Foam, engine lid, removal

Has anybody removed the foam insulation on the engine lid of a 328? Mine was hanging a bit loose on one corner so I decided to remove it. That stuff does not like to come off where it's still attached! Looks like caca now :-(

I suppose it's there for a bit of sound insulation but on a car like this I'm not sure I see the point. I view it as nothing more than additional oil vapor-soaked fuel in the event of a fire.

Any ideas for getting the rest off that won't damage the paint underneath or on the other side of the engine lid? (I actually bought a cheap electric hair clipper today to see how that works!)
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ah...... must be another one of those "Swiss Market" add-ons like the THICK foam on the fiberglass wheel arches.

wanna swap engine covers??

Sweet looking engine compartment you've got there!

 

I think I've got some of that somewhere. It would be much simpler to use/apply/let soak if the engine lid were off and laying inside up.

 

The air cleaner box on the carbs would negate the effects of any backfire. If it were for general heat reasons I think a shiny stainless steel panel would do a better job by reflecting the heat (like the one under the trunk). I'm pretty sure it is there for noise reduction/vibration reduction.

 

Thanks for the tip. I got mine off finally using a wide plastic scraper and then a sanding block with a coarse screen-like material. Looks much better now!

 

I had tons of it on my firewall also and it did not look nice and was probably more of a fire hazard than anything else. I did try burning some of this stuff (off the car and it does burn but it certainly does not just go up in flames in a flash. It will catch fire and then melt and drip.

I was able to tear all the firewall insulation off with the engine in but I did have the fuel tanks, headers etc. out of the car at the time. It makes the engine bay brighter (easier to see things) with the red firewall paint reflecting light instead of the dark foam just absorbing it. There are some patches of glue residue on my firewall which I'll clean up nicely one day if I ever have the engine out. I have no plans to replace it with anything else.

Incidentally, the foam on the firewall came off much more easily than the foam on the engine lid.
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I removed almost the entire A/C system and even the passenger side fuel tank! Then I removed all the long studs that held the compressor on and replaced them with screws. Access is much better. It's the whole reason I did it. Maybe engine cooling is a little bit better too with some more air space around there and of course there's the weight reduction. The downside is all the weight came off the passenger side but I can compensate for that later when I get the adjustable QA1 shocks put on. Also, you have to fill up twice as often with gas (but you only spend half as much each time ;-)

Getting rid of the passenger side fuel tank also gets rid of the damn crossover pipe and hoses that always seem to be in the way and the leaks that go along with all those extra connections.

Photo shows the view with just removing the wheel arch liner. Lots more space (relatively speaking
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I'm a broad shouldered guy and have trouble working in the wheel wells so I wanted/needed more space. Even taking off the brake disc adds some much appreciated room although it's some amount of extra work.

The sensor is part of the Electromotive XDI kit I installed from Nick's Forza Ferrari. Got rid of the distributors ($$), original coils ($$), original engine ECU($$), original TDC and rpm senors etc.
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My Euro fuel capacity is listed at 74 liters (about 19.7 gallons). I'm quite sure the two tanks hold similar if not equal amounts of fuel so figure 10 gallons for one tank. By having the tanks hold about the same amount of fuel they can stay closer to 50-50 weight distribution from side-to-side... a good thing.

By the way, my Euro passenger side tank weighs only 4.0 kg (8.8 pounds) empty. Also, removing the U.S. spec. passenger tank will be somewhat more complicated since there are a bunch of vent lines, charcol canister hook-ups etc.