Brittle and cracked lower engine cover

[lsoasey]

So, I've been working on all sorts of things in the engine compartment lately... I kept finding these small chunks of irregularly shaped pieces of plastic (or fiberglass?) in various spots around the engine bay. I finally looked up while leaning across the engine and accidentally spotted where these "mystery chunks" were coming from: The lowest strip of the engine cover, closest to the firewall. (See the attached image...) Is this repairable? I did find a thread or two about repairing this region of the engine cover with a metal stock of some kind, but I the damage in those cases appears to just be some cracking. This one, for example:

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?82...fter-it-cracks

It looks like my engine cover has gone a bit further than the cracking phase. Perhaps these could be filled in with something like epoxy along with the metal stock fix from the other threads? Any other suggestions?

BrokenEngineCover.jpg

[Ryan King]

This is really strange. I have never seen an engine cover do this before....what does it looks like from the top side when closed?

[lsoasey]

This is really strange. I have never seen an engine cover do this before....what does it looks like from the top side when closed?

You can't tell the damage is even there when viewing from the top side. That's probably why it took me awhile to even locate the source of these plastic chunks.

[Delorean Industries]

This is usually from excessive trauma to the lower cover. IE pushing down on it with the stay in place. This puts a good amount of stress on that entire section. Installing the reinforcement strip is your best bet unless you want to replace completely. Grady and I both stock this piece.

[lsoasey]

This is usually from excessive trauma to the lower cover. IE pushing down on it with the stay in place. This puts a good amount of stress on that entire section. Installing the reinforcement strip is your best bet unless you want to replace completely. Grady and I both stock this piece.

Thanks for the reply, Josh... Is this a reinforcement strip which is mounted over the region on the cover which is cracked? Is it currently on your website? (I took a quick look around and didn't find anything that seemed correct.)