It's header heat shield time.
I have some questions/concerns.

Did you notice a performance difference after installing/making your heat shield?
Is there anything special you did to yours? I.E. paint, design, size, shape, material, etc.

I'm looking to build one for my Nikki Fed 12A that currently is running a custom header i built.

I'd really appreciate it if everyone posted pics of theirs for me to observe.

Thanks,
-CB

 

I had the Mazdatrix heat shield on my car with my holley setup.
Looks like this:



It would probably work for you car.

http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.asp?partnum=16219

 

I'm just going to make my own,
Hoping to completely shield the header from anything under the bay if possible. It's going to be big.

 

Here are my 'Plans'.
Will probably see additions that will wrap around the ends of the intake mani. Not sure yet.

 

K well put me down for one as long as they're not too pricey lol

 

Heck yeah! Be glad to make one for you Joe. I'll make mine and we'll see how she works and then we'll talk turkey.

 

Sounds good to me!

 

A heat shield works ok, but I've found wrapping the header really makes a huge
difference.

 

I've seen a lot of thread's debating this. I don't want to wrap it because I know I'll have to replace the wrap every so often.
I think if my design is good enough it won't matter, that drawing is just a start. It's going to be much more complex.

 

Personally I'd like to pull my exhaust, clean up all the rust, paint it with hi temp paint, wrap it and use a heat shield.

 

That would be ideal for some. But I don't want to paint or wrap my exhaust. I want to leave it like it is, just going to put on my heat shield and be done.

 

Yeah I don't blame ya mines just got a lot of rust and the only stock heat shielding I'm using is between the muffler and file tank.

 

Theres no debate on the effectiveness. Thats why all the turbo guys wrap
everything. The wrap contains the heat a lot better than any shield, period.
I've run both ways now and its amazing how well the wrap works.

The debate is that wrapping may accelerate decomposition of the header due
moisture being trapped next to the metal by the wrap. Its a minor issue if you
drive the car more than once a month because it gets hot enough on each
run to completely vaporize any water that may have soaked into the wrap.
Now if you store it for a significant amount of time after getting wet in the rain
or something, then yeah it could cause some rust or speed it up.

Now the best option is to have the header ceramic coated. That works as well
as the wrap and doesn't have any of the issues with rusting. It just costs more
than a wrap. Wrap will be ~$50.00 and ceramic coating can be 2 or 3 times
that costs.

Anyway, building a comprehensive heat shield around the headers will be a
challenge. Have fun and show us what you end up with.

 

Thanks, I will post pictures.

 

That is what I did except I also had the header ceramic coated

What I really wanted to do was rather than build a heat shield was to build more of a shroud that would go all the way around the header and supply fresh air from the radiator housing (ala respeed custom fresh air intake ) that would go through the shroud towards the rear of the car hence keeping the engine compartment cooler, It is still on my todo list.

 

Yeah but I think by basically boxing off the header your really gonna make the engine hotter. You need air to get to the header to get rid of some of the heat.

 

What he said.

"Theres no debate on the effectiveness. Thats why all the turbo guys wrap
everything. The wrap contains the heat a lot better than any shield, period.
I've run both ways now and its amazing how well the wrap works.

The debate is that wrapping may accelerate decomposition of the header due
moisture being trapped next to the metal by the wrap. Its a minor issue if you
drive the car more than once a month because it gets hot enough on each
run to completely vaporize any water that may have soaked into the wrap.
Now if you store it for a significant amount of time after getting wet in the rain
or something, then yeah it could cause some rust or speed it up.

Now the best option is to have the header ceramic coated. That works as well
as the wrap and doesn't have any of the issues with rusting. It just costs more
than a wrap. Wrap will be ~$50.00 and ceramic coating can be 2 or 3 times
that costs.

Anyway, building a comprehensive heat shield around the headers will be a
challenge. Have fun and show us what you end up with. "

Here's the respeed unit on a 12A with RB header:

 

Good point Joe.

 

I have been trying to get one for a month now, they are a little swamped at Respeed in the laser department