DIS module

Merlon

Registered User
I have been watching the forums for someone to produce a relocation kit, and i am sondering if and how its possible to make a heatsink for the dis without problems.

anyway to keep maybe a cool airflow through the dis path, or something to cool it off. i have 3 packets of heatsink grease under the module, but they only help a little, i have a missfire and i take it off and cool it down, and my car runs great. so i am trying ot find a way to keep it in a general state of coolness. but spacers under the module don twork, my car wont turn over , so my guess is it needs to be in contact with the platee under it, anyway to bypass this? aluminum spacers, or something like this?

edit:maybe i need a better heatsink compund. the white grease is okay, but i hear that some people have better luck with arctic silver 5. ill try that. but i also want to keep my dis for as long as possbible and heat kill sthem right/
 
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I wouldnt over-do the heat sink compound. Too much of it actually hurts the cooling. A very thin layer helps it bond to the alluminum bracket and helps with heat transfer. Too much of it can destroy this bond, not to mention mess with the grounding as it doesnt conduct very well. I think the problem is the bracket heating up with engine and accessory heat. A small riser bracket bolted to the stock location that would allow airflow under it would be my solution. Maybe even put some fins on it and under it to help. It would have to maintain a good ground though.

EDIT: you can run a ground to the bottom right bolt location of the DIS to help it.
 
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yeah i tried that with a few

washers and a ground but it wouldnt turn over. and now my dash light wont come on. maybe seperate, but only noticed it last night. whats an easy but effective way to ground this and keep it on risers.
 
Prostreetrich did something similar to what you are talking about a few years ago. Might try to get in touch with him for more specifics on what he did. I seem to recall that it worked pretty well for him.
 
relocate or rise it up

whatever works for keeping it off hot metal, not the ambient hot air. ever touch that metal after a drive? hot as hell.
 
If the bottom plate of the DIS is not flat against a surface to absorb its heat, it will cook in no time flat. Even the hot bracket is cooler than that DIS module gets. If you rise it up or relocate it on a riser bracket, you will need to place it flat on a piece of metal stock of some sort to absorb its heat. My thoughts for a bracket would look like a short table of sorts, with heat sink fins on the bottom side of it. The four legs would bolt to the stock holes, and the flat table with heat sink fins under it would be where to mount the DIS using Arctic silver.
 
7birdslater said:
If the bottom plate of the DIS is not flat against a surface to absorb its heat, it will cook in no time flat. Even the hot bracket is cooler than that DIS module gets. If you rise it up or relocate it on a riser bracket, you will need to place it flat on a piece of metal stock of some sort to absorb its heat. My thoughts for a bracket would look like a short table of sorts, with heat sink fins on the bottom side of it. The four legs would bolt to the stock holes, and the flat table with heat sink fins under it would be where to mount the DIS using Arctic silver.

Sort of like a CPU cooler, the bottom half of the below image?

http://www.dansdata.com/images/coolercomp/acss2000220.jpg
 
Yes, Imagine the alluminum part upside down so the fins are down and the flat part that mounts on the CPU is up, bolt it down somehow to the factory holes, ground it, and mount your DIS to it. Or just find a way to use it with the fan as a stand alone thing mounted somewhere.
 
only problem is

most plasti cparts in that fan would probable fail, becasue of the heat.

to bad you cant run something to cool it down, like a water cooler like in some pcs, thats seems way out of proportion to this problem.

to bad you couldnt run like a fridge, a few tubes in a design under the plate(probably copper), and have cool down cycles run off of cool water, and the water could be modded from the window washer resivor so that it pumps when you push the button, oh but the window wipers would look incredibly stupid going on without a cause.

i think thats not a bad idea though, a switch and a resivor, and the copper tubes are sandwiched between the factory mounting, a pice of aluminum, and then the dis.
 
I've been working on a cooling mechanism myself for alittle while now. Basically I found some pentium III heat sinks that are just about the right size for the DIS. The only problem with them is that they require an aftermarket hood as they won't fit under a stock one at all.

The biggest concern is to make sure that the DIS is still properly grounded. If not, then it won't function correctly. You also need to have a good DIS module to start off with. Honestly it sounds as though your DIS is already failing and that could contribute to the fact that a few of your "fixes" have not already worked.

I started my project a couple months ago, but haven't been able to get back to it because of work schedule and family obligations. I'll be posting results when I get it finished though for those who are interested.
 
I think this is all being way blown out, I mean think about it, my car lasted years and years ( 13 years ) without a DIS problem, then I got a new one and no problems.

Buy a new DIS, use ARTIC SILVER, and bam you're good for another 10 years.:D
 
i had it tested a

month or so ago. but i understand what your saying.

i was just thinking something like the pictures below, a copper plaete, becasue coppers cheaper, and works better than aluminum, and a flow of water to cool the plate down. easy.

ill start looking on ebay or something for another dis, because we all need em eventually, and ill take a trip to get some ceramique or arctic silver 5, but the ceramic stuff is supposed to work better.

as for the pictures below, imagine, that with a square base and a thin copper plate, you could have a good heatsink, and not use fins.

edit:
i think about it now, and anyone at a car show would laugh or nod and smile when they see the job done on this. welding class anyone?
 

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I think if I were going to relocate the DIS, I'd put it out behind the headlight where the IRCM is. I would mount it like the guys have been saying with the heatsink facing-up, like an amplifier. That would have to be cooler than on an aluminum bracket that's bolted to an engine which is kept at 200+ degrees(water).
I wonder though what the benefit of doing that is.... Bong's got a good point..

paul
 
thirdbird said:
I wonder though what the benefit of doing that is.... Bong's got a good point..

paul

The point is that electricity flows better the cooler the temperatures. So if you can somehow cool the DIS, it will perform better and more reliable than if it were to remain on the stock location. The more heat that something is subject to, the less it will flow electricity. Sure a new one could last 10 years or more, but how reliable is it on a very hot day on top of a very hot accessory bracket? There's got to be a reason that Ford decided to move it on the '94-'95 SCs...
 
Well perhaps, I just figure there are better things to do, what about a little PC (computer) fan mounted on top of it to blow air on top or would that do nothing?

Where is it on the 94/95?
 
Don't make me git the textbook out boy....

007_SuperCoupe said:
The point is that electricity flows better the cooler the temperatures. ...
Are you speaking of Inductance, or Resistance?
Switching devices need to be kept cooler, yes.
But with heat electrical resistance is actually reduced, not increased.

I still don't see a benefit to moving it anywhere else. The elders don't seem to move theirs either that I have seen or read here.

The 94+5 unit was moved to the passenger fender, and is a different unit than whats on the 89-93 birds.
So again I doubt it was re engineered by Ford simply for cooling issues. If it was the same unit, I could see the argument.
If I saw Tangible proof that moving the DIS to a cooler spot increases performance, or gas mileage, then I would do it.

paul
 
thirdbird said:
.......But with heat electrical resistance is actually reduced, not increased......

You might want to look that up. The hotter material gets the higher the resistance. Look at a light bulb for instance. When you first turn that sucker on there is very low resistance, but once it starts to heat up, the resistance gets higher. If it worked opposite, then you'd trip a breaker.

Think of it at the atom level as well..... we all know that the hotter something gets the greater the spacing between the atoms of that material, hence it takes more energy to transfer the electrons to get electrical flow.

Frit
 
What?!?!

First of all, when things are colder, their atoms are closer together due to contraction, so yes electronics in general work better at cooler temps. That's serveral generations of experience in electronics and electrical circuits speaking and physics in general. I'm working on something for this fix and will post some pics when I get it presentable.

J
 
like how computers

are supposed to be kept cool. runs crappy hot. but anyways, the little cheapy done heatsink with copper plate is probably the easiest and fastest to do.

flip the dis over, and put the plate against it, and screw it down.
hook two hoses into a water resv. and wither put a pump, or place it higher than the heatsink, and water flows freely. and add some water wetter. done. try it and come back here.

or maybe flipping the dis over melts it? this is where risers come into play, just two washers on each screw.

edit:
oh yeah and does anyoen have the right operating temps for our DIS module? does anyone know? but most computers i know would crash at 200 degrees, but then again this was made knowing its right next to the engine
 
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