Better Looking park plug wire heat shield?

[dubdub]

So I just got my valve cover, intake, and exhaust manifolds back from the painter. Had them all done in a conservative satin black.

But, as I look to install them, I realize that the OE heat shield between the exhaust manifold and the spark plug wires looks terrible. Has anyone seen any better options. I hate to put this much into making the engine look better only to have it have those cardboard looking heat shields in there.

Any options out there?

[Wille30]

Not sure if its the right thing to do, but I bought some of that foil tape and wrapped what was left of mine. I did it about a year ago and they still look fine.

[AndrewBird]

The heat shields are actually built into the exhaust manifold gaskets. You will want to replace them when you install the exhaust manifolds.

[dubdub]

I get that they are the manifold, but I was thinking of just trimming it down so that each individual runner had an individual gasket.

I do have a sheet of foil that is sticky on one side. I had not thought of covering the OE shield with something more aesthetically pleasing. Willie30, care to add a pic?

[digger]

When they are new they look ok IMO

[Wille30]

I mis read the title... mine look pretty ugly. The original had disintegrated so I used the sticky foil purely for function. They don't look awful, but the original look better.

[TobyB]

From running a 2002, which had a separate gasket for each runner and an external shield,
the stock M20 gasket is a spark plug wire saver.
Without it, plug wires just don't last. If you came up with something better looking
then yeah, why not-

but if you cut down the gasket without replacing it's function,
expect your wires to last 20k
if you drive in stop- and- go traffic.

What I learned the hard way,
t

[supermansocks95]

I assume you could try and make some, but the stock ones really don't look that bad when new. I would rather save my plug wires, personally.

[estoguy]

My buddy came up with an idea for these. We made the following from some metal pieces he had lying around. Top picture is the first version, the other is the current stainless steel ones.





After about a year though, the metal had cracked, so we went to stainless steel. We took a nut off each end of the exhaust manifold and mounted these on. I forget the thickness... about 2-3 mm.

The second version needed some notches cut out on the engine side so I could get my sparkplug socket in (can't see them in the pics) - we weren't sure why, since we copied the size from the first ones.

I have been running these shields for over 3 years. These have worked very well and look good except where we screwed up on the rear shield. They keep the heat from the plug wires very well. I'm still running the same wires.

[ak-]

They sell individual gaskets that delete the sheild - your plugs will be fine.
I run a downpipe next to mine (not touching obv.) and have been fine for a couple years.