My GTS came with borla headers and no heat shields when I bought it
My friend works at HPC/Jethot and I get a good deal on coatings, so I took off the headers and had them coated with HPC/Jethot extreme-coating. When I removed the freshair box it was fine but the blower case was warped a little.
I then ran the coated headers, minus the shields, for a month or so and checked the areas around the headers. Now the case has opened up and warped more and the freshair box has a 3/4" hole melted into it. The O2 sensor wire shielding was melted as well, so I replaced it with some high-temp wrap.
Needless to say I have just bought some used shields from a forum member and will be fitting them soon.
Were those the 1 5/8 stepped headers for GenII? If so, I had a set before I went with Belanger. Even with fresh jet hot they ran really hot but made good power/torque. I definitely can tell a difference in heat reduction with the Belangers. Do you still have the Borlas?