Yeah, it's just there to hide the "ugly" guts of the engine, it serves no purpose otherwise. I have been scratching my head at those vanity engine covers for a few years now, everyone seems to be doing it, even manufacturers that one assumes would be proud to show off their "*****" engine. Even Corvettes have them! I doubt removing it would make any difference at all in heat dissipation, but go ahead and remove it if you wish. At least they made that easy on the LR4. On my old 4.4 liter RRS it didn't simply pop off, there were screws and retainers involved. Save the cover for when it's time to trade it in, though.