Heatshields and a new manifold

[zipimini]

Hi all,
I've had a bit of a nightmare changing over the exhaust manifold from the dodgy precat (honeycomb still intact) to a stainless one. Every nut and bolt was a rusted blob.
I decided to take off the rear end to remove everything and thank god I did, what a total nightmare it turned out to be (7 hours including drilling out sheared bolts).

I bought one of these from the states.

 m http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0568441721 m

It arrived within three days! Seems good quality, it fitted perfectly and came with replacement engine nuts, gaskets and cat bolts. but the original 'wraparound' heatshield on the manifold was rusted right through at the side fixings, so I've left this one off. Will it make any difference?

Also the flexipipe on the cat had broken all the way round, bought another one on ebay and that also had the start of a split, so I've gas welded all the way round at the bottom of the flexi.

I must admit she does seem a little bit more responsive now, unfortunately while the back end was off I've noticed a hundred little jobs that need doing!!

[Wabbitkilla]

Plenty of people run without heatshields no problem so I wouldn't worry too much about it.