Drivers side foam
 

Has anyone here ever torn out the foam hunk on top drivers side valve cover? I was reading a challenger/charger forum and those guys rip em out. They say its bad for the drivers side head, too much heat. I can't tell what purpose this thing serves. If it servers none, why would they put them in?

Throw up a picture. I have never Sean any foam under the hood but the crap on the under side of the hood.

Actually watch this vid , you'll see them installing it, let me know.

http://youtu.be/JWsJki0QXVA

if your talking about the grey / black foam under the plastic mani cover i dont see how removing it would make any diff. if over heating in the heads was an issue removing a bit of foam wouldent fix it. the tiney if any ammount of extra cooling ambient underhood ait temps may grant wouldent be enough to make any notible difference.

I belive the foam serves as a thermal insilator from heat sink in the upper mani or possibly an acustic dampner or possibly it serves both purposes.

Ahhh. I see now. Sorry to say but I'm still mini van powered. Death tick and all and still runs like a champ. About the 530 mark I think I see what you are talking about. Looks to me like its keeping the heat away from the intake and keeping the wires from rubbing. That's just my guess. I'm going to go out on a large limb here and say you got yours new. If that's the case I say screw it and leave it on. You have the lifetime waranty. Why mess it up by pulling out a peice of foam. It might be there to keep the heat from messing up the plastic intake also and the stupid motor cover that makes everything look pretty. If you have a problem with heat ( I have never seen mine over heat ever and I'm on Vegas with 120 average in the summer and there is a lot of heat comming from under the hood ) then get the hood louvers. Easy to install and keep the bay cool. I don't know for sure what that foam does but again I say leave and let the thing blow and get a new motor of it does infact cause a problem.

Ah yes i have a 2012 i just assumed you had the 3.6 without thinking about the 3.8.
I thought about removing the foam but after thinking it over and looking at the insulation properties of it. it seemed like it was more of a help then harm so i decided to leave it on. Ive never had a temp issue it gets to just under the halfway point on the guage and dosent move past that no matter what im doing.
From what ive read the 3.8 is a cast iron engine so there would have to be a substancial heat issue to cause issues and if thats the case i dont see how removing a little bit of foam was going to be enough to help. If all else fails get ya a heat buster hood : ) functional and stylish lol

Has Jeep determined what is the actual cause of the failed head?

From the only press release I am aware of, it was a very wishy-washy explanation. Something about you had to be running bad gas for awhile that caused some pinging. Then it had to be the exact right environmental conditions with hot temperatures and you have to be stressing the motor quite hard with all those other factors present. I call BS. They know precisely why but choose not to say. My belief and hope is that it was a quality control problem. I have 25k on mine and I hope people don't start seeing this happen at 50k or 101k. Lucky for me I bought the lifetime warranty so I should be covered. So far my 2012 has been perfect.

Happy reading:
http://www.autoweek.com/article/2012...NEWS/120819959

So... no they haven't released a detailed cause of the problem