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Steering rack bellows/boot heat shields?

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Old May 17, 2021 | 07:14 AM
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Question Steering rack bellows/boot heat shields?

Appears that along with my previous flying (off) serpentine belt alignment issue, which obviously comes with loss of cooling, loss of charging, and loss of power steering. As a side bonus, the excessive heat those few times it's happened, has also pretty much melted my power steering rack bellows into oblivion...lol.

On the brightside, the rack has had a small, but persistent, leak for probably two years...so needed replacement anyway.

Using my flipped truck manifolds, the crossover & massive 3" downpipe, lol, (ALL fully heat wrapped, BTW), make the clearance between the heat radiating exhaust, and steering rack boots, evidently a little too close for comfort.

Just curious what others have done, to eliminate, or at least minimize, this issue?

Pre-melted pic

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Old May 17, 2021 | 08:52 AM
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I'm thinking a small heat shield clamped to the hot side might be the trick.
Its odd because my Huron speed down pipe and passenger hotside was really close to my rack boots but never melted them and they were only wrapped.
Yours are farther from the boot than mine were.
Maybe a small, bent piece of aluminum, spaced off the hotside pipe half an inch for an air gap.?
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Old May 17, 2021 | 09:47 AM
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Yeah, when I first put it together, then again when I did the dual wastegates, thought for sure there was plenty of space, but...lol

I think what I need to do is dumpster dive the local muffler shops looking for an old, removed factory exhaust off of whatever, that has a heat shield in place, and then do some creative trimming and shaping.

I honestly was thinking about attaching whatever I use, to the rack, but it makes more sense to clamp it to the actual exhaust, like you said..
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Old May 19, 2021 | 09:32 AM
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I had a similar issue.

I ordered an OEM replacement boot and fabricated a heat shield. If that melts, I have a set of universal silicon boots on standby.


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Old May 19, 2021 | 09:39 AM
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Awesome. Thanks for the reply.
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Old May 19, 2021 | 09:55 AM
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I've got a factory 4th gen heat shield off my car from where the cat used to reside if you want that to play with?
Its yours if you want it.
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Old May 19, 2021 | 10:11 AM
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Originally Posted by The ******
I've got a factory 4th gen heat shield off my car from where the cat used to reside if you want that to play with?
Its yours if you want it.
Sure. I appreciate it. I'll PM you my address. Just let me know your Paypal so I can at least pay shipping.
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Old May 19, 2021 | 12:57 PM
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I really like the DEI Form-a-barrier material $20 for a 12” square. Super easy to cut and form and holds its shape.
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Old May 19, 2021 | 01:01 PM
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Nice. Thanks for the head's up!
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Old Jul 15, 2021 | 09:52 AM
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Just to update...

I am a fleet mechanic, and saw what I thought would make a perfect donor heat shield on one of our Chevy Express vans...
They are spot welded onto the tailpipe and I had one that had broken loose, in a spot that didn't really appear to do anything anyway, lol.

Removed it, cut it in half, and clamped one onto each of my downpipes, near my brand new steering rack's "bellows"...It looks like my downpipe, is still close enough to cause heat damage again, so still need to address that, either by converting to a downpipe "dump" further forward and away from the rack, or add another heat shield...

But should help a lot for now...

1st two pics are the heat shield still on the "donor".
3rd pic is driver side crossover, just below manifold flange.
4th pic is passenger side crossover, also just below the flange to pipe connection...





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