I just put in a down pipe and a new cat but the old pre cat had two bolts on top to mount the heat shield. The downpipe does not. I attached a picture but I need to know if when most put on a down pipe if they somehow get the heat shield back on or just leave it off? The shield is still on the turbo just not on the curved part of the down pipe going down. It looks like there are a few vacuum lines right above it so I am a little concerned.

Thanks!

 

Many of us, myself included, when we run just the stock turbo (and sometimes with upgraded ones as well) we just leave all that heat shielding off. I haven't had any issues and I know many others have been doing it that way just fine. My guess would be that unless you're sitting in stop and go traffic in the heat of the summer your lines and everything will be just fine.

 

ok, kewl! Thanks for the help!

 

mine was left off

 

A lot of people probably leave that off, but a lot of people also wrap the DP to keep the heat in and reduce the heat in the engine bay.

It would be very silly and/or ignorant to think that you're not doing any damage by leaving the heat shields off. The amount of extra heat in the engine bay is significant, and that accelerates the deterioration of every rubber and plastic part in the engine bay, not to mention the performance penalty from everything being that much hotter. Vac lines will split sooner, connectors will become brittle and break sooner, harness insulation will crumble and expose wires, paint on the chassis will bake off exposing the steel and allowing rust to form, etc.

If you're happy running with all that extra heat that's fine, but don't imply to others that there are no negative effects.

 

what kind of wrap would be best on the downpipe? i was looking at the stuff you can get from autozone and wasnt sure if they would work ??

 

theres quite a few brands.

thermo-tec is the big brand that comes to mind first.

 

I wrapped my downpipe with some wrap off Ebay. Then sprayed it with some kind of sealent. You can also have the downpipe coated with some kind heat resistant powder coating stuff. But def do something!