Heat protective shield "Melting" in engine compartment

Have been smelling an off and on burning plastic smell over the last few months. Occurs after driving, parking it, and then I smell it when returning to the truck. Smell seems isolated to the front, and I have found nothing underneath the truck that looked like melting wires, etc.

Investigating it again to, I found in the engine compartment, on the passengers side, where the cat like device is on the downpipe, the heat protection is wearing/melting away along the firewall.

Questions:
1. Should I be concerned? Fire, thing burning to the ground, etc?
2. Any solution? I'm thinking something like header wrap to do it "cheap".

Thanks!

Pics:

 

www.heatshieldproducts.com

 

Good products there. The armor weld tape looks to be a good choice if I can clean the firewall enough. The wraps are likely the "easy button".

https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/heatshield-armor-weld-tape

https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/automotive/exhaust-and-header-wrap

 

Need to get the sticky stuff myself for the fire wall. Mine is aged and crumbling off. Rubbed all over the header on the passenger side. Need to get it on before I reinstall the turbo.

 

According to Amazon, some of this should show up tomorrow.

https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/automotive/heat-shield-tape-and-fasteners/thermaflect-tape

 

let me know how install goes. i was looking to do this in conjunction with some dynamat on the interior of my truck. after checking out their site, definately looking to do the underside of my cab and firewall

 

Hopefully I'll have it installed tomorrow and will put some pics up. For my needs, it will probably just cover the area that already had the heat shield, but we'll see where I can squeeze my hands in.

I need to look into what I need to do to clean/prep the area today and get that knocked out this afternoon.

As a backup, I also ordered some generic header wrap to bring my order up to $35 and get free next day. Not bad for ordering at almost 11 PM last night. I'm going to miss the instant Amazon convenience when I move away from Indy in a couple months.

 

So I forgot there was a felt insulator between the engine and the firewall. The OEM heat reflective film just sat on that, when it didn't already have a metal heat shield. That may mean the source of my "burning plastic smell" is something else.

Either way, the OEM stuff was hanging off and everything below it was either charred or melted looking. What was left had the consistency of when you toss tinfoil in a campfire.

Simple prep was a light brush and then cleaning off with brake cleaner. Of course it may be for nothing as I wasn't going to remove the felt insulation.

Using the 1.5" wide Thermaflect tape(part# 340020), I was able to cut in about 10" pieces and tetris my arms back or up in there. Not real easy. Would have been easier if I pulled the air cleaner hose off.

Seems like the adhesive on the tape is pretty good, but only time will tell. Original stuff lasted 10 years before I thought it may be an issue.

Not much to show via picture as I'm not going for looks.

Topside pic to show how thick the tape is and how it appears to stick well.

 

Do you still have the original blower fan resistor, or have you updated it?

 

Original

 

Take a look at it. There is a thread about it here. Burns up, melts the plug and wires.

 

Here is the thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/before-you-replace-the-blower-resistor.107093/