Excess Moisture under the hood

So awhile back I picked up another Cherokar for my wife(88 laredo) to drive in the winter it doesnt get driven often once or twice a month and just recently I have found alot of Moisture under the hood. The intake and valve cover are covered in that nastie white oxidization and cant figure out why its so bad where our othwer three Cherokee's are fine all of them have the insulation under the hood. It doesnt seemed to have had any effect on the car yet but makes the motor look like poop and I like having clean motors.

Has anyone found this issue and figured a way to keep it dry?
We live on Whidbey Island Wa up away from the water and it has been fairly dry here this past month.

I've found that I get a lot of road salt on my engine from the front of the hood not closing down far enough. I plan to adjust the latches in order to lower the front middle of my hood even with the front clip. Mine sits about 1/4" above the front end and allows a lot of road grime to enter through. I think there should be a rubber seal there that would keep everything out. I might fab something up when it gets warmer because I prefer to have a clean engine bay also. My old 89 XJ had the aluminum valve cover that was pretty corroded like yours and I removed it and painted it black.

Ok sounds like as good of a place to start as any.

I'd bet it's from not being driven enough. When a car sits, any place there's a cavity with metal walls, you're going to get condensation when the temps drop - especially at night and in cold weather. If the car isn't driven often or isn't driven long enough to heat up the oil and force the moisture into vapor which is expelled thru the PCV valve, I've seen it gum up the inside of the oil filler cap. I haven't got a clue why it would build up under the hood though unless the line from the PCV valve to the air cleaner is cracked allowing those nasty oil/water vapors to be expelled into the engine compartment.

Ok, so the 88 has an aluminum valve cover, you live out on whidbey, which means the vehicle is constantly being exposed to cool salt air. Salt eats aluminum like it's going out of style, so this is the source of the white stuff. Also, the aluminum chloride is vaguely hygroscopic.

Realistically, having a good "clean" motor is not what you want in that environment, and if I'm buying a used cherokee, the thing I want is one that's completely covered in grease and oil, as this means no rust.

Salt isn't a huge factor as we live up away from the water and our 87 and 95 don't have any issue I'm thinking Redhawk44 has a good thought.