OK so first off let me say ive never taken a welding class and dont weld enough to gather skill so please excuse all my bird poop welds in the pics

To much time on my hands this weekend so i decided to bust out the welder to finally check off some things off my "To do list"

I retrofitted the Heat-Sinked powersteering hard lines from a toyota .

The whole reason for doing this is because I was removing my dinky sheet metal FMIC support brackets so i could mount some beefier brackets and while cutting the welds off from the old brackets i managed to cut the front powersteering hardline.
I found this to be the perfect excuse to do this little mod. While the results aren't noticeable im sure there is some cooling benfits for the powersteering fluid.







Second, My first attempt at a DIY heat shield. Your input is welcome as im not 100% done with it.
Right now it only has one mounting tab which is fine but i want it sturdy so another one will go ontop and mount to the back of the valve cover bolt holes where the coil pack use to mount.
Took about an hour to fab up to its current point including getting all measurements and cutting.

 

Good job your welds look like mine lol at least the ones on the heat shield lol

 

not bad for your first welding. Your going too slow on that thin *** material 22 gauge is .030 which the mig wire your using is probably that. Little tip on welding sheet metal. Position the joint verticle and travel downward fast. I would adjust your wire speed/voltage super low also.

 

Good for you man. You should try finding a factory oil cooler that would work as a nice upgrade for our miata. There have to be some trucks with factory towing packages that would have one.

Your thread just prompted a brief and one sided discussion with my wife. I suggested I buy a cheap welder. She promptly told me no. I will bring it up again later. Victory will be mine!

 

You can find a cheap MIG welder on craigslist with gas for around 200-250. You can weld up to 1/4" material.

 

Stock 90 dsm has a lil oil cooler that would prolly be easy and cheap to get and make work.

 

Is that steel sheet really going to do much in the way of shielding from the turbo heat? If it does, i'm gonna go that route since I have no aluminum welding capabilities.

 

I have a thin 22 guage "shield" and yes, you can feel the difference by just putting your hand from one side to the other. It does a great job at keeping my brakes and heater lines from getting TOO hot

 

Good to know...i've got another project on my hands =P

 

You could also use aluminum or stainless for the shield. Aluminum has high conductivity but doesn't radiate much at all, and stainless has very low conductivity. Both are more challenging/complex to weld. I'd probably go with neat bends and rivets.

 

I concur...I made my shield out of .027" crs and it's like night and day how much cooler the area by the master cylinder stays. I should have made a top portion like the OP, but I'm looking to retrofit some louvers above there now anyways

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