Pinto Car Club of America

Hey,
I did the remote mounted, heat sinked TFI modification today.
I opted for installation at the upper, rear, drivers side of the engine compartment.

I ran the car (stationary, hood open) through an electric cooling fan cycle. I then took my son's R/C car infrared thermometer and did some measurements.

The heat sink read in the 125-130 degree range. The outdoor temperature was in the 68-72 degree range. When you consider the size of the heatsink that is a lot of heat.  I then took the thermometer and measured the temperature where the TFI use to be located on the distributor.  It read about 140-145 degrees.

I don't know if the TFI itself would have added to a greater heat level on the distributor.  However, I do find that only 15 degrees difference isn't really that much given the remote heat sink and the location away from heat sources.

 I'm wondering if this is the reason that Ford elected to mount the TFI on the distributor???  Could it be that the mounting grease drys up and created a barrier rather than assists in drawing the heat away?  Hence, the problem might not be the TFI, it might not be the distributor mounting location, it could be the grease simply drying up!

While I found some heat sinks factory mounted under the hood (Mustangs) others (full size Wagons) I found mounted on the front radiator cradle in the cool air stream.

When I get a chance I'll do some "driving" test and report back on "real world" temperatures. If anyone has a R/C type thermometer I would like to see the temperatures of a distributor mounted TFI. Try and hit the TFI, and areas immediately adjacent to it for a better average reading.
Thanks, Tom