Long story short: I bought my Evo used (about 6k miles) and the guy before me did a TBE. But, everything from the downpipe back, is all stock.

Anyway, he left the exhaust heat shield on there, but because the downpipe doesn't have the bolt holes for the heat shield, it's only held on by the upper ones on the manifold. This dirves me nuts because at about 5-6k RPMs, you can hear the damn heat shield rattling like crazy. I want to make sure it's ok to remove it without having any problems. Especially since I'll have to cut it out of there so that I don't have to remove everything else, just to remove it.

I don't track the car, and don't plan to. It's more of a daily driver/nice car for me. So I don't think it will get hot enough to cause a problem. What do you think?

 

I think it will get hot enough to cause problems.

Basically, it'll cause everything, especially anything rubber, to degrade faster. I'd figure out another way to secure it.

 

See, that's kinda what I was thinking. Any suggestions? I'm really not sure what would be a good way to secure it. That rattle makes me crazy. I guess I might just have to wait until I swap the parts back to stock...

 

Which heat shield are we talking about? The one on the firewall? You absolutely don't want to remove that one. The one on the exhaust manifold? You don't want to remove that one either. Those are actually heatpipes that help pull heat off the manifold and turbo.

If either of those are rattling, then bend them into a position that doesn't rattle.

 

Yeah, the one on the manifold.

I guess I could bend it a bit, but I bet it'd still rattle... Maybe bailing wire or something of the sort that I could use to tie the lower portion of it to the pipe...

 

Just take the heat shields off and wrap the downpipe and manifold with some exhaust wrap and one of those header blankets. That will keep the heat off everything and is made of fiberglass and silicone so no rattles. While you are at it, get one of the turbo blankets. Everything will be nice and cool...

 

When I got my O2 downpipe installed Tobz left it off because He said it would rattle with only 2 bolts to hold it on. I asked if the heat would cause problems in it's absence and He said no. So I don't have it installed.

 

I met a guy a couple weeks ago with a WW X, and he didn't have his on there. Also tuned by Tobz.

I'll probably just yank it off.

 

mine is also off - are there any issues with this? i just put it back on and did a search if it would damage anything - was driving around a month with it off in ny (roughly in the 50's and 60's outside)

 

so guys the heat shield from the end of the downpipe back is ok to remove? i actually had this question on the Evoxforum and i found this. thx for the help.

 

Excessive engine bay heat = bad

Find a way to secure it. I have the MAP o2/downpipe and found a way to secure my manifold heatshield to the firewall with no issues of rattling. Do it right or don't do it at all.

Just because a shop is known to yank something doesn't make it right.

 

not the manifold the cat back part. after the downpipe

 

I have the same question. I was about to install my cat back today and I remembered this would be an issue. Can I pull it off? Like he said, the cat back part NOT the downpipe....

 

Go down to an exhaust shop and have them weld you up a bracket that will secure it better to the down pipe?

 

Think of it this way..... Car companies will short cut and save every single little penny they can. If the heat shield were not required for long term reliability, they sure as hell would get rid of it to save as much money as they can. Not to mention, with the increasing fuel mileage requirements, any weight they can save they will take out too.

So, they spent money and added weight to the car which are the exact two things you do not want to do in mass produced cars unless it is absolutely necessary. I'll let you guys chew on that for a bit.