moisture proofing ignition?

Jan 03, 2006 25 Replies

You're right that heatsink greases aren't necessarily dielectrics, but most of them are made that way because they're so commonly used around high voltage, such as for CRT TV or monitor horizontal output transistors, and zinc oxide, the most common additive put in heatsink grease, is dielectric.

By the way, nobody should assume that a grease is dielectric simply because an ohm meter says it is because that's not at all a valid test. Even Honeywell Tradeline aluminized grease will show infinite ohms, despite it being labelled as electrically conductive.

The fact remains that you didn't specify automotive or electronic, and this is an electronic matter where the product made for the electronic market will work for automotive applications..

No, there isn't, and both automotive and electronic silicone greases are made with and without powder oxides. And who are you to argue about differences when you confused zinc (a conductor) with zinc oxide (a dielectric)?

Very correct. A common way of making silicon grease is by thickening silicon oils with fumed silica powder. These are good dielectrics.

Another common misconception voiced on this newsgroup is that 'silica is sand'. Not true at all. The chemical formula may be the same but the properties and abrasive nature is totally different.

They make a special dielectric grease for the boots on plug wires. It is cheap and most automotive stores have it.

I always recommend folks that have moisture issues to start the vehicle up in the dark with the hood open and to spray mist the wires down with water. If the wires are worn out or if there is one bad spot, you will get a wicked spark show.

This can isolate a trouble spot or just show you all the wires are too old and leaky.

WD40 works well to dry out the 'inside' of the distributor caps. Sometimes when I get my Jeep into deep water, the cold splash will create condensation inside the cap and cause it to miss bad. If I open it and spray out the insides with WD40, I am usually good for the rest of the trip.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >

In fact, it is not even true to say that all sand is silica, but not all silica is sand. There are sands that are primarily silica, depending on the constituents of the rocks in the area, but there are also sands with quite a bit of aluminum oxide, and other minerals too. Sand is finely ground rock, and not all rocks are the same. Silica is silicon dioxide, and not even all sands containing silicon are oxides- there are also other salts of silicon.

Absolutely. There are some beautiful white 'sand' dunes on the beach toward the airport in Salvador, Brasil. But it turns out that this 'sand' is titania.

And some of the dunes near White Sands, N.M. are made of gypsum crystals.

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