Fair warning. This is going to be a nomination for most ridiculous thread of the year but the OCD side of me has to get this out and out of my head.

So my stock hood doesn't have a hood scoop. The other day, I was looking at my hood liner and noticed that is has hols pre-cut for where the factoy scoop would have been attached. Makes sense, right? No point having two different hood liners on the assembly line. My question is, with the concerns you see from time to time about top surface paint problems on hood that aren't lined due to engine heat, should those holes be patched in some way?

Link to Hood Pad for reference

Alright, that's it. Flame me as you will.

 

Wasn't aware it ever caused problems with paint. My first two or three vehicles had no hood liners because mice had gotten into them or some other reason. It never affected the paint in any way.

Pretty sure the hood liners are just there to dampen some of the engine bay noise from outside the car.

 

The liner isn't there to protect the hood from heat. It is sound insulation. Many people drive with no liner (drove mine for years that way) with no issues other than more engine noise can be heard. Many cars come from the factory with no sound insulation liner. So your premise, "paint problems on hood .... due to engine heat" is wrong.

 

The story I heard was that it was for fire suppression if there was an engine fire, the plastic tabs melt and it drops suffocating the fire.

 

And that is what that is, a story. Has nothing to do with fire suppression. It is simply sound insulation. Remove it and you will hear more things, like the injectors, while driving.

 

I said story, because some people believe it and some don't, the primary purpose of it is debatable, sound control, keeping heat in the engine bay to allow a car to warm up faster in cold weather...
Regardless of it's purpose, it's not necessary and does very little of whatever it's supposed to do.
but here's an image of a vehicle where the hood insulation did drop during an engine fire...

 

I don't think you should worry about those holes in the liner.