So as you may have heard, when I got my car back from Lang after having the big ends done, I had a major vibration at cold idle.
Thought it was the exhaust, but couldn't find anything.
I eventually discovered that the right side VT mount had cracked.
It wasn't looking like I was going to be able to rebuild the VTs in a timely manner, so I ordered up some
BimmerWorld mounts.
I figured the cause of the failure was probably heat, since it was the right side near the headers.
My original stock right side cracked also, but after 7.5 years and 88k miles.
The VT only lasted 2.5 years and 44k miles.
So before I put new mounts in, I wanted to make a better heat shield.
Thanks to Varinn for finding
this older model heat shield and stash1 on M3forum for suggesting
this Kevlar heat blanket.
Just poked 6 holes around the edge of the heat shield and attached a pleated swath of Kevlar with pop-rivets and washers.
I was planning on doing some more trimming after fitting it it the car, but once I got it in there I decided it was good enough.
Probably has more material at the bottom than it needs, but it's got a nice big "cat flap".
Top coverage isn't as good as I had hoped. I left 2" of Kevlar above the rivets. Should have left 3", but I still think it's a lot better than the stock shield.
