# Buick Verano Splash Shield



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

I just looked at the Buick Verano parts on gmpartsdirect.com and noticed that the splash shield being all but removed in the Cruze is the same shield as the Verano. It even mounts the same way. My question is "Why wasn't the Verano included in this recall?" Is it because the Ecotec 2.4 liter engine has a more traditional oil change procedure?


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

I'm pretty sure the exhaust on the 2.4L is in the back of the engine, and goes straight back, where our exhaust is in the front of the engine, and goes right past the shield. I suspect that it's the exhaust that's lighting the oil in the pan on fire.

Mike


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

The 2.4ecotec being a different family of engines than the 1.4T has the head designed backwards to the cruze. Exhaust on firewall side, intake on front. That means no hot exhaust below the oil fill & no exhaust pipe under the engine.

EDIT: I see *bartonmd *beat me to it*.*


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## Bohdan (Apr 28, 2012)

We shall see what there new 2013 2.0 with Turbo will have as a shield soon.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

So basically the designer of the 1.4T engine is directionally impared and doesn't know forward from reverse. I would think you would get more power from an engine if you push the air in from the front and shove the exhaust out the back.


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## mcg75 (Mar 5, 2012)

obermd said:


> So basically the designer of the 1.4T engine is directionally impared and doesn't know forward from reverse. I would think you would get more power from an engine if you push the air in from the front and shove the exhaust out the back.


No. Honda has been doing it that way for years. Both the 1.4T and 1.8 have the exhaust manifold in front. The Malibu's new 2.5 engine is also setup this way.


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

obermd said:


> So basically the designer of the 1.4T engine is directionally impared and doesn't know forward from reverse. I would think you would get more power from an engine if you push the air in from the front and shove the exhaust out the back.


Did you mean to put that in purple (used on some forums for joking/sarcasm)?

On this particular vehicle, the turbo is in the front for a few reasons. Mainly:

1. So it can be cooled by the fan if you turn the vehicle off and the turbo is still too hot (this is in the manual)
2. So the plumbing is shorter, for less turbo lag (more important because of the small size of the turbo.

Mike


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

mcg75 said:


> No. Honda has been doing it that way for years. Both the 1.4T and 1.8 have the exhaust manifold in front. The Malibu's new 2.5 engine is also setup this way.


Yeah, pretty much every FWD I4 was like that. For a long time, the Neon was the only one I ever saw that had the exhaust coming out the rear of the head.

Mike


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

bartonmd said:


> Did you mean to put that in purple (used on some forums for joking/sarcasm)?
> 
> On this particular vehicle, the turbo is in the front for a few reasons. Mainly:
> 
> ...


Yes I did. Unfortunately my keyboard sometimes types and clicks by itself. By the way - the two reasons you give are really good ones for putting the exhaust output in the front.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

2.2 ecotec has the exhaust on the back of the head and the 2.0T in the cobalt SS had the exhaust/turbo on the back of head. Cruze has TONS of room behind the engine for a rear exhaust/turbo, obviously if the head was switched there would be no chance of oil getting spilled when filling or changing filter that would get on anything that was hot.


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## blk88verde (Apr 30, 2011)

When my son had his 2004 SAAB 93 2.0T ecotec, the exhaust/turbo was on the firewall side. Our new Honda AWD CR-V with 2.4 VTEC has exhaust on firewall side too. The cruze is only the 2nd FWD 4cly transverse engined car I have owned. The other was a Geman Ford Fiesta (push rod 1.6 litre), exhaust was on the radiator side.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

So the exhaust is the thing catching oil on fire? Why not just wrap the exhaust pipe near the shield in header wrap??


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## rbtec (Feb 3, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> So the exhaust is the thing catching oil on fire? Why not just wrap the exhaust pipe near the shield in header wrap??


I think the shield already was cut around the exhaust.


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

rbtec said:


> I think the shield already was cut around the exhaust.
> 
> 
> Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app


It's already cut around the exhaust, but it's really close...

Mike


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

rbtec said:


> I think the shield already was cut around the exhaust.



Yes you are correct, but it was still close enough that if there was oil on the lower panel cornering would cause the oil to drip/run right onto the hot exhaust. The now flaming oil ignites the panel.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

spacedout said:


> Yes you are correct, but it was still close enough that if there was oil on the lower panel cornering would cause the oil to drip/run right onto the hot exhaust. The now flaming oil ignites the panel.


In that case just trim a couple of inches away from the exhaust and from the oil drain plug. This is a far cry from chopping 80% of the shield out. Also, make sure there are no lips on the top side of the shield that can catch and hold oil. Oil does flow, just not as fast as water.


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

bartonmd said:


> I'm pretty sure the exhaust on the 2.4L is in the back of the engine, and goes straight back, where our exhaust is in the front of the engine, and goes right past the shield. I suspect that it's the exhaust that's lighting the oil in the pan on fire.
> 
> Mike


 Both the turbo and the primary Cat are well away from the shield, I highly doubt the intermediate pipe gets hot enough to burn oil, **** the panel would probably melt before you hit the flashpoint of oil ( which is above 450 degrees in almost all cases). In fact you may be hard pressed to get a cat hot enough to burn oil, while they can run upwards of 600 degrees temp internally once you hit open air that drops very sharply, think how close you can put a bare hand to a hot exhaust and not get burned. If the exhaust is starting these fires it has to be by the turbo charger. I'm sticking with people spilling oil on the turbo and it getting caught between the turbo and the heatshield during the fill as the culprit, although removing the splash shield will take away some of the fuel, I don't think it has eliminated the actual problem.


Edit: also keep in my almost all heat energy rises (there will be some radiant heat around the pipe), so directly below the exhaust is considerably cooler than directly above.


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## cecaa850 (Apr 9, 2012)

It's also quieter in the cabin with the engine between you and the exhaust manifold as opposed to the manifold right next to the bulkhead.


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

NBrehm said:


> Both the turbo and the primary Cat are well away from the shield, I highly doubt the intermediate pipe gets hot enough to burn oil, **** the panel would probably melt before you hit the flashpoint of oil ( which is above 450 degrees in almost all cases). In fact you may be hard pressed to get a cat hot enough to burn oil, while they can run upwards of 600 degrees temp internally once you hit open air that drops very sharply, think how close you can put a bare hand to a hot exhaust and not get burned. If the exhaust is starting these fires it has to be by the turbo charger. I'm sticking with people spilling oil on the turbo and it getting caught between the turbo and the heatshield during the fill as the culprit, although removing the splash shield will take away some of the fuel, I don't think it has eliminated the actual problem.
> 
> 
> Edit: also keep in my almost all heat energy rises (there will be some radiant heat around the pipe), so directly below the exhaust is considerably cooler than directly above.


Driving my Cummins the other day, and I'm not sure about that... I think that may be the case on normal cats that are 4-5' away from the engine, with some pipe to cool the mixture down in between, but 12-1400F exhaust gas temps aren't uncommon on gasoline engines (The Subaru guys try and keep theirs under 1600F constant, and 1900F momentary), and I gather it normally runs 1kdegF. I suspect that when run hard, the cat (outside) that's 4" from the turbo is running in the 1kdegF neighborhood. I haven't taken an IR temp gun to it or anything, so it's just a SWAG, but our cat is going to be hotter than a standard cat, especially during PE, when the engine is dumping extra fuel. Also, heated air rises, but hot exhaust is a pretty good emitter of IR energy, which doesn't care what direction is up.

This says pre-cat and post-cat temps on a BMW530i are around 900degC (1650degF) at WOT/6k.
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2005/session6/2005_deer_crane.pdf

Looking under mine, before, the shield was maybe 2" from the outlet of the cat.

Mike


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Mike, what is your take on exhaust wraps as a way to reduce underhood temperatures and perhaps prevent such fires as a result of radiating heat?


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Mike, what is your take on exhaust wraps as a way to reduce underhood temperatures and perhaps prevent such fires as a result of radiating heat?


Exhaust wrap is pretty good stuff for taking down radiant heat. When I worked at an engine control grad lab, in college, we used header wrap for the exhaust pipe and mandrel bends that I welded together to get the exhaust out of the dyno room. You could almost touch the stuff. 

HOWEVER, it will soak up stuff... like oil spilled on it... So in the case of an oil spill or leak, it may or may not be worse than not having it on.

Mike


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

bartonmd said:


> Exhaust wrap is pretty good stuff for taking down radiant heat. When I worked at an engine control grad lab, in college, we used header wrap for the exhaust pipe and mandrel bends that I welded together to get the exhaust out of the dyno room. You could almost touch the stuff.
> 
> HOWEVER, it will soak up stuff... like oil spilled on it... So in the case of an oil spill or leak, it may or may not be worse than not having it on.
> 
> Mike


Is there any exhaust wrap that is a bit more resistant to soaking? 

I am fairly determined to put some on my car to aid in reducing under-hood temperatures and improving engine performance and responsiveness in hot weather, particularly in conditions where the engine bay gets heat soaked. 

My other concern is salt. Undoubtedly, those of us who live in states where the roads get salted, the wrap would absorb water from the road and salt would be practically embedded in it. Is there any concern that this would accelerate rust on the exhaust piping being covered?


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Is there any exhaust wrap that is a bit more resistant to soaking?
> 
> I am fairly determined to put some on my car to aid in reducing under-hood temperatures and improving engine performance and responsiveness in hot weather, particularly in conditions where the engine bay gets heat soaked.
> 
> My other concern is salt. Undoubtedly, those of us who live in states where the roads get salted, the wrap would absorb water from the road and salt would be practically embedded in it. Is there any concern that this would accelerate rust on the exhaust piping being covered?


I haven't found anything that won't soak up liquids. Actually, oils and saltwater soaking is why I haven't put header wrap on my motorcycle header. If you do find something that won't soak up liquids, please let me know! 

Honestly, though, you can maybe cut a little bit of heat out, but you can't really cover what little header we have, and I'm not sure I'd cover the cat... Not a whole lot else in the front part of the engine compartment.

Mike


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

bartonmd said:


> I haven't found anything that won't soak up liquids. Actually, oils and saltwater soaking is why I haven't put header wrap on my motorcycle header. If you do find something that won't soak up liquids, please let me know!
> 
> Honestly, though, you can maybe cut a little bit of heat out, but you can't really cover what little header we have, and I'm not sure I'd cover the cat... Not a whole lot else in the front part of the engine compartment.
> 
> Mike


How about an foil-type shield or something similar to a turbo blanket that can drain?


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

I really haven't looked deeply into other alternatives, so I couldn't tell you... If you find something, though, let me know...

Thanks,
Mike


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

My hot water and furnace exhaust pipes are double walled with about half an inch between the walls. It's absolutely amazing how much cooler the double wall pipe is than a single wall pipe. Is there something similar for car exhausts?


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## zr1000a1 (Jan 25, 2012)

I do not think NASA is using the space shuttle anymore. Maybe they would sell us some of those ceramic heat tiles. I am sure with enough duct tape and a Swiss army knife, we could "Macgyver" something up!

In all seriousness though, and I am just spit balling here, but I would think that wrapping headers and or adding more heat shields would cause more and longer duration heat soak and higher operating temperatures. Could also theoretically cause more pre-detonation and lack of performance. I would think the inverse would be better, such as more surface area for more heat dissipation, like air fins and heat sinks. Worked well on air cooled engines and cpu's. Of course heat shields that are directly connected to the exhaust could also act as a heat sink for dissipation too. It can trap heat, but also could help in dissipation depending on design, but probably not enough to overcome what it is trapping. Radiant, convection, reflection, airflow.....me brain hurts.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

zr1000a1 said:


> I do not think NASA is using the space shuttle anymore. Maybe they would sell us some of those ceramic heat tiles. I am sure with enough duct tape and a Swiss army knife, we could "Macgyver" something up!
> 
> In all seriousness though, and I am just spit balling here, but I would think that wrapping headers and or adding more heat shields would cause more and longer duration heat soak and higher operating temperatures. Could also theoretically cause more pre-detonation and lack of performance. I would think the inverse would be better, such as more surface area for more heat dissipation, like air fins and heat sinks. Worked well on air cooled engines and cpu's. Of course heat shields that are directly connected to the exhaust could also act as a heat sink for dissipation too. It can trap heat, but also could help in dissipation depending on design, but probably not enough to overcome what it is trapping. Radiant, convection, reflection, airflow.....me brain hurts.


Wrapping headers doesn't work that way. The hot exhaust dissipating heat into the engine bay contributes to heat soak directly. If you can wrap the headers, it keeps the heat in until the gasses get further downstream under the car, so it doesn't heat up the engine bay as much. 

This is why many people get their headers coated by jet hot, and why header wrap is so popular in general. Once the exhaust gasses are out of the engine, I don't exactly see how they'd be causing pre-detonatoin.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

XR: I have some stainless steel foil tape in my workshop that I bought many years ago at the local Ace Hardware store. It's about 1 1/2" wide, fairly thick for a foil tape, and really sticky on the adhesive side. The brand name on the roll tube is TuckTape. I used it to secure a tin can sheet metal patch on an exhaust pipe on an old car and it never did fall off. Of course exhaust pipe temperatures are a lot less than header temps., so I don't know how well it would work.


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## zr1000a1 (Jan 25, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Wrapping headers doesn't work that way. The hot exhaust dissipating heat into the engine bay contributes to heat soak directly. If you can wrap the headers, it keeps the heat in until the gasses get further downstream under the car, so it doesn't heat up the engine bay as much.
> 
> This is why many people get their headers coated by jet hot, and why header wrap is so popular in general. Once the exhaust gasses are out of the engine, I don't exactly see how they'd be causing pre-detonatoin.


Great explanation! Makes sense to me. This is why I like this forum, and always am interested in posters such as you in what you all have to say. Thanks.


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

bartonmd said:


> Driving my Cummins the other day, and I'm not sure about that... I think that may be the case on normal cats that are 4-5' away from the engine, with some pipe to cool the mixture down in between, but 12-1400F exhaust gas temps aren't uncommon on gasoline engines (The Subaru guys try and keep theirs under 1600F constant, and 1900F momentary), and I gather it normally runs 1kdegF. I suspect that when run hard, the cat (outside) that's 4" from the turbo is running in the 1kdegF neighborhood. I haven't taken an IR temp gun to it or anything, so it's just a SWAG, but our cat is going to be hotter than a standard cat, especially during PE, when the engine is dumping extra fuel. Also, heated air rises, but hot exhaust is a pretty good emitter of IR energy, which doesn't care what direction is up.
> 
> This says pre-cat and post-cat temps on a BMW530i are around 900degC (1650degF) at WOT/6k.
> http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2005/session6/2005_deer_crane.pdf
> ...


I just grabbed the IR thermometer and according to it immediately after being driven with engine idling, the pipe above the splash shield was 291 degrees F, splash shield plastic was 163 degrees F, turbo temp (through the heat shield) was 461F and the cat (bare metal) was 581. Obviously I can't check under power enrichment, but that should get you in the ballpark. I could not get a clear shot to the turbo itself, but I'd bet it was somewhere in the high 600 - low 700 degrees immediately after parking. So it is def hotter than I thought, but still physically a long way away from the splash shield. Also the temps near where they are cutting the shield did not come anywhere near the 400+ degree flash point of most motor oils. I'm still sticking to my guns, fires are starting up front and not underneath


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Went to the dealer to drop off my car to get the washer fluid spray nozzles replaced and new springs put on the front (gm mistake). I asked them not to perform this recall on my car and it was noted in the service work. There was no special paperwork to sign though, he just asked me to sign the work order. 

I better not find a big hole in my shield when I pick it up tomorrow, lol.

Sent from my Bulletproof_Doubleshot using AutoGuide.Com Free App


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

NBrehm said:


> I just grabbed the IR thermometer and according to it immediately after being driven with engine idling, the pipe above the splash shield was 291 degrees F, splash shield plastic was 163 degrees F, turbo temp (through the heat shield) was 461F and the cat (bare metal) was 581. Obviously I can't check under power enrichment, but that should get you in the ballpark. I could not get a clear shot to the turbo itself, but I'd bet it was somewhere in the high 600 - low 700 degrees immediately after parking. So it is def hotter than I thought, but still physically a long way away from the splash shield. Also the temps near where they are cutting the shield did not come anywhere near the 400+ degree flash point of most motor oils. I'm still sticking to my guns, fires are starting up front and not underneath


I'd believe that... The chart on the 5th page of the linked study shows the no-load EGT at idle being ~290C (550F). There really isn't a way to check it without being on a dyno or having a pyrometer. I can tell you that my Cummins will go from 1200F in a full throttle acceleration and be down to 260-270F by the time you get stopped. 

I actually don't completely disagree with your assertion of where the fires start, really because I don't have any proof otherwise. That's actually the reason that I won't be making an aluminum skid plate for the Cruze, like I do skid plates and bumpers and stuff for Trailblazers. WAY too much risk for something that we don't know for sure about...

Mike


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

bartonmd said:


> I'd believe that... The chart on the 5th page of the linked study shows the no-load EGT at idle being ~290C (550F). There really isn't a way to check it without being on a dyno or having a pyrometer. I can tell you that my Cummins will go from 1200F in a full throttle acceleration and be down to 260-270F by the time you get stopped.
> 
> I actually don't completely disagree with your assertion of where the fires start, really because I don't have any proof otherwise. That's actually the reason that I won't be making an aluminum skid plate for the Cruze, like I do skid plates and bumpers and stuff for Trailblazers. WAY too much risk for something that we don't know for sure about...
> 
> Mike


If I were you, I'd design one and have it ready to be mass produced, because you'll make a killing on them once cars with hacked up panels start catching fire and GM barks back with some serious authority at NHTSA.


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

Nope, I'm not touching this platform, at all...

Mike


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## Chevy EV Guy (Aug 14, 2014)

What was the years of those splash shields being the same please as the Cruze? Were / are they exactly the same? Thanks in advance.

Edward


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Chevy EV Guy said:


> What was the years of those splash shields being the same please as the Cruze? Were / are they exactly the same? Thanks in advance.
> 
> Edward


Up until 2016 when the Cruze body style changes. The shields didn't change for them as they don't have the same engine setup.


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