Heat shield Materials

[mettersl]

Anyone got any tips on removing a cat from the downpipe (610)? The bolt heads were eaten away so I had to grind them off, both sides, but the joint still stays firmly together.javascript:emoticon(':evil:')

Have tried oils, heat- and vibrations from a grinding......and all the time the distributor heat shield was self destructing and falling in my eyes.. leading to.....
Any suggestions as to where I can get the double aluminium/fibreglass material to make a new one, or a suitable alternative material?

Thanks
Lee

sadly the only way is a cold chisel and a heavy hammer to split the joint- with all the heat from the cat the gasket effectively glues the jont together . it took some 5 minutes for me to split it

the distributor heeat shield is still available new from alpine though it takes some fitting as it seems to have the holes for bolts in slightly different places to the originals!

You don't want to know how expensive that head sheild is now! ??

[mettersl]

Thanks for the suggestions-
I'm still a way off the cold chisel phase as the exhaust downpipe and cat are still stuck in the car. I'm still puzzling on how to get them out- will they come out if I take the exhaust manifold or intermediate pipe off ?(the manuals says it will on a GTA, but with a 610 who knows- does bigger turbo mean bigger down pipe and therefore not enough of a gap?) It looks too small...

Have also found some of the small heat shields are badly corroded- 60 01 025 070 and 60 01 024 872. My local Renault dealer clams they aren't available but I'm not sure that they really bothered to check.

On the distributor insulation front- how much from Renault- three figures? (DG??) that would be 60 01 023702?

I found some material from a rally specialist- £75 a pack- I thought that was a lot. Anyone tried it?
http://www.rallyusedparts.co.uk/tradesh ... eref=rup01

Any suggestions for alternative insulation- before the car bankrupts me....disks, sensors etc I can live with being extrotionate but heatsheilds!!!!

Thanks

Lee

in respect of exhaust removal there are some problems

firstly you have to split the cat for the exhaust to come out

i removed the exhaust from both the turbo end and the silencer end and despite twisting it everyway known to man it stil wouldn't come out. I thought about moving the intermediate pipes but all the bolts would ring and i'm not sure i would have gained anything

it still wouldn't split until the chisel worked its way through a very fine lip between the cat and turbo exhaust pipe and it eventually split after a lot of persuasion. funnily enough it went back together again using the original gasket though obviously i held them together with a nut and a bolt as the welded fixings were finished

i bought a new distributor heatshield when we were in dieppe last year and i think it was around €100 so add another 50% renault uk and vat and thats probably the price

[mettersl]

Thanks Dermot!
I now know exactly how much fun this job is going to be.
I guess you'd removed the heads of the bolts before the cold chisle came in handy?
Good advice about the exhaust manifold- I had tried loosening off one of two of the bolts but I had come to one that would not shift. Think I'll torque them all down and try that chisle.

Might be cheaper to go to Dieppe with a list of bits and fund it out of the extra cost of the insulation.

Lee