Effect of engine cover removal

Jin1976 · 21 June 2005

Hi. I am having my engine bay area painted black as well as having the valve covers painted rosso red. The paint will be high tempature resistance. My question is, will removing engine cover cause the engine glass hatch break? I have seen many NSX in the site having the lid remove because some have installed supercharger and others are just showing off their engine. I want to show off my engine but my mechanic is against removing the engine lid. He said the heat from the engine will break the glass. Is this true?

I understand that NSX-R have a thinner glass hatch and the lid is just wire mesh so it won't stop the heat to go to the thin glass hatch. Need your opinion please. BTW our climate is always summer and the car is daily driven. Engine is stock except for the HKS sport intake.

NSX-Racer · 21 June 2005

Never heard of such a damage here. For other side effects you may do a search here and you'll get tons of information.

peiserg · 21 June 2005

i've driven mine in the arizona summers with the additional heat from a SC, and no cracked glass here..

Jin1976 · 21 June 2005

Thanks for the responses. I'll pick up the cover tomorrow and put it in the store. Hehe. Thank you again.

Malibu Rapper · 21 June 2005

Some people have reported greasy/dirty hatch windows. Probably not good for tint since you would have to use a solvent to clean it.

The Kid · 21 June 2005

NSX-Racer said:
Never heard of such a damage here. For other side effects you may do a search here and you'll get tons of information.

never heard of this either :wink:

NsXMas · 22 June 2005

Yes your mechanic is right - removing the engine cover may lead to glass breakage.

It may cause onlookers to slobber all over the hardware in your engine compartment, and be forced to break the glass to abscond with said pieces of components.

AU_NSX · 22 June 2005

Your mechanic is right and wrong...

Jin1976 said:
He said the heat from the engine will break the glass.

This is not true... Dirty yes but heat will not affect the glass hatch

Jin1976 said:
I understand that NSX-R have a thinner glass hatch and the lid is just wire mesh so it won't stop the heat to go to the thin glass hatch

The NSX-R has a mesh engine cover for a very good reason but it is not for heat dissipation...

I know of 2 engine glass hatches been broken because they did not have the engine cover.

1. Was caused by the fan belt (alternator/water pump pulley) picking up a stone whilst driving and happened to flick it up and shattered the hatch glass.

2. Was caused by the supercharger belt braking and being thrust vertically shattering the glass rear hatch.

Both of these incidents are quite "freak" occurrences, however the NSX-R mesh engine cover would have prevented both these incidents.

So your mechanic is right but for the wrong reason.

vtecNSX1 · 22 June 2005

Ive had mine off for awhile. Other than the glass getting dirty quicker there are no problems.

Jin1976 · 22 June 2005

I can live with dirty hatch and I don't plan to have tint on the hatch. I just want to show off the engine since a lot of people here thought the engine is at the front.

NSXBOX · 22 June 2005

I've got my engine cover off since the day I got it nearly 2 years ago and its got tint and aussie heat can get pretty hot other than dirt/grime/dust especially when raining its all good.

AU_NSX · 22 June 2005

Jin1976 said:
I just want to show off the engine since a lot of people here thought the engine is at the front.

LOL... Over here as well! I was in another NSX'ers car over here when he got pulled over! The car looked modified so the cop asked to see under the bonnet and stood at the front of the car!

Another time I was in a Porsche 911 when the driver got pulled over... (See it's never me! :wink: ) The cop said "you were going a bit fast up the freeway on ramp weren't you?" The driver replied "yeah I had it flat to the floor until I got to the speed limit of 100". Well the cop put his hand on the bonnet and remarked that the car was not hot... My friend replied that it was probably because the engine was in the back....

Now I'm not saying that all police are stupid... But I have met some that are…. :wink:

Russ · 22 June 2005

AU_NSX said:
The NSX-R has a mesh engine cover for a very good reason but it is not for heat dissipation...

What is the reason?

NSX-Racer · 22 June 2005

Russ said:
What is the reason?

?? Didn't you read his post? He wrote of 2 incidents and ended with the conclusion:
Both of these incidents are quite "freak" occurrences, however the NSX-R mesh engine cover would have prevented both these incidents.

Russ · 23 June 2005

NSX-Racer said:
?? Didn't you read his post? He wrote of 2 incidents and ended with the conclusion:
Both of these incidents are quite "freak" occurrences, however the NSX-R mesh engine cover would have prevented both these incidents.

So? The solid engine cover would have prevented these incidents as well as a mesh engine cover.

AU_NSX's assertion that "The NSX-R has a mesh engine cover for a very good reason but it is not for heat dissipation..." implies there is some other advantage to the mesh cover over the solid cover of the non-R NSX. Clearly, since solid protects the glass as well as mesh - arguably better than mesh, since solid prevents such things as coolant or small particles from reaching the glass whereas mesh would not, there must be another reason for the mesh.

What is the reason?

khappucino · 23 June 2005

maybe its as simple as weight reduction :biggrin:
then again i'm sure its prolly more than that

MarkB · 23 June 2005

"prolly"

NSX-Racer · 23 June 2005

Russ said:
So? The solid engine cover would have prevented these incidents as well as a mesh engine cover.

Then I misunderstood your question. I thought you wanted to know why there is a cover anyhow no matter what kind of. My guess is that the mesh cover has not only a weight reduction reason but is also there for the look. It gives the spectators a little view at the engine - and it's another detail that makes a difference between NSX and NSX-R. I don't think it has any other practical reasons just like heat transfer e.g.

Mark B.: As I'm pretty good in bad english (as you all know) I would guess he meant "probably", right? :wink:

MarkB · 23 June 2005

Wolfgang, you're correct. It just bugs me when I see this all-too-common ........

MarkB · 23 June 2005

Wolfgang, your "bad English" is better than the English of most Americans.

Dracon · 23 June 2005

is there an easy way to remove it? my sockets dont really fit in the small space and there is no room to turn a wrench.

specrtd · 23 June 2005

I took mine off about 2 months ago with a socket wrench I believe.... I might have used an offset or boxed end wrench as well. If you can't get it off with the socket then use a boxed end or offset wrench. It will just take you a little longer, but not much. Real easy. Use metric. :smile:

specrtd · 23 June 2005

I just looked at it again right now....There should be plenty of room?? Theres only 2 brackets and each bracket has 2 bolts....Hmmm... Are they different on NA2 NSX's...? curious

Dracon · 23 June 2005

well the engine cover wont go vertical because it hits the glass canopy first. so the place where the bolts are looks kind of like /_ and the socket hits the part of the cover before it can go ontop of the bolt.

edit: for spelling

specrtd · 23 June 2005

I see what your saying.... When I did it I had someone hold the cover for me while I took out the bolts. Took about 5 minutes and some jiggling of the cover so it would be easier to turn the bolts when they were almost out. If for some weird reason you still can't get the socket on the bolts then maybe using a short stubby boxed end wrench would help.

Effect of engine cover removal

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