I realize the top engine covers are mostly "sound suppressors"; but, wouldn't the engine run cooler without them especially during our "southern" summers. I've been thinking about simply removing them and putting them in storage. Do you guys remove them or leave them on?

 

those things are just there for looks. they're not really needed. take them off if u want

 

I would leave it.. makes the engine bay look good.. It cant make that much of a difference if you take it off

 

There's more than just the engine under the hood. There's lots of electronics. Controlling the temperatures under the hood for all the items is not an easy thing to do. Vehicle changes are frequent and designers apparently don't have that much knowledge about temperature under the hood.

When GM got their hands on a new BMW 740 several years ago, they put a lot of temperature instrumentation under the hood to see how they controlled temperatures.

Is it possible that the top engine covers are part of the design to control engine bay temperatures? I don't really know, but think it might be possible.

 

I keep them on.

 

Leave it on...as it may have some function that we don't know about like Jayclapp is saying...we're in S Fl where its always hot and our car is black and literally kept outside my dad's office all day and there has not been an issue so I don't think you should mess with taking the cover off...

 

To be safe I'd leave them on unless you really want them off. I doubt it can do too much good or bad either way, but the engineers did design them and include them for some reason

 

Same here.. miami summers and the car never overheats. Leave it on.

 

lol@comments here. they pretty up the engine bay, nothing more.

 

You may be right.... but I'm going to trust those Lexus engineers first....

 

leave them on. it looks nice with the cover on...

 

I don't think that cover being there or not will affect the temp of the immediate engine area by the covers that much. I'm actually thinking that dust and contaminates might be controlled better having the cover on than off. I mean every once in awhile when I open the hood, there is always a little layer of dirt on the cover. Without the cover, I would presume that same dirt goes onto the components beneath the cover. Not that a layer of dirt will do anything much per say, but who know. Atleast if the dirt is on the cover, you can wipe it down easily.

 

From a performance or longevity standpoint, I'd be very surprised if there was any measurable difference with them on or off.

That said, I hate the looks of an engine bay with covers. When I raise the hood, I just don't like the "powered by a hunk of plastic" look. But it's a cheap way for manufacturers to avoid having to make the engine look presentable.

I'd much rather see something like this attached when I open the hood -- and as far as I'm concerned, they could ditch the plastic fender cladding too....

 

true, specially when its a CF cover covering the 3UZ-FE...

 

i <3 this