hey man i am wv i was scared just like you. i put a trash bag over my vent and let them snow pile up on it overnight and just took it off in the morning cause i was worried about my manny or something getting hot an cracking with that water down in it.

 

Guys... Mitsu has made design flaws in the past... but I dont think they would put a big hole in the hood if i cant handle the potential elements that were inevitably going to come through. Our cars are street legal rally cars. Rallying is the only type of racing that happens in all environments... dry, wet, mud, ice, snow, etc. Our car even has a setting on the ACD for Snow. So cover if it bothers you, but I would worry about other things... Like finding big parking lots to make snow donuts in!

 

I keep the vent on mine, but in general, if there's enough snow it will build up on the mesh and not go past. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Is snow worse than rain for the top of your engine? Does the vent stop rain from going in?

 

i had my vent off and my car sat over night in the snow and wouldn't start because water got under the spark plug cover and my car wouldn't start until it dried out

 

And when it rains it starts?

 

Uh wow. Did you leave your hood off? Considering the vent is about 6 inches forward of your spark plug cover, i find that VERY hard to believe.

 

I don't know about how it would be in the snow since i'm up in WA. It rains here a lot and i just have the grill with no vent. no problems starting my car and no rust issues or anything like that. my BBK is still as shiny as when i got her.

 

So since they designed a vent cover to go in that big hole you speak of, you're saying that he should just leave it out?

It won't really hurt anything but your engine bay is going to get dirty as ****. I'm about an hour away from Norfolk and I can tell you right now that removing it is probably going to accelerate any corrosion problems that you might run into anyway due to the salt in the air. I'd put it in there at least until winter ends and we stop getting so much rain/snow. Seized nuts and bolts can be a pain.