Car keeps goin through dizzy caps

[cardudeusa]

I've had this problem for a few years now where I have to replace my distribueter cap and rotor about every 6 months to a year. The inside gets all coroded and the car runs like crap. Anyone ever heard of this or had a similar problem? I keep the stock black rubber boot on there to keep out crap also... So i'm stumped.

 

[samickguy15]

Interesting...I would suggest you seal it up with some RTV around the mating surface and the vent(if it has one). You could also try applying some di-electric silicone to the conductors. I don't know if it will interfere with the conductivity though. I wouldn't think it would.

 

[Daggar]

You wouldn't by chance, be getting water or condensation in your oil and be feeding that moisture up through the dizzy, would you?

Does your PCV system work?
Do you use the car daily and is your drive back and forth to work a very short one?
Does the car sit for long periods then get driven only short distances?


Just thinking out loud here.

 

[cardudeusa]

There never seems to be any water in the oil at all, pcv valve and breather filter have been replaced a few times. I use to drive the car daily and got this problem.. now the car gets driven once or twice a week and still has the problem. When I did drive daily it would mostly go 20 miles to work and back... been on a few longs trips of 2 hours up to 8 hours of driving. I showed the cap to a friend and he said, looks like that things been on there for ever and it was a summit cap with copper conducors that hadn't been on long. I just put a MSD cap and rotor on and its running great for now. I could try the rtv thing and see how that goes. Thanks...

 

[HISSIN50]

A friend recently pointed out to me something which I didn't know. He said the Factory manual calls for a certain amount of di-electric grease to be placed on the rotor. It stands to reason that this would help inhibit corrosion.

In wetter climates, I used to use a product called Wire Dryer. It seemed to help keep things protected from corrosion and tracing from moisture.

Good luck.

 

[cardudeusa]

Where do I put the dielectric grease? On the top or the front? Thanks!

 

[DonMaximo]

Here's an answer from Left field... and only if you park the car in a garage.

At my last home, I had a swimming pool and kept the large buckets of chlorine tablets in the garage...along with my cars. At one time, I only placed the lid on top of the bucket.

After some time I noticed a chrome wheel nearby started corroding.

Yup...the mixture of the gas released by chlorine can cause corrosion of items in the vicinity.

When I moved to my current home...same thing. Prior owner kept chlorine near an electrical panel, and we (Electrical inspector and I) could see unusual corrosion there as well.

I know this is a bizarre reply, but it has a factual basis.

Good Luck !!!

 

[cardudeusa]

Nope no garage...

 

[Fett]

What brand cap and rotor are you using?

 

[Mustang78]

your dizzy cap needs to VENT! do not RTV up the holes either...if the distributor cap is sealed the air trapped inside will create an Ozone..and corrode everything. There might be one or two small vent holes in the bottom of the distributor body also and those need to be clear..same goes for the vent on top of the cap. I make sure all those are OK and i've never had corrosion problems when my car was a DD(short trips to school, lunch and home), or now as a weekend toy

~Mark~

 

[Aryan15]

Put the di-electric grease on the top, pointer, and the sparkplug terminals.

 

[cardudeusa]

What brand cap and rotor are you using?

I've used Accel a few times, then I switched to a Summit cap with copper terminals, now I've got an MSD on there.