Is the heat shield necessary? Also wondering if I ned to add starter shims during replacement of the starter?

 

Think about this for a minute, if they could save the time and material required for the heat shield and multiply that by the number of vehicles, that would add up to a considerable savings. So,,,,,,,,,,,it is there for a reason , keep it there.
The better way to determine if any starter shims are necessary, depends on the type mounting and clearance between the starter drive gear teeth and the teeth on the flywheel..