Couldn’t find anything definitive on this.

Does having the engine cover on help mitigate potential water damage from heavy rain to components in the engine bay?

I see the hood vents do have small openings and was curious what the non garage queens do here?

i totally get the benefit of going without the cover for heat dissipation…but water damage?

 

There have been some reports here of water damage on F-Types caused by water getting though the hood vents.
AFAIK only on RWD variants coz AWD variants have the vents in a different place (further forward and wider apart) and they have plastic covers immediately under the vents (supplementary to the engine cover) which channel any incoming water away from the engine.
I don't think engine cover on or off makes any difference on a RWD, the water gets in around the sides of the cover, but I'm not sure about this.
I have been driving my RWD without the engine cover on for some six years now with zero water ingress problems, but I suspect that is because I don't do what causes the problem per below.
It seems that water only gets in enough to cause problems with high pressure spray through the vents (eg a car wash) or driving through torrential rain.
The main (only?) damage is rusted/corroded valve cover bolts, which can rust so badly they are destroyed and are then very difficult to remove and replace.

 

Correct. My RWD definitely had water come in through the vents when I would wash the car or a really heavy downpour and you could see on the engine cover right below the openings where the color had faded (probably both from sun and from chemicals in wash soap). No issue with intrusion on the AWD models. I have seen people complain about injector failure/corrosion that was attributed to water intrusion on the RWDs but that was relatively rare, although if I didn't have a garage for the car I would be a little more concerned about it.

 

It's funny this should come up now. I've been experimenting with different materials to create a gasket/seal for the hood vents to use when washing the car.
These are the prototypes shown. I laid a heavy strip of silicone caulk into these aluminum corner pieces. The first set was difficult to remove, so I coated the aluminum with a spray lube for the 2nd pair. After they cured I pushed them into the vent slots. It sorta worked. The rinse pressure knocked them out. A little trimming may help. Or maybe a closed-cell foam? It's been a long winter.

 

So here is my experience and knowledge from those with RWD hood vents. I own a MY16 AWD and after I wash the car, you can see the water on the covers directly beneath the vents and they do in fact displace the water down and away from the motor. No corrosion or rust. I just had to pull the supercharger out and engine was very clean.

Now I have also seen MANY RWD model cars with the hood vents further back. Unfortunately, in all cases that I have seen this, especially those not very well taken care of, not garage kept, daily driven. There is a lot of corrosion and rust of bolts and pieces. In addition, I have seen many with faded/discolored engine covers. I do not believe the Engine cover helps displace water at all and the discoloration is due to the sun/chemicals getting into the engine compartments (acid rain as well). But if I had a RWD version, I would be looking at figuring out how to better displace the incoming water. Just my 2 cents.

 

In terms of damage control, it seems like keeping the engine cover on during rainy seasons/car washes is better than no engine cover at all.

obviously avoiding water at all costs is the best option but not realistic for me as this is my daily driver.

 

I doubt it makes any difference at all.
I just went out to the garage to put my cover back on (winter is coming here and the forecast for the next few days is lots of rain) and while I was plonking it back on I had a close look at where the hood vent holes line up with the cover, and it seems they line up just on and outside the sides of the cover. The rubber covers over the cam covers look like they will channel most of the water which might get on them down the sides of the cam covers (ie not right on top of them) except for the rear where there is no doubt they will channel any excess water straight onto the cam covers. So even though I doubt the engine cover will make any difference I will leave it on over the winter just in case.
I will rip the engine cover back off again before summer as there is no doubt it makes a yuge difference to the temps at the top of the engine especially in hot weather and a split/burst coolant system pipe is a much bigger deal than rusty valve/cam cover bolts!

 

great post on the subject from another forum.
seems Like the best fix was black duck tape over the exposure points to drain the water away.


https://www.ftypeforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=4921

 

In the link posted above someone had a pretty clean set up beyond using duck tape.

They purchased EPDM rubber roofing material and cut out pieces, glued it to the underside of the engine cover ONLY in the exposed areas where water can do bad things to injectors etc.

they mentioned in that thread/link they ran this setup for a couple years with no issues.

im going to try this!

 

That's lot cleaner than my ghetto attempt.
I'm embarrassed.

 

lol, I’d rather do a ghetto fix than cause damage to engine components.

that’s the beauty of this forum, tribal knowledge to keep these beauties purring year round.

 

I like Panther's post a lot, Will have to do that. I garage mine and rarely drive in the rain, but it happens. My additional hack is sheet of plastic placed over the entire engine compartment when I wash.

 

No no. I get it. It's ideas like caulk gaskets and chrome wheels that kept me from getting invited to those schwanky events up in Maine. The miscreant from central Mass. I suppose, eh? LOL!
Oh well. I'm going to try black RTV next.

 

How did it come out? What did you use to glue the EPDM to the plastic cover?

 

How did it turn out? What did you use to "glue" the EPDM to the plastic cover?