LD85

My Hookers are close enough that I have always been concerned about Starter heat soak with my headers.


I have used a DEI starter blanket so far and it has done OK,

My question is,,,, has anyone used one of the sheet metal shields that fit on their starter? I see them in Jeg's etc, and it looks like the air flow would be better using the sheet metal than the blanket. I might just try to make a spacer to go between the blanket and the starter to have better air flow.

TIA

Oh yeah, i used the Search function and got some info but I wonder which heat sheet metal shield fits the mini starter

mrc24x

Hi Larry,

I use a blanket type of heat shield without any spacer for air. It's been fine for almost 3 years.

vader86

Nah, I just went with the smaller L98 starter. Its been fine for 3-4 years.

The OE 84-87 one wouldnt have lasted so long though.

Muffin

vader has the answer.

dave_85

Me too. The only thing is it kind of sounds like a Honda when it's cranking.

LD85

Thanks !

Bought another Heat Reflective blanket today because my old one was shot. I will see if I can fab a sheet metal piece and then put the reflective wrap around it.

I see the sheet metal shields in Jeg's but I don't know if they will fit or not.

RonRed89

You can probably make anything "fit" but they don't fit well without work, and there is not a ton of room there. We were using some of the DEI heat shields which worked pretty well, but eventually they seem to separate and some of those shields conduct electricity which caused some interesting arcing issues. We went (using the GMPP high torque mini starter) and covered the wiring with slip on fibreglass spark plug boots and then used the DEI stuff around the rest. Crossing my fingers for a more long term solution this time around.

Ron

LD85

Hey ron, I have been using the spark plug boots over my starter lines for several years, a great "trick" in terms of protecting the battery cables etc from the heat.

I have not had any issues with heat soak yet, but i plan on some long summer drives and don't want any surprises.

Another option is that I have seen clamp on shileds that would clamp onto the header pipe by the starter

RonRed89

I haven't seen that particular style of shield. The one that I found at Summit was more of a sheet metal style and just not enough room with the TPIS headers. This one looks interesting and seems as if it has a better chance of working. My concern with something like this (and it could be unfounded) is that it seems that most people with coated headers don't recommend any sort of wrap. This shield still looks loose enough to let air escape from the exterior header surface which would appear to be good from the coating perspective, but the question is whether or not it just moves the hot spot further up or down the header to the end of the shield.

If it makes you feel better, using those items that I mentioned in my previous note, I did a 500 mile trip in a day with my car and had no starter issues related to heat at all.

My issues were different from the starter perspective where my aluminum starter nose plate lost its shape and caused intermittent binding of the starter gear and the flexplate sometimes. We replaced the starter this year and added a modified brace on the back of the starter, so hopefully we'll be good this time. :-)

Ron