Was bush-hogging yesterday and seemed like that the tractor was a little underpowered but just figured it was because the fescue was around 4 feet and very thick. While refueling today I saw that pieces of the foam hood seal had been sucked into the air intake hose and was partially clogged. Seems the outer filter caught all of the small foam pieces and I removed the intake hose and cleaned all the foam pieces out. My question is, Is this hood seal necessary? Seems like replacement seals are $65-70 plus shipping which seems totally ridiculous for a piece of sculpted foam. Seems like the hood is a little harder to close but not sure what else might crop up if I do not replace it. Any Thoughts?