Running w/o engine cover:photo
 

For now I'm running without the engine cover. Is anyone else?

I think I like the look of the intake manifold without all that plastic and sound insulation covering it. From what I can tell the cover is cosmetic with a little sound insulation under it. Otherwise I'm not sure it provides any benefit.

Thoughts? Opinions?

To each their own... I like the cover.. But, it is your car and I don't remember seeing anywhere where people have stated that it'll cause issues. Well, other than more DI noises w/o the insulation pad.

Agreed with HumanWiki. Plus the cover isn't there to only look "pretty". It is there to keep off dust, dirty, water etc off the crucial parts of an engine thus taking it off is essentially is inviting for issues to happen. Not saying it will but taking the cover off will allow issues more so than with covers.

The cover is a thermal blanket. It does not help performance.

This.

Heard of Heat Soak? First thing I did on my 5th gen and 1st thing im doing when I get my 6th

It's a cap. Not a hermetically-sealed bag. It'll actually TRAP dirt, water, etc. on top of your engine. Not that this is a big problem, as everything under it is water/air-tight.

Engine covers are there for 2, and only 2, purposes: aesthetics, noise abatement.

Not sure I like that intake manifold. It's clean looking without all the fuel lines running over it but I think aesthetically I like the LS3 intake better. Anyway run it with the cover off. It's just a heat trap.

Add an MSD intake and some Katech valve covers with coil relocation brackets.

The only thing I don't like is that the fuel line is no longer supported in the middle.

It is harmless to leave it floating. I'm going to be doing an E85 conversion on my car and running a new cross over line that crosses over behind the manifold so it doesn't stand out. If there is interest I'll put together the parts list to replicate (even if you don't have the E85 sensor inline).

I'm also going to have DSteck do a harness for me that gets power for the E85 module from the rear coil pack on the passenger side. It should be a clean plug and play setup.

Tim

LS1, LS2, LS3, LS6, and LS7 didn't have covers over the IM. None had issues. But they all had some style. This IM just looks awful. I see why they covered it. Can the plastic covers over the valve covers come off too? Maybe the silver contrast to the black IM and visible coil packs would improve appearance some

It just holds heat. I take engine covers off all my vehicles.

Plus they look cheesy and fake IMO. Give me a painted intake and some other touch ups as others have suggested. Looks way better and won't hold heat.

The stock intake is pretty ugly...and the intake is plastic, so heatsoak is not going to really be an issue fellas...

If the intake was better looking, or if it had a MSD I wouldn't run a cover.

I agree especially with a direct injected engine. Direct injected engines have no fuel sprayed in the intake to help cool the air charge as it flows into the cylinder, Cooler air is denser so the oxygen is a little more concentrated - thus a little more powerful when that sparkplug ignites it. The simpler way of saying all that is in general you want to avoid heat soak. After I pulled the cover and the acoustic skull cap (that's what GM calls the sound insolation under the center silver plastic part) and took it for a 30 minute drive I could lay my hand flat on top of the manifold and felt very little heat.
The fuel line is attached to the engine on both ends. On the back end it comes out of the high pressure fuel pump that sits at the back of the engine behind the intake manifold and then on the other end it connects to the fuel rail for the injectors. So which ever way the engine is rocking or moving the fuel line goes with it. I might snug it up a little to the wire bundle with a plastic wire tie on the passenger side as a "piece of mind" thing since the fuel line is very close to that wire bundle anyway.

Yes, those covers over the coil packs can come off too. I just haven't gotten to that yet. Maybe the coil packs will look better than on my old LS3 and I'll leave those covers off too. Or maybe I'll paint them blue to match the car and get some color under there. There's a lot of black on this engine.

As to extra injector and throttle body noise ( the reason GM says they use the acoustic skull cap) I haven't heard anything different from the driver's seat with that cap off of there.