i have a exhaust rattle coming from under my hood that i believe i have narrowed down to a heat shield, and i was just wondering if i would be able to just remove the heat shield or do i have to replace it, what would be the ill effects of just removing it? thanks.

That all depends on what'* around the heat shield. Some cars will have a heat shield on the exhaust manifold to keep it from cooking the starter.

Yeah, ya gotta be careful here. If this heatshield is between the cat converter and the body of the car then I would not remove the shield as you could cause the interior, just above the cat converter, to get very hot and possibly cause a fire(I doubt it, but ya neva' know).

If it'* the one on the front, I took mine off but I dont' know if your motor has different stuff around it or not.

the heat shields around the cat have already been taken off and no fire yet, so its not those, and im quite sure its the one covering back part of the front manifold, and thats kinda near the air intake and other stuff and it kinda worries me so i wanna be sure