Engine compartment, can I just cut out and remove this?
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690064827.jpg




Can I just cuit out this foam and clean it up a bit or is there a way to remove entire thing? I assume still safe to drive without it?

Thank you

It's just sound and heat insulation for the firewall. Not doing you much good as it is, so I'd remove it. Next time you have the engine out, you can better clean off the old adhesive and crap, and glue in a new one.

It's just a sound pad.

The sooner the better, before more turns into dust which permeates the entire engine bay.

Some time ago I bought something called a Pad Keeper to hold the insulation in place, just till I had the engine out and then replace the insulation. It was kind of pricey but it looked really good. Yours may be too far gone, probably just rip it out is best.

Consider a partial engine drop to allow greater access.

I’d consider a PadKeeper as noted by Walt.

Yank it!

I yanked mine out and never noticed any big change in sound or heat without it.

But importantly, not only had the foam crumbled into fine granules and blow all over, the rubber mat liner chips had landed somewhere on the engine or HE’s and still today smells like burning rubber. Every now and then I’ll still find bits of foam and a shard of the rubber mat.

Tip: Some of the big pieces are easy enough to reach and pull out by hand, but use a flat paint stir stick to separate the mat thta will reach the furthest sections. Before starting this project try and wiggle some sort of tarp or cardboard catch-all to contain the falling debris and have a shop vac and compressed air blower to clean up.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1692490092.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1692490092.jpg


I ended up making one of those “engine tidy’s” the UK guys do. I would not use 1/8 thick aluminum again, very hard to work with. Something thinner and more flexible would be good. Had problems in the corners.

Better than before though, and trying to remove all that with the engine in seemed impossible

If there's a reason to have that padding stuff installed, it's because if/when the engine catches fire, that stuff smokes intensely. Looking out rear view mirror, it's obvious there's a problem. Without it, there's little warning of what's happening until very late in the event. Begs the question if Porsche thought of this and intentionally chose/made that padding to smoke. They surely could have chosen to make it otherwise.
.

And when it melts it makes a HUGE mess

Borrowing from a previous post about the sound pad, you can glue magnets to the inside of it and get it back to its original position
Pete

Yup! I'll take that over a toasted car any day.
.