John Anderson wrote:
>Hell it must be stupid question day for me so I'll ask one here, the '77
and '78 both have / had thin heat shields molded around the manifolds
coming off the head.  On the '78 one was already gone, the second
mostly gone and buzzing badly so I removed it.  On the relatively cherry
'77 one is OK the other mostly gone so I removed it.  Now I ask, do these
things do anything such that I should be worried, frankly I don't recall the
'76 ever having them but they may have oxidized to nothing long before I
started working on em.  Only thing I can see they do is isolate a little heat
from the push rod tubes and thermostat, and as they seem non
replaceable (IE welded onto the manifold section origionally) I guess I'm
going to to without...<

john:  when my heat shield had to be removed to get at an exhaust leak
on my 81, i replaced it with insulating 'header tape' (made out of some
sort of fiberglass stuff, available at performance-type shops) out of fear
of the unknown. 

matthew