says, as Im off to Goodwood sunday so a fair amount of miles will going on. I recon the jacket had been slipping down over time, as the metal tie wraps were still all on, its the jacket that was brecking up.

Done a search on here, found a pic of someones with looks exactly same as mine, ribbed centre part, with wide bell mouth so must be the newer one, the older 02 ppp had the 2 port inlet, which need the jacket.
Maybe the guy who I got it from just stuck one of???

If it is the later bellmouth one with the ribbed section over the cat then as STD it didn't have anything else on it and should be ok mine passed two mots without issue on my wrx and no special warming up. Only the earlier twinpipe design downpipe had the separate jacket on it, although any extra insulation can only help underbonnet temperature

Mine is the earlier design, I wonder how hard it would be to wrap in situ?

Its definitely is the wide mouth, so save to say its the later model?
The downpipe has to come off to wrap it, would be pretty straight forward I recon.

Right then, popped in to see my mechanic he said best to have some sort of heat shield on, i'll try and find one if not get it wrapped, but the jacket is better.
Driving normal will be fine, just don't stay on boost for mile after mile.
How hard will it be to find a prodrive cheat jacket?

If you want to heat wrap it just get a roll of heat shield wrap, but on the later cat it really is not essential as the were fitted to all 2005 onwards prodrive cars like this,

the sheild will offe some protection from stones ect, so may extend the life of your cat and will help it reach its optimum operating temp a touch quicker

so id say its not absolutley essential, but if was mine id just have one of some kind

You could always have it ceramic coated ?

http://www.zircotec.com/

Would you guys say that if my cat has the wide mouth opening its the later model?

Yes. The original(with the heat wrap) had the twin dump system.

So the previous owner added the heat jacket as a secondary thing, despite it already having it built in.