you might get accelerated wear of plastics and stuff around it. many drift boys run the exposed loud pipes and e36s run open iirc. so you'll probably be fine.

can you just replace them so you look like a refined pro?

 

I just don't want to go through the hassle of taking off the exhaust manifold if there's not much danger in leaving the heat shields off. Since the shield is riveted on to the exhaust manifold gasket, I would have to take off the entire manifold to replace the shields. If I'm risking setting my car on fire without the shields, I'll replace them, but if they aren't very important, I'd like to avoid that nightmarish process.

 

Wow, how could they come loose. My 17 years original ss shields have no single rivet loose even I bent them during r/r manifold nuts. This cannot be a common issue. I wonder what happened to yours.

 

It's very common, when I bought by car @ 83k they were loose/cracked
Thinking about ripping mine off as the rest of the engine bay is dead silent..however I'd rather hear a noise than cook surrounding parts worse than they already have been cooked

Maybe one day I'll do something about it, or clamp it with a all metal non-rustable clamp

 

Shove some thick metal pieces, like washers, between the heat shields and manifold. Easy fix!

 

:thumbsup:
Be creative,haywire is an essential part of your parts supply

 

Most of the exhaust gaskets I've seen have loose heat shield rivets. Some have all of them so loose you can easily remove the shield.
Once off the car they are easy to snug up with a hammer, but of course you aren't going to re-install them. It might be faintly possible to do the same while the gaskets are still on the car.

 

I pulled out my (aftermarket) heat shields a couple years ago while trying to eliminate a rattle. They slid out with great ease. At the time, I did some reading on it and other people said it would not create any issues. ~30k miles later and my car is not showing any problems. I think the biggest benefit to leaving them in is that they will block some of the oil leaking from the valve cover from dripping directly onto the exhaust (if you have that issue).

 

Interesting, bc I removed the heads twice and pushed, pulled, bent them with no mercy, and never feel any looseness. For those rattling shields, are they stock or aftermarket?

 

The stock ones are prone to the retaining feature (not quite rivets) becoming loose. Loose ones don't always rattle.

Aftermarket parts typically use more small formed rivets, probably because of their thinner metal.

 

My wagon ran for almost a year without shields, I assume ran for much longer without under the previous owner.
No issues.

One note, I run e36 m3 manifolds with no cats. Could result in slightly lower temps in my case.

Sent from my tractor.

 

Bull checking in (AAP)

When we talked earlier, I thought you were referring to the shield covering the driveshaft. Can't say that having heat shields is necessary. They are only in place to limit how much heat transfers to the chassis in your case the hood probably to preserve the paint...

 

Thanks for the input everyone. It seems pretty clear that I should focus on the other problems with my car and just be happy that I don't have to hear it rattling anymore
I'm going to leave the back shield out since it wasn't attached at all, and maybe put some shims on the front one so that it can't move.

 

I've ran my car for 5+ years and over 75k+ miles with no manifold heat shields so what's the problem?

 

It's obvious there's no problem since you haven't used yours with any side effects..

No heat shield = no problems

Sent from my iPhone using E46Fanatics mobile app

 

I know it is really tight in there, but I wonder if there is enough room to get in with a long small-diameter drill bit and make a couple of holes into which you could drive short sheet metal screws to stabilize everything. Right above those shields is the plastic cam cover and its associated gasket, and the secondary air injection system, which likely will be affected by the extra heat. And the A/C plumbing is in the same area. Getting the converters off the engine with the head in the car is an absolute bear of a job and it can be done, but I'd exhaust every other possibility (pun intended) before going that route.