Overview
The purpose of the heat shield is to keep the underbonnet temperature down and also to protect the surrounding parts of the engine bay from heat soak , the first one effects performance , the cooler the engine bay the better the car runs by allowing cooler more dense air to enter the engine giving a better burn and hence better performance , the shield also protects surrounding ancilleries from heat soak or radiated heat which will soak into the nice black plastic induction box heating up your intake air which causes the first problem mentioned , you will see the effect of this if you take out your dipstick (which passes between the exhaust headers) you will notice that there is a dark patch in the middle of the dipstick that is incinerated oil stuck to the dipstick due to the heat soak from the headers. (Description by Bert Reid).
Tools required
- 10mm spanner or socket.
- Medium screwdriver
- Patience
Warning
Many parts of the engine bay become extremely hot every time the engine is used, make sure the car has not been used recently before attempting this project.
Steps
- Remove the screws retaining the air duct (marked in green).
- Remove air duct.
- Shows the engine bay after the air duct is removed
- Remove the 3 nuts marked with red arrows from the shield. Two are in picture one and the final one is in this picture
- Pull heatshield up and out, levering the left side forward and away from oil feed pipe.
- The picture shows the engine bay with the heat shield removed.
- This picture shows the likely extent of damage, symptoms being severe vibration noise.
- Fit new heatshield pushing it through from above, bending it to avoid various obstructions!
- Once in position it may need bending out a little to fit correctly on all 3 studs.
- Then secure with the three nuts and refit the air duct.
- The last picture shows the difference between a worn heatshield and a shiny new one.
This technical guide was originally held at http://www.fiatbarchetta.com/btech/hshield.html. It was copied to this site in 2021 to ensure its availability and to reformat it into a more modern layout. The original guide was written by John Turvill with additional photos by Marten Schullink
