One day last week i took off my heat shield to see what my headers looked like, and they were rusted and everything, because it is a stock header. So I was going to leave the heat shield off, but my uncle suggested to keep it on, as it's their for a reason.

So I ask, what is the reason the heat shield is there for?

Also is their any cleaner for my header? I would like to clean them up, is their a type of fluid or cleaner or something? Their like really really rusted, and old.

So I ask, what is the reason the heat shield is there for?

Heat.

and

Headers rust its a fact. Try using simply green, and brillo which will only scratch it causing it to rust more, get new headers!!

The heat sheild is there to keep the heat produced from the exhaust manifold ("header") from heating up the rest of the engine bay and the a/c and radiator in front of it. Removing it allows the heat to dissapte more evenly into the engine bay, thereby heating it up more. Heat is your enemy in the engine bay. If your running a stock manifold, leave it on...it's there for a reason. If your running aftermarket header, leave it off it won't fit. You can try to heat wrap the aftermarket headers to get a similer effect as a heat sheild, but then you'll be wrapping the header you just bought, and I assume you want to look at it...and also some manifacterors claim hear wrp will viod the warrenty.

exhaust manifold is cast iron. iron rust in matter of hours theres no way around it. paint the heat shield black and it ill look good

what kind of paint would you want to use then?

what kind of paint would you want to use then?

High heat spray paint. I beleive they make black high heat exhuast manifold spray paint you could use. Look for the highest temp paint you can find and go. Vavle cover spray paint is 500 degrees, brake paint is 900 degrees, and the exhuast manifold paint (for painting the actual manifold) is like like a crazy 1600 degrees of heat risistence or so.

thanks for the input guys

i used some regular flat black spray paint taht i got at home depot its still sticking and looks [retty good but idk if its the best paint to use but it still works

thanks for the input guys

You're welcome...glad I could help.

well i geuss i would find out if it was not the right paint if i drove down the street and smelt somthing funny and then my car caught on fire

my car caught on fire

mmmm smores

mmmm smores


:cwm27:

yeah eating smores right next to to burning rubbed
:)

Autozone sells a really great VHT paint for exhaust components. It has ceramic in it which gives it a really nice smooth look and helps it stay looking great up to 1500 degrees. Best part is, it's cheap as hell - around $5 a can, which is enough to do several coats on at least 3 headers. Good stuff.

I had totaly forgotten that I had my heat shield a long time ago... after I painted my valve cover, it looked nice to me, but the shit stock exhaust manifold looked ugly. So I dug the heat shield from the grave and decided to sand it and paint it (me being the painter that I am). For some reason when it dried it dried as a really really nice wrinkle coat which all my friends keep asking me how I did it... It just dried that way I dunno why.. I like it :)

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/500/62025valvecover.JPG
UGLY EXHAUST MANIFOLD!

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/62025P1010004bbvcbvc-med.JPG
UGLY SHIELD!

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/62025P1010019vxvcxvxcvcxvcx-med.JPG
NICER SHIELD!!


http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/62025enginee.JPG
ENGINE WITH SHIELD

I should have painted the screws too... they are ugly too

That does look pretty groovy.
I have a big 4-2-1 header on mine so the heat shield doesn't fit anymore. It was nice chrome for about 10 minutes before it turned blue from the heat, so I painted it with aluminum VHT metallic paint and now it looks good all the time. One of these days I will post some pics but I don't have a digital camera or a scanner so who knows when.

Hey by the way, maybe it's just the angle of the photo but it looks like you have a throttle spacer on there. If so, does it do anything for you?

man that heat sheet looks wicked, im deffiantly doing that tomorrow, thanks man.

Yea sageuvagony, that looks really damn good actually. Did you just use regular black high heat manifold paint. I know some of that is ment to produce the wrinkled look.

Anyways, good work man, it looks a heck of a lot cleaner under there now. Anyone with a heat sheild should be motovated to do it after seeing you nice little before and after photos.