I thought I'd share a little project of mine in case it helps someone. I've heard it's a good idea with headers to add a heat shield around the clutch line near the slave cylinder. I've been having some clutch-related issues, so I thought I'd give it a shot.





Does it look nice? No!! But it should be functional. I'm no fabricator, so I'm happy how it turned out. It only took about $1 worth of material, but it cost me $25 ($15 for some snips and $10 for a 10' roll of flashing, both from Home Despot).

First, I made a cardboard prototype. This may seem a painfully obvious step, but it did not immediately occur to me. I cut a piece of scrap cardboard roughly to size with a box cutter and crawled under the car with it and a sharpie. I crammed it up in place, marked it with the sharpie, then took it out from under the car to cut accordingly. Once I was happy with how I fit, I transferred the pattern onto the flashing and cut it to size with the snips. I used the snips to round off any sharp edges - I've been sliced way too many times by those factory heat shields with their 90° edges. I don't have a sheet metal brake, so I just bent it by hand.

I test fit it so I could mark where to drill a mounting hole (in the heat shield, not the car) and where to slot it to clear an ear on the bell housing, and that was that. Now I just need to figure out what size screw to get and mount it. I might also glue it where it overlaps.

I can't promise this will work for other cars (especially other years), but here are my dimensions. Solid lines indicate a cut; dashed lines indicate a fold.





Once I figure out the mounting screw size, I'll post pics with it installed (and the screw size). I plan to do this with my brake lines too, and I'll post that as well if people are interested.

 

It is probably my aviation background, but I would have taken a different approach. Run the clutch line through some fire sleeve like this:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages...firesleeve.php

It comes in different diameters, and is rated to 450 deg F. I used it to protect a starter cable running very close to the header (not on a Corvette), and it worked great (plus, no blood loss).

 

I hadn't heard of that - looks like good stuff! I actually might get some for my starter cable. For this, though, you'd have to either slit the hose or disconnect the slave and get brake fluid everywhere.

How's the chemical resistance of that stuff? All the sleeving I've found falls apart pretty quick from a combination of high temps and oil.

 

It is used on fuel and oil lines in aircraft engine compartments, so pretty good. It is basically silicone-impregnated asbestos. You could slit it, place it around the line, and then attach it with metal bands - but disconnecting one end of the clutch line would give a neater result.

 

Nice, I definitely need to buy some of that to have on hand. If you need to affix it to whatever it's protecting (i.e. it can't be free floating), do you just use hose clamps?

 

You could, but they make special metal band clamps (see the web page I referenced before). Of course, for those, you really should have the special tool:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catal...banderecon.php

Of course, I look for any excuse to buy a new tool...

 

DEI makes a product called Fire Sleeve. I use it on clutch lines and other lines or wire looms on the race car.

 

Ha, of course they do. Seems like a PEX ring would do the trick just about as well (still needs a special tool; I just happen to already have it).

Interesting, looks like pretty much the same thing except slightly cheaper. And it looks nicer

 

Anything for aircraft is more expensive than the equivalent item for other uses (its like the Corvette premium).

 

Got it installed. I used a M6-1.0x10mm bolt, but something a little longer would have been easier to get started in the hole. Possibly as long as 15mm. I threw a lock washer on there to give some cushion for tightness.
The perspective here is deceiving, but it shields the line from the header quite well.

 

Yup...lots of options available https://www.summitracing.com/search/...ibanner=SREPD4

 

I've used several varieties of the aluminized stuff, and it totally falls apart. The braided stuff gets oil-soaked, which looks bad and I imagine significantly reduces its effectiveness. I think the silicone stuff several people mentioned is the only thing I'd want to try.

Not that it's a big deal with a little used here and there, but I'd like to point out that my heat shield is both lighter and cheaper at 30g and ~$2