how many people have no heatshield
 

hey guys, I was just wondering how many people here removed the stock heat shield off for the cat and the header... I was putting my stock one back on and was wondering if anyone here thinks its bad to drive without the cover?

it looks like the only thing that it is blocking is the shift linkage. at least thats what i think it is since it's 2 lines coming from where the shifting assembly is. i don't think that it is required, but it doesn't hurt to have it.
i thought my exhaust was rattling on it, so i pulled it off and cut the hell out of it with a saw. now i discovered that it is actually rattling in a different location, so i have to have my exhaust custom bent.

Here are some good things to do if you have a bit of time..

Every year remove the heat shields and put a light layer of grease on them .. then put some antisieze on the bolts and bolt it back up..
voila the shields will not rust and create vibration :)

ive taken mine off right away.....some people say that it helps with heat soak

I thinks its a good idea to keep the sheild on, It keeps engine bays tems down.
Thats one good thing about the OEM exhaust manifold.

i lost mine at the exhaust shop. wish i still had it because my header is showing its age.

im pretty sure the purpose for the OEM heatshield is to prevent unwanted heat from other parts of the engine bay & gunk on the road that may crawl up from underneath.

imo keep it on, if it serves no purpose, honda would;ve been smart enough to not watse money on that idea.

vipers idea is a good idea to maintain your header. mostly if u live in salty areas

i took mine off... or, i never put it on... hehe

uh. they are made out of aluminum. :_doh: grease will just attract dirt. :shake:

for the ex, the cat heat shield just keeps heat away from the center console area in the car. I took mine off to get rid of rattles when I had the random tech cat in. I noticed it got a bit warmer there after a long drive. Now that I do not have a converter, the heat is not noticeable.

Only thing the heat shield ever did for me:
trap one of those cheap ass center pins to a bumper clip. Smoked for the night and smelled bad for 2 weeks baking away on the exhaust. once it fell in it melted pretty quickly.

Honda got it there for a reason, I say keep it on or you might run into small little annoying problems.

mine too....

I don't have it on, then again I have the Kamikaze header.

ya keep it on if you have stock header to keep temp down. I have aftermarket so no heat shield.

i have stock header and stock cat took both heat shields off, shavedm aybe 20 lbs? either way im slappin on a turbo so those will be gone anyways might as well do less work..

Whether or not it helps keep engine bay temps lower, I don't think it's enough to make a significant difference. Mine is on only because I'm too lazy to take it off and I may be selling my car soon.

Keep them, Honda put heat shield for reasons.

Unless, you are swapping with aftermarket header.
Why take it off anyways? Stock header is nothing but rusted metal piece.
Might well as leave heatshiled on to eliminate heat soak problem and keep engine bay cooler.