Heat Shields and other extra Parts!

[mikeinIdaho]

So I have a 93SE with 218k miles. And the previous owner had replaced the Manifold studs with BOLTS (all of them) I found this out after I was trying to tighten up a rattling Heat Shield.

The Heat Shield was all crack and bent, with two bolts broken off. So I removed it completely from the drivers side. Now no more rattle!

The other side rattles too. So is it okay to remove them without damaging anything under the hood due to NO Heat Shields?

 

Also, should I look into replacing the Bolts with studs? So far they are all tight with no leaking manifolds.

 

and Lastly, when I purchased the truck, the Transfer case would not go into Neutral or 4lo (yes I pushed down etc.) So I pulled the shifter up to see what was the matter-and the lockout bracket would not let the lever down or back to engage Neutral or 4lo. I decided to just pull the bracket as well-it shifts really nice now! My suspicion is that in the 16 years my pathy has been around, it has never had the transfer case in neutral or 4lo.

So other than being aware of the shifting bracket being gone from the transfer case, is it bad ju-ju to not have it?

 

thanks this forum has been an awesome resource that already saved me lots of $$ and time making this rig more reliable and more fun to drive!

[MY1PATH]

I had taken all my heat sheild off for the same reason and not had any issues, nor did I expect any.

you can use bolts instead of sutds (many vehicles do) just make sure they are high grade or they will get weak with the constant heat changes.

If you do get sutds make sure they are the "300zx turbo" sutds the original pathfinder studs were inferior and prone to breaking.