[Driver72]

So I thought I would take the plastic engine cover off the BMW (the part that covers the actual cylinders and has the BMW logo on it.
My reasoning was simple: this engine runs hot, so having a plastic TENT over top the engine would do nothing more than trap heat in.
Removing it would allow the heat to escape and dissipate faster.

I've done this on other cars of mine too since they are almost always exclusively cosmetic (so the engine looks pretty when you pop the hood).

However, as I was pulling it off, I noticed a couple things.
One, there is thick padding all around it on the inside, and there are a God-awful amount of wires and connectors underneath it.

I concluded the padding is for noise reduction and keeping the vibrating engine from rattling the plastic cover and other things I'm sure.
And I thought that on top of that, the plastic cover and apparently heat resistant padding would help keep water and dirt off the numerous wires and connectors located underneath.

So in conclusion I put the thing back on.
I'm confident without it, the engine would run a bit cooler and allow more heat to escape, but unlike the other cars I've removed that from, the BMW clearly had thick padding and lots of wires and connectors under it, so I felt it more important to protect them and keep the cover on.
Plus that without that padding on, I might hear more engine noise and possibly a vibration or two if that padding was keeping anything from rattling.

Sorry so long, but just wanted to give anybody else who was thinking of removing that cover a heads up as it may not be worth the trade off.