I was also worried about heat from the exhaust manifold playing havoc with the (now relocated) brake booster and the clutch master cylinder. At the same time I wanted an efficient intake air heater for the carburetor for use in winter conditions. I have found the standard Niva lacking in this respect much to my surprise. I don't know wether this was due to my Niva being an export model to a relatively mild sub tropical climate country and not being equiped with standard Russian version of an air heater or wether the Weber carburetor I was using on the Niva engine was particulary susceptible to cold weather. But whenever I used my Niva in sub-zero temperatures and snow the carburetor would ice up. So a lot of time was spend cutting, hacking, filing, sawing, bending, beating and bashing a piece of sheetmetal until it resembled a heatshield which I was happy with. Not being able to use plastic body filler to hide any dents or imperfections meant a lot of hours with a file and hammer and dolly to metal finish this heatshield. I think the end result looks almost O.E.M.


The original Fiat duct was cut down slightly to accept a new pipe to slide up inside to suck up the heated air from under the heatshield. I have no doubts that this will work better than either the original Fiat or Lada systems which just had the duct dangeling above one branch of the exhaust manifold. For the other 364 days of the year that I am not driving through snow I intend to make a cold air intake. I have some ideas but haven't decide which way I want to go about this yet.