ICM Heat solution - attempt (Page 1/3)
damittron JUN 29, 10:09 AM
Delete thread.

[This message has been edited by damittron (edited 06-30-2019).]

fierofool JUN 29, 11:22 AM
There can be other factors that will kill an ICM beside heat. A weak ignition coil, pickup coil, bad plug wires or defective or improperly gapped spark plugs increase the load on the ICM. I have probably more than 50,000 miles on a discount parts store module. Probably a Welles or Sorensen. Maybe a BWD but I now avoid those. I once bought a GM module and it only lasted less than a month at a cost of more than $80. Price doesn't always guarantee longevity. The store brands usually carry a lifetime warranty. The GM brand had a 90 day warranty that expired once it was installed because they don't rgive refunds on an electrical component once it's installed. I suppose that's to prevent people from troubleshooting and when the part doesn't solve their problem, they return it for a refund.

As an alternative, NAPA carries Echlin and Delphi and their store brand is Belkamp.
Patrick JUN 29, 04:31 PM

quote
Originally posted by damittron:

I am going to take the "heatsink" method implemented by another member of the forums to another level.



I suspect you're referring to This thread. Go for it! I'll be looking forward to your results.
damittron JUN 29, 05:57 PM
Delete thread.

[This message has been edited by damittron (edited 06-30-2019).]

theogre JUN 29, 06:14 PM
ACDelco is just a Brand for GM to make a lot of money w/o a warranty and made by whatever contractor w/ lowest price. Delphi was GM parts spinoff then bankrupt and sold most divisions to 3rd parties. While Delphi still has some parts made in the US, Is not a US Company now.
AZ Store brand uses Wells ignition parts. Echlin is NAPA store brand for ignition parts and I think history made by Standard but don't know who won the current contract.

Yes, Dying ICM in days to weeks, even months, means something else is wrong killing them. Beside fierofool list of problem... add iffy ICM mounting screws etc, iffy/bad Tach Filter and dist cap and rotor. Plus many have exhaust leak(s) and/or missing heat shields. And you can have more that one iffy part causing ICM death.
See my Cave, HE Ignition
And that's stock everything. If someone has mod'ed the car body etc poorly can cause higher engine bay heat and ICM isn't the only thing frying.

Adding a Peltier is a waist of time to start w/ and nubes have little to no clue how to design systems w/ them to work properly. Peltiers often need way bigger Heatsink and often a fan too before you try to cool anything and that often won't fit in the limited space in most cars, more so w/ V6 Fiero. Heatsink must remove the heat that the Peltier makes Plus ∆T between hot and cold sides. So if the unit eat just 3a at 12v, your heatsink solution has to remove ~ 36 watts Plus the watts generated by the ∆T between sides and do that in the "hot" engine bay that easily reaches 200°F. (see http://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../HTML/141784.html#p4 )
Worse, When a Peltier dies for any reason then the Peltier becomes insulation and the part to cool quickly overheat and dies w/o added thermal protection. Unlike your ICM... CPU and GPU made in the last ~ 20 years have thermal throttling and other protection because of heatsink problem frying them in the past.

I've been cooling CPU's and other things for decades and Peltier and Water Cooling are a waist of time effort and money in 99+% cases. Then add most won't clean the heatsinks, radiators, fans, etc. and dirt quickly blocks cooling. Force air using blowers and fans mostly makes more problems because how they are setup. I've seen many times entire PC cases filled w/ dirty = to any Vacuum Cleaner bags and owners wonder why PC is slow or crashes...

You could try heatsinks w/ heat pipes to spread heat throughout the heatsink faster but that may not work as expected. More so if you're missing heat shields etc.
Heat pipes are passive devices and do not generate more heat and available in different sizes.
Heat pipes are why Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO and many other drop more heat and faster and lighter then a Aluminum unit the same physical dimensions.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 06-29-2019).]

damittron JUN 29, 07:13 PM
Delete thread.

[This message has been edited by damittron (edited 06-30-2019).]

damittron JUN 29, 07:25 PM
Delete thread.

[This message has been edited by damittron (edited 06-30-2019).]

Patrick JUN 29, 07:44 PM

quote
Originally posted by damittron:

That's the one! How is it working for you? Still keeping it cool?



That thread is almost 11 years old, and I'm still using the same ICM (which was already a "used" one way back then) in my Formula to this very day.

Heat is the main killer. Besides the added heat sink, I also thermo-wrapped the EGR tube, removed the coolant lines to the TB (which get hot), and extended the ignition coil heat shield to curve further around the distributor. You can see an image of this Here.


Take it easy on The Ogre. He means well. Yes, he's direct.. and yes, he's gruff... but he's been here a long time. He's just... The Ogre!
fierofool JUN 29, 10:54 PM
damittron, I think all of the heat shields in the area of the distributor weren't a part of the recall heat shields. If I recall, they were on the front of the engine, front manifold, and firewall. The crossover pipe shields and deflector shield around the coil were already there. I'm wondering if your engine bay fan is working. Turn on the AC to make it work and check it. Patrick's modification would better help direct air from the tubes.
La fiera JUN 29, 11:15 PM
The ICM doesnt need to be on the distributor. It can be remotely mounted. I thought about installing a heat sink on it and then install the heat sinked ICM on the fanned duck that feeds air to the alternator in the trunk. I'll be going DIS soon so I don't need to try that! But it looks promising! If you can keep the ICM cooled they'll last for ever!