"Every Evo X will catch on fire unless you have a heat shield."

Yeah, I've heard that one too.... Rest assured, not EVERY Evo X will catch on fire without a heat shield. In fact, it's really just another one of those famous traveling stories, like: "Every 7 Bolt 4G63-T will crank walk the second after you buy it." While it has happened in the past, and there are a few other accounts of other Evo X owners singeing a few under-hood components after a manifold swap, it isn't as common as some people might be lead to believe.

Heat control is, however, a great idea if you want to be safe and sure you will not run into an issue after swapping your factory manifold out for a nice aftermarket piece. Unfortunately, not all aftermarket manufacturers offer a heat shield to match their manifolds. In fact, it is pretty rare.

So what do you do when you need heat control and none is offered? You call upon Yours Truly to engineer and design a heat control solution. This is nothing that a nice shiny piece of stainless cant solve.

Starting with the engine, you can see the turbo manifold comes rather close to other components under the hood. Without any kind of protection, the heat can cause issues over time.

I started with some 304 stainless to create a simple surround to the entire manifold.

Getting the back side done was a breeze. Simply added some more stainless to the mix and cut to shape to complete the surround.

After fully welding, a few grinds, and a great looking polish, the cover was ready for the final touch.

This was nothing more than an extra strip of stainless to cap off the top followed by the MP tag.

If you notice above, the tabs were added as well to secure the heat shield to various parts of the engine and not the manifold itself. While it is entirely possible to add bungs to the manifold for use as a fastening point, it is usually not preferred by the clients as most of them see it as messing up their very expensive manifold. It is also a great big eye sore to see a bung welded to a manifold if the client ever wanted to show the manifold without the heat shield.