marvinmartian

Why did Acura cover so much of the engine bay with the plastic cover? In my mind that just begs for more overheating trouble as the air can't circulate as well. I'm sure the engineers have taken this into account, but who knows. The last TL I drove was spitting out TONS of heat from the engine. Doesn't make sense to me.

RDX10

It's done for a couple of reasons, the first reason is it cute down majorly on sound making for a quieter car, the other reason is that it dresses up the engine bay. It used to be very common on luxury cars in the past. Something interesting to take note of is that the 2004-2006 VW Touareg came from the factory with those covers, sometime in mid 2006 VW sent out a TSB to dealers to remove the covers. So it's actually really hard to find a Touareg with those covers still on. I think they cited the reason being that it was causing excessive engine heat.

Edward'TLS

The engine bays of most upscale luxury vehicles are always covered up by some aesthetically-looking shroud covers to make it look neat, tidy, and expensive; whereas the exposed engine wires/hoses/ducts/pipes can be seen crisscrossing everywhere on cheap, econo vehicles.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

ESPECIALLY since the J-series is UGLY!!!!!!!! because it is a transverse layout.
a longitudinal engine layout looks a lot nicer

losiglow

iTrader: (1)

I've always removed the covers on mine. It was the first thing I did when I got my TL home the day I bought it.

RDX10

made me lol reading that.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

i'm serious!
a corvette (LSx) engine looks SO SEXY because of the way it's placed. if it was turned on it's side, it would be ugly too

Edward'TLS

Very much agree that a longitudinal engine layout looks nice, and a drive shaft to transfer power to the rear wheels even looks out of this world !

dopeboy1

Longitudinal engines look better because its more symmetrical. Everyone loves symmetry, its the best.

RDX10

I actually really do agree with this. I love how a longitudinal engine looks in the engine bay.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Corvettes and other high performance chevy's ALSO come with engine shrouding, btw.
my friends remove their engine covers to reveal their sexy LSx engines

omgitsspooky

Our engines do look ugly without the covers.

mrrobato

This is a great thread as it got me thinking about heat retention. While the shroud dresses the engine compartment up, it has to hold a lot of heat around the engine. I took mine off today, I'm going to see if it makes any difference. I was wondering if it would make any difference on air intake. I don't think it's a Ram Air affair. I wonder how air intake will be affected, it seems that the volume of air available should increase.

marvinmartian

All the cars I've test driven so far, they kick out a TON of heat from the underside. The shroud is definitely making things hotter under the hood. The thing is, it may not matter so much for your engine or components. Plus I can see it making things a bit more quiet, tuned to make a certain sound. Pay attention to whether or not your sound changes at higher revs. My Saab kicks out a biblical amount of heat when the turbo spools up, so much so that the battery has to be housed in its own little enclosure. So I suspect Honda engineers figure the trade off was worth it. Then again, I think they thought the same about aluminum silicon cylinder liners. :-)

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

if you are concerned about heat,reroute the coolant throttle body line.
Honda routed coolant to the throttle body to prevent ice build up on throttle body plate, in cold climates.
however, in HOT climates, it just introduces warmer ambient temps to the throttle body... and we all know colder air is denser air

FYI; that's why the planes were grounded in Phoenix this past week. in order to fly, or create lift, the air needs to be pretty dense.
and hotter temps = less dense air = cant create lift

marvinmartian

Yup, I'm familiar. Took my VFR checkride years ago and it was about 98. When we were done my examiner proposed a bet if I could make the runway w/o power just to show me how fast I'd sink. I still think I could have mad it but it would have been very, very close.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

super cool, Marvin!!!!

marvinmartian

Same reason it's harder to lay on my fat ass outside working on my car. I just sink into the asphalt.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

I had a funny and very opposite experience years ago when I was doing departure stall training. We (my instructor and me) took off in a 1967 Cessna 172 with the venerable boxer-6 O-300 Continental engine on a day where the OAT was -21°F; I swear the 172 was off the ground before the IAS hit 30 mph (not knots). We headed to a mountainous area just west of the airport and started our stall training over a reservoir at about 2,000' MSL; full throttle, full back on the yolk, stall alarm, stall alarm..., buffeting, more stall alarm, the left wing finally dropped at about 28 mph. The thing was, before the wing dropped I noticed the mountains on either side of the reservoir were passing us; clearly we were flying into enough of a headwind we were literally flying backwards relative to the ground.

marvinmartian

That's awesome! I've tried to fly backwards a few times, never had enough wind. Now, sadly, I don't even have time to fly. :-(