You are going to get all kinds of answers to this question. The implication of not installing the heat shields are two fold:
1. Heat exposure to other components close by.
2. Increased temperatures throughout the engine bay.I can't comment about the first but the implication of the second one makes it more difficult for the engine cooling system to do its job as the engine radiator has a more difficult time shedding heat, in turn the thermostat runs more flow to try and maintain proper engine temperature, and in the extreme case or under peak load conditions heat load spikes potentially compromise the engine's detonation margins. I know, this sounds a little extreme and we don't know the sensitivity of all these contributors to such things as engine bay cooling flow, etc but those are the implications. My gut says most people leave them off completely. There's no easy way to quantify the things I'm describing above so as long as the engine is tuned appropriately you'll never know the difference between having heat shields on and leaving them off. If it was mine I would modify to make them fit to provide maximum performance potential and/or detonation margin after all Nissan built these in for good reason, but leaving them off is probably ok too. The best answer is very subjective. Best of luck Sammy.
OverZealous (CT)
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