Heat Shield Removal

[old ugly]

i understand by your OP that all you were doing was removing the heat shield to get at the distributor hold down.
backing those nuts off a couple of turns and sliding that shield out, then re-tightening the nuts should be a very quick process. you may get a few drops of water if any.
and i don't know which cylinder head nuts would need a special wrench? can't a person just lift off the distributor cap and put a socket and maybe an extension on them and use you're torque wrench, if you really feel the need for the torque wrench.
why are we making this into a big project?
ou
tom