Leaderboard

^^^WINNER. The problem is NOT the heat shields. It's faulty plug wires. GM made a bazillion of those engines, and they were guaranteed to meet emissions regulations (i.e., no misfires that produce high HC and kill the catalyst) for 50K miles.) The heat shields were designed-into that system. Yes, they'd provide a ground path if the plug boot were faulty. Removing the heat shields does not make the plug boot less faulty, it just removes an easy ground-path for the spark.