OH, whoops. i thought you were talking about the heat shields on the exhaust. the manifold shield should be easy to remove and as far as i know, can be removed with no ill effects. the aluminum hose that runs to the airbox usually falls off or rusts away after a while anyway, so the heat extractor nozzle isnt necessary. most people remove the aluminum flex hose because if the airbox thermostat malfunctions, it could send too much super hot air into your air mass meter and fry it. the only reason it's there is to warm the car up faster on extremely cold days. unless you live in sweden i doubt it will help you much and is safely removed. i plan on removing my manifold heat shield too, but i havent yet because the little pipe that extends off of it fell off the other day anyway, and that was the only piece that was rattling.

handsome greg