hi all
so i was offroading my 4th gen v8 quite a bit the last few years and the first thing to fall off it was the factory skid plate. the guys i was running with said it was pretty useless so i left it off. i believe this advice was from the perspective of banging the ski plate off things, not protecting the engine from water. over the last two years i've had a shop replace the alternator, ac compressor, ps pump and idler pully due to mud and water getting in the bearings. i toasted the rad pretty good too but i managed to replace that on my own thanks to some great writeups on here.

i still drive the vehicle off road quite a bit, but i typically stay out of mud and other things that could get me in trouble although it does find me sometimes. i've actually become pretty paranoid about it. anyway i do wonder if i had the skid plate if i could have saved replacing those parts and i don't want to replace em again. i am considering buying a used oem skid plate. just wondering what your thoughts are on this - i do not ever expect to bang the skid plate off anything, just to protect from splashing and getting muck into the accessories. i can't afford any of the aftermarket stuff. thanks as always