I would think the odds are small but, it only takes one little relatively hard thing.

 

Happened to me. I was doing an oil change getting ready for a Evo meet. I looked over at my timing belt and it had rips all the way down the belt. I turned over the engine with the cam sensor pulled out so I could inspect the rest of the belt. I found a little rock stuck in the cam gear. Everytime the belt came into contact with the rock it tore the belt from the inside out. I was lucky the belt did not come apart all together as we know what would have happened then. I will be ordering a cam gear cover ASAP, after replacing the belts.

 

that does it, I am going to try that this weekend. I will let everyone know what happens. stay tuned

 

on my integra the cam gears were always open because the valve cover was cut to expose the cam gears.
i never had a problem

 

WHY DON'T YOU PUT A ''GLASS''CAM COVER?

 

had mine off a year now. it's fine. i still wish i'd had the money to buy taht CF cam cover though. stupid transmission blowing...

 

the equivalent of running an engine without the cam gear cover is more like running a motorcycle with an open primary. I didnt think the helmet analogy fit but it reminded me of another motorcycle analogy that would fit.

Honda's and Harley's do it all the time but that doesnt say much about the level of intelligence does it.

 

as long as your not driving through and roads with rocks or anything that can get up in there, you should have no problem. You are only talking about the upper cam cover right? I wouldn't drive with the lower one off. That is just way to risky, you just asking for it then.

 

you can probably get the cam cover cut like a moon. So the least amount of surface is exposed. Also allowing you to do cam gear adjustments.
Mine just went back on after 2 years off.

 

it's not just rocks, but smaller things like dirt, grit, sand, dust etc...... Once you screw up the finish on a cam gear (yes, sand is going to be harder than the finish on a cam gear), it's going to start eating timing belts lickity split.

Once the timing belt goes, you not what happens next.......

 

+1 I live in NM and the wind blows sand like crazy so this is a definate possibility.