Man is this a newb question.... necessity of heat shield

[Guest bastaad525]

okay so I've been here a long time and should know better, but well.. I'm just gonna throw this out there anyways.

 

 

here's the deal... for as long as I've had my turbo motor in my 240, it has not had the heat shield, between the exhaust and intake manifolds. Now, I'm smart enough to know this isn't good but... how bad is it, exactly? I've been driving it this way for over a year now, and it seems to run fine to me, even after getting on it. I do get brake fade if I'm on it too much... no heat shield for my brake cylinder either , but otherwise I dont notice the car running any worse for it.

 

 

So... HOW bad is it running like this? What are all the possible effects of not running it? Am I doing any damage? or just sacrificing power? taking any big risks?

 

 

And lastly, how does the stock heatshield attach? Would I have to remove one or both of my manifolds to do it?

[Clifton]

Your brake fade has nothing to do with a heat shield. There are a couple of bolt holes on the botom of the intake manifold it bolts to. The air moving through the manifold is moving fast so it doesn't absorb alot of heat but I'm sure it does pick up some. Any extra heat is not good. I run a heat shield on mine.

[johnc]

The heat shield helps in stop and go traffic and will help prevent vapor lock. But once you're going 25 mph or more there's enough airflow through the engine compartment to keeps things relatively cool.

[Guest bastaad525]

maybe that's why I never notice any effect... Having a daily driver now, I only take the Z out when I know conditions will be ideal, i.e.: never during any rush hours, never on a hot day (anything over 80* F).... I dont think I've actually sat in traffic in the thing in almost a year now... I couldn't stand to deal with that stiff clutch pedal anymore! Two years of that ACT 6 puck and pressure plate as a daily drive in daily traffic has given me a permanent limp!

 

 

So I guess it wasn't such a stupid question after all Thought you guys were gonna tell me how much of a bonehead I am for not running the heat shield, but I guess for the way my Z get's driven it probably wouldn't make much of a difference?

 

 

But now that you told me it bolts to the bottom of the intake manifold... I'm assuming this means I dont have to remove either manifold to get this thing on and off? Well I'll ask my usual parts guys if they can get me one, if I can I'll put it on there anyways just to feel better

 

 

Clifton - the reason I figured the brake fade had to do with heat coming off of the turbo, heating up the brake cylinder, is because sometimes they fade really bad... that is to say, the pedal becomes softer and softer, and I have to press it down harder to stop (that IS brake fade right?), often when I haven't been hard on the brakes at all. I know if I am hard on the brakes... one or two hard stops from high speed... man forget it they become almost useless (exaggeration, but not by much ) but sometimes if I'm just driving around on the freeway, and I get on the throttle hard for a bit, but just normal braking to slow back down to speed... they will still soften up on me sometimes.

 

So if that's not the heat from the turbo/exhaust doing that, what is it?

[Clifton]

Sounds like your MC might be going.

 

JohnC might be able to explain this better......Brake pads are design to have optimum bite in a certian temperature. Street pads work better at lower temps, race pads have more bit at higher temps. If you exced the working temp of the pad by getting the pads/rotors too hot the pads won't have the bite they should. You can push on the pedal as hard as you want but it won't slow the car. It is one of the worst fellings.

[Guest bastaad525]

the master cylinder is rebuilt with only about 1 year on it, maybe 5000 miles.

 

I understand about the brakes themselves and where fade usually comes from, but again in this case, this often happens when I haven't been hard on the breaks at all... I know that there is supposed to be a heat shield to protect it from the heat of the turbo, so just figured that that may have been my problem.