is the heat shield needed?
 

I was curious as to what negative affect would result from getting rid of my heat shield in the engine infront of the valve cover? I looks terrible i tried painting it and that didn't help cause all the dirt and bugs end up on it and it doesn't clean well. So if i can just get rid of it then i will if not i'll see if i can figure out something else.

well that is definantly not what i was hoping for but thanks, i guess i'll just have to figure out something to do with it. Any one know how to strip off high heat ceramic paint, so i can clean it up and try something else with it?

you can reduce temp up to 70% with exhaust wrap (Thermo, DAE). need 2' x 50 ft roll. some say that header will get perfurated , however never saw a case. It could if you dont wrap it equally.

I've used it before (on my prototype header). It's a lot better than letting the heat loose in the engine bay. It has to be put on the way the instructions say though and you MUST coat it with the heat paint/sealer. Mine held up pretty well while I had it on the car, but if you use 1 1/2 rolls of the stuff like I did, it ends up costing almost half of what you can get it ceramic coated for. Besides, it just doesn't look as good.

Mine still looks okay. It does rust slightly under the wrap and I'm sure it would be worse if I was driving it in wet weather all the time, but keep in mind that the thing is pretty damned hot and any moisture that gets on it boils off pretty quick. I'd recommend doing it if you can get a good deal on the wrap and you just have a plain steel header and don't want to pay for ceramic coating, but it would be much better to coat it.

Do you have any idea approximately how much it would cost to get a ceramic coating for a header? Where does one go to get that done ?

a new heat shield is about 36 dollars from mazda