How necessary is the heat shield that covers the Y pipe area, and the one that is around the coil? I know that when i see a lot of engine swaps done, they do not keep the Y pipe shield, but most headers are ceramic coating or something to that effect. The heat shields on my car are pretty nasty looking, i have had the shield that goes around the trans dipstick and the tubes that blow on the alternator and coil powdercoated, and that made a world of difference. I don't know if it would look better with the one over the Y pipe and the one around the coil removed, but it was just a thought. Or should i just save up and have them powdercoated as well? If i decide to go the powdercoating route, is there a problem with driving the car without them for a while, or should i just not drive it until i would get them back and put them on? Also i don't know if this makes any difference, but i am running without a cat, which i know helps cut down on the under hood temps. Thanks.

Necessary

Most after market headers use larger dia pipes and a lot more of them than the simple stock headers, Even with ceramic caoting keep some of the shields. As for that coil, were's a tip, If you put it on standoffs of about and inch or two and turn it 160 degs, it will be a lot further away from the hot EGR and Y pipe. You'll need to make a few wires longer, but thats no big deal. See picture

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Trueleo.com/fiero.htm
RSpiderII@aol.com

I ran for 4 years with my 88 GT, no heatshielding on the entire crossover. I had to rebuild slave cylenders at a rate of once every 6 months. So yea, they are sorta important. The heat in the engine bay was pretty bad. Now days, with my 3.4 DOHC engine swap... I run header wrap on the crossover. I can touch the wrapped crossover with my bare hands for a second or two when the crossover is at full temperature. The engine bay is downright cool now. So if you don't want to run the heat shields, get some header wrap, you will be in even better shape, or use them together for some additional heat protection.

But in the end, you CAN run without the shields, but I don't reccomend it for the long run, its just way too toasty in there.

GM is known for being quite frugal, they wouldn't put those on there if they thought that they could save a buck without them. I sanded mine down and gave them a shot of high temp manifold paint, so far so good, been about 3 years.

If you had to make an emergency drive to the supermarket while yours were being powdercoated, probably could get away with it but I wouldn't recomend it.

My INDY almost burnt to the ground after I swapped in a Quad4 and tossed a few of those pieces of "Tin"
They were not the y-pipe pieces you speak of,but they are all there for a reason.

Don't do it....

[This message has been edited by Indyellowgt (edited 03-27-2008).]

what bout the front exhaust header heat shield? i forgot to put mine on in the haste of geting my fiero together before my garage rental contract ran out

quote Originally posted by DEMONCHILD: what bout the front exhaust header heat shield? i forgot to put mine on in the haste of geting my fiero together before my garage rental contract ran out

If you're talking about the curved shield around the exhaust manifold, get that one back on there soon.

quote Originally posted by jetman: If you're talking about the curved shield around the exhaust manifold, get that one back on there soon.

no i think i left that one...if not im screwed arent i?....but im talking about the one between the header an the block the mostly flat one

not having them at all will deffinatly cool the o2 sensor down at idle to the point where you end up like me and have a rich running, otherwise good performing vehicle. larger diameter headers also cool the exhaust down because the gas can expand in the larger space. i had mine wraped but its 1 layer and my not be enough so im gonna wrap them again and test it out.

quote Originally posted by DEMONCHILD: no i think i left that one...if not im screwed arent i?....but im talking about the one between the header an the block the mostly flat one

Ok, I think that I know which one you're talking about. It's the large bent shield that has exhaust ports that lives between head and exhaust manifold. On both of my cars I removed it and used the high quality Felpro manifold gasket, so far so good. The ports were blown out, couldn't reuse them in the intended fashion, matter of fact, it was what nessesitated the gasket replacement in the first place.

I did save the shields, cut across to remove the blown port portion, I attached it through the bolt holes to give heat protection from the cat on my 87. I really like to keep my shields on the car as intended, however I don't have the shield on my 86, waiting until I get a cat on it, so far so good.

I removed all the heat shields and insulation when i did my DOHC swap. I routed wires and hoses to avoid hot components. The crossover pipe is wrapped in header wrap to keep engine bay temperatures down a bit. I have had zero problems and over 15,000 miles on the car. If you had a fire you put something too close to the exhaust that shouldn't be there.
Don't expect to be able to remove all the heat shields without reorganizing things a bit and making sure nothing can move into contact with a hot part. On the 2.8 this may be impossible, so leave any heat shields that are close to heat-sensitive parts you can't relocate.

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1988 Pontiac Fiero 3.4 DOHC V6 5-speed
California Smog Legal!

quote Originally posted by zmcdonal:

I don't remember seeing this on my 1988 GT. Do they also have this shielding on the y-pipe?

Like that for a 88

Back of the engine , transmission side

[This message has been edited by Robert 2 (edited 04-01-2008).]

The Y pipe shielding and EGR tubes were redesigned for '88. The Y pipe's shielding looks more like tin foil wrap as opposed to the solid metal bolt on shielding in the '85s-'87s. The head pipe in an '88 is longer than the '85-'87 so I'm guessing the '88 Y pipes are shorter than the earlier years.

=-Eric

Oh crap.... I forgot about those that last time my engine was out. ::runs to the garage and begins working::

Thanks for this post I will have mine back on in a few minutes. Ugly and all. LoL