Aftermarket headers. Heat Shield?

[MonsterEnrgY]

I just installed an aftermarket cat-back exhaust and headers over the weekend due to my old exhaust rusting out. The stock heat shield that covered the exhaust manifold obviously didn't fit back on.

My question is will this harm my car driving it around with no heat shields? I haven't noticed anything melting in the engine bay yet but I have noticed a slight bit of the paint blistering on the hood. I have been looking around for heat shields that would fit the aftermarket headers but the only thing I have found is the heat wrap, but I heard that is not good to do to the headers due to rust.

Can anyone suggest anything that would help? Should I wrap my headers or just run them with nothing at all. Is there a website that sells aftermarket heat shields that will fit?

By the way they are from Spec-D and are stainless steel.

Thanks

 

[jayson427]

I run a ss header with no wrap or shield it will be fine. Your engine bay temps will be higher but being n/a you have nothing to worry about . Wrapping a header definitely helps but I've never heard of not doing it because of rust. Stainless steel is hard to rust but I live in Arizona which it isn't a big issue.

 

[shifty2006]

I ran my n/t with a header no wrap or anything for the 7 years I had it no issues at all just a little warmer under the hood was all we have a supporting vendor that sells blankets for the turbo maybe see what he says about one for a n/t

 

[dsmspick]

Hit up Levi on here, for got what his name is on the forums but he makes blankets for manifolds and turbos and what not. I'm sure he could make something that would work very well at a great cost!

 

[luv2rallye]

On the turbo models heat shields help keep heat away from the alt (which some people have reported damaged it) and the turbo. Since your NT you may be ok unless the pipes are really close to the alt.

 

[emsvision]

I've ran headers on my n/t eclipse for 4 years now with no heat shield. Haven't had any problems or melted anything. And I take road trips too( 3 hours nonstop driving)

 

[98dsm31710]

On all my previous N/A cars I've always ran headers with no wrap or shield and have never had any issues.

 

[Fotowntalon]

I'd recommend heat wrap, but from a performance standpoint, from a DD standpoint you will be fine without it.

 

[dsmcurse]

Headers plurl? Like more than one header? Weired. And all this time I thought headers were for V6 & V8? If your worried about the paint above your header (the hood) add additional underhood heat insulation. I had this problem when I had no insulation under my carbonfiber hood, the turbo header started to cook at the clear coat finish. There's plenty of peel and stick sticky sticker type heat sheild insulation you can get to put under your hood. That's what I did do to the fact I lost the original one that came under the OEM hood.

 

[Lazyboy]

You can wrap your header if your really worried about it, but the reason your seeing blistering on your hood is because the factory paint is starting to fall victim to the wrath of the mighty sun.