Looks to me like that engine cover traps a crazy lot of heat around the intake manifold (hard to call something made of plastic a manifold...). I pulled that cover after driving one time and laid it down pretty fast. Hot enough to hurt.

Should the cover be removed?

I like the idea having it under the hood as a heat-sink; if only it wasn't trapping all that hot air around the intake.

Perhaps just drilling several 1" holes in the side of the cover would suffice; may even be better then totally removing it since the heat would tend to 'flow' to the cooler vent holes causing a mild bit of induction for cooling the manifold top.

 

on my previous charger and challenger I took them off with no ill effects... not sure what the purpose is except cosmetic or to protect wiring... plus, i've seen pics with varmits making nest underneath them

 

I believe that the Chrysler engineer and beancounter teams spent the time and the coin for a purpose, also, knowing how Chrysler is with voiding warranties, I would leave it alone.

Plastic intake manifolds have been in cars for a looooong time now.

 

I hate engine covers on any car, it's an engine so show it off!

 

I believe the true purpose of them is to trap sounds and raidiate them downward vs. vibrating off the hood. Full size cars started that trend years ago to quiten them down.

 

I think the cover is even called something like a noise dampening cover. I'd leave it on, I don't think the additional heat stored by the cover would matter.

 

wanted to revive this thread. i'm a new 2012 owner and with the heat in omaha reaching above 100 for the last/next few days i was thinking of removing the engine cover. i've read on other forums that (like you mentioned) it's main function is to reduce noise, but there wasn't much else mentioned and only a few posts. was wondering anyone's experience here. thanks

 

Yes this is what I've read also. It is to lower sound levels. It does look kinda cool everyone says when I pop the hood for them.