Rain Tray or Not? Options

[VWTortuga336]

When I bought my car, it did not have a rain tray installed on the engine bay cover. I was going to buy one, but now I'm building a 2366 and want to do everything I can to keep it cool. Are there any cooling benefits to not having a rain tray? If I don't add one, how do I stop water from getting in the engine?

[somd914]

Guess I'm confused about the worries of getting the engine wet? The 6's have open grilles, my 911 dumps water through the tail onto the engine, my Elise's engine gets soaked in rain and car washes as it sets under large louvers, my Suby pulls water through the hood scoop onto the intercooler then down on the engine. Many other cars I've owned wind up with a wet engine driving in the rain.

My rain tray is out as it reduced idle temps while stuck in traffic during the summer, plus I like the look of seeing the engine through the grille. Between carb rain hats, decent plug wires, and a bit of silicone grease around the base of the dizzy cap, no issues with rain or car washing.

I'm not professing to remove your rain tray, just not sure why people feel it's bad to get the engine wet?

[era vulgaris]

I'm not professing to remove your rain tray, just not sure why people feel it's bad to get the engine wet?

It's not the engine getting wet that worries me, it's the battery. Which is why I still don't get why they put it right under the side grill vent opening.

What setup are you running? As I said, I had no difference in idle or cruising temps with or without the tray, even in the dead heat of summer.

[somd914]

I'm not professing to remove your rain tray, just not sure why people feel it's bad to get the engine wet?

It's not the engine getting wet that worries me, it's the battery. Which is why I still don't get why they put it right under the side grill vent opening.

What setup are you running? As I said, I had no difference in idle or cruising temps with or without the tray, even in the dead heat of summer.

Sorry, I should have more specific. I don't have a CHT gauge, but it's on my list...

I'm running a 2056, dual Webers, stock oil cooler.

Prior moving away from the traffic mess, I used to have a six mile stretch that was a 1st-2nd gear crawl, generally took 25-30 minutes to get through it. On those occasional days of taking the teener to work and crawling through this stretch, if air temps were 85-90 I'd see the oil running perhaps 5 deg warmer with the rain tray removed, but no discernible difference once moving.

I did notice a cooler engine compartment while sitting and idling - based on non-scientific experiments I observed the engine bay staying 10-15 deg cooler w/o the rain tray based on idling, but no measurements in stop-and-go traffic or while underway, but assume there would be enough airflow to minimize any difference once constantly moving.

So yes, slightly cooler temps in stop-and-go traffic but nothing really notable.

Understand about your concerns regarding the battery, which as we all know was a poor design. I used to run Optima Red Tops, but after several issues, I plan on moving to an Odyssey soon.