On Sun, 5 Jun 2005 23:10:08 -0400,
petergen@webtv.net (Peter
Gennuso) wrote:
>the module failed and I replaced it with one from advance...I did a
>google and found these usually fail from heat and that there was a class
>action against ford because of stalling causing deaths and injuries....I
>am thinking of wrapping it with some kind of insulation like wrapping a
>water heater....is this ok?
No. That would greatly increase the operating temperature
of the module. The module generates heat and needs to be
able to cool itself through conduction to the distributor
housing or to a heat sink on later remote mount models, One
of the reasons these units failed was that the grease
originally used between the module and the distributor dried
out over time reducing it's ability to conduct the heat away
from the module. Although many technicians use dielectric
grease, that is not what is needed and will not perform
nearly as well as needed. You need a thermal grease or, as
some call it, a thermal paste or heat sink grease. It is
used commonly in electronic applications like mounting the
CPU in your computer to maximize heat transfer to the heat
sink for cooling. It is available at Radio Shack, CompUSA,
Best Buy, Circuit City or any other electronic store. For
some reason, automotive parts folks rarely know WTH your are
talking about. That being said, it "may" be of some benefit
to remove the module at some period and replace the grease
to ensure that optimum cooling performance is maintained.
Good luck,
Lugnut
Linear Mode
