I am having my headers and crossover coated this week and I am trying to decide if I want to take off the heat shields. I have searched and found a few people who left them for coating but would like the opinion of someone who removed them. I would think they would be easier to install without them but not sure if the coating would get to hot. I also think they would look nicer without all the flanges and pinch welds that the heat shields have. Any opinions?

Chuck.

 

i would take the shields off. it makes more room down there and even says a couple pounds . I would do the coating then i would also wrap them because seeing dyno results from Special Tools car wrapping the headers and cross over and turbo down pipe makes a very very big difference.

 

Take them off is my thought, also. I just know that if I do there is no going back and those things aren't cheap. I just want to be sure that it really is not going to matter much either way. I'm sure if they were not coated and you removed them it would mean more heat in the engine compartment but I think without them but with coating it would be about the same. Any thoughts? I also just noticed after looking at them that the #4 outlet appears to be cracked around the inlet port. Might be easier to fix without the shields.

 

Take them off to have them coated. It also enables you to get a good look at the integrity of the headers, and will see any cracks etc that are starting. We were about to send out a set to get coated, and cut off the heat shield, and there was a big crack in the 2-3 header, even though there was no noticable exhaust leaks that anyone had heard.....It would suck to spend the money to get them coated, then find out later that one is cracked....

 

That settles it...I'll take them off. I was leaning that way anyhow just wanted to hear it from more experienced people than I. Thanks for the help!

 

I'm in the same situation as czd3my and am planning to call Swain tomorrow.

If I decide to take the shields off, any suggestions on how to best go about that?

Thanks,

Greg

 

If you are welding cracked stock headers, you are better off wrapping then coating. This is because the headers WILL crack again. You can unwrap them and weld them, but you cannot unwrap Swaim's.

I have headers that have been welded twice. - and they are cracked again.
And if you think it is because of high EGT's NOOOOOPE, guess again - nobody knows 951 EGT's better than me.

 

Yes, they will crack again....so keep popping off shields until you find an uncracked pair, lol

 

Very helpful information. Prior to reading this thread, the plan was to pull the heat shields on my headers, have them welded, then coated, and finally wrap them. I will now skip the coating step. Thanks for the info!

I know mine are cracked to pieces, when it's cold, smoke and water come out everywhere, so there have to be just a couple cracks, plus the 2-3 header acts like it has a bellows in it...