Lynn, the plastic shield is not exhaust manifold shield, that's for sure. none of my cars had anything hanging down from there even the very early '96 I originally had. Whatever that was it was not there for speed, so forget it
Since you are kind of new here, let me give you a quick tour. Questions are best answered in specific forums, so for example your post belonged in Duratec maintenance almost entirely. As SVT PETE suggested, most of the schedule information is already collected in a "pinned" thread. Plus there is lesser chance of running into resident clowns who push their power steering howto in every remotely relevant thread.
Regarding your brake flush: check Brakes forum for information on the best fluid, pads and rotors of choice.
Same w/ MTX fluid change. There is plenty of info available on what fluids work best (and not all are created equal, so better check first).
You'll soon recognize all familiar faces, for example Big Jim who answered much better than me and now feels left out I'm sure
