I'm wondering if I need to get exhaust manifoldheat sheilds for my 3800. It had them when I bought it but they were in bad shape, so I threw them out. Do I really need them or can I run the exhaust fine without the heat sheilds?

Heat shields are put in place to shield radiant heat, since they do nothing for underhood temperatures, no problem not running them, but keep wires and things further away and insulated.

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86 Fiero GT 4spd - L67 swap: VS cam, GenV
98 GTP - Some mods

I had to add a heat shield over my 3800 SC muffler because it was starting to melt the back of the trunk carpet. There are times where a heat shield is essential.

Nelson

Same as Nelson. i had to add heat shielding. It was way too hot without shields. I too added muffler wrap also.

quote Originally posted by don297: I'm wondering if I need to get exhaust manifoldheat sheilds for my 3800. It had them when I bought it but they were in bad shape, so I threw them out. Do I really need them or can I run the exhaust fine without the heat sheilds?

W-body 3800 cars (Impala, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal, etc) will have the heat shields. C/H/G body cars will not (at least I've never seen them on one of these cars).

FYI the front cast iron exhaust manifolds are the same for all 3800 equipped FWD cars. The rear tubular steel manifold is different. W-bodies are different than what was used in the C/H/G body cars.

Also important to note that GM changed the way the heat shields were held onto the manifolds on Series 3 engines. So a set of Series 3 heat shields may not work on Series 2 manifolds.

-ryan

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quote Originally posted by smartaxel: Same as Nelson. i had to add heat shielding. It was way too hot without shields. I too added muffler wrap also.

My car didnt have a sheild so I wrapped the exhuast and installed several layers of themo padding inside the trunk. Still gets warm!!