What happened to my Mopar electronic ignition orange box

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65 Cuda 340

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Did this while just sitting in the garage. Or maybe I just noticed it while it was sitting in the garage. ??

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I used a plastic scraper and a heat gun to successfully remove all this without leaving a mark on the paint.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, it had to have happened while I was driving it. But the box didn't quit working. Just melted the potting, and what I first noticed was the melted stuff running down my inner fender.
 
Looks like fried Swiss cheese... somewhere in it there must have been a short. Was it a newer box made in an undisclosed location?
 
Looks like fried Swiss cheese... somewhere in it there must have been a short. Was it a newer box made in an undisclosed location?

I doubt it, because it had been in there since the early 1990's. But I'm not sure when Mopar Performance began outsourcing their stuff from overseas.
 
I doubt it, because it had been in there since the early 1990's. But I'm not sure when Mopar Performance began outsourcing their stuff from overseas.

That sucks man. Looks like you have a nice paint job. I’d try a little bit of “goof off” if a soft scraper does not work..
 
Post a photo of the back side of the box.

Back in the day I worked on Steel Case office furniture. The light fixtures had foam tape on the backs of them. After years of getting hot the foam tape would turn to tar. What a mess!

I suspect the pottant has had some chemical changes due to heat and fumes.

If the back side of the box is clean and you can see the electronics you could get some pottant, (3M DP190 is one I have used comerically) and report the box.

There are others and talking to 3M you might be able to find one that might be better suited.
 
Oh, I just replaced the box with a blue painted one from Ebay. Not a Mopar Performance blue box, and nothing special, but good enough for a slant six.

I threw the old orange box in the trash a few months ago.

I've run several orange boxes over the years, never before had one melt on me.

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Too bad about the orange box, some good reverse engineering might have been had!
 
I just realized my title might have been misleading. Should have said: "Look what happened to my orange box." Although now that I think about it, I don't really know what happened to it, other than it must have gotten really hot at some point. Internal short? Don't know - it never quit running on me.
 
:lol: I know it's not funny, but I will add your melting box to my weird things that happen list.
 
I have seen the potting run out of ignition boxes and regulators. It seems to happen to most of them after time. It just decides to come out and run all down the firewall. Some boxes have more like a silicon potting, these are the good ones that wont melt out.
I have seen plenty of them melt all the potting out yet still work just fine. I have had it happen to brand new ones sitting in my parts bins.
 
Oh, I just replaced the box with a blue painted one from Ebay. Not a Mopar Performance blue box, and nothing special, but good enough for a slant six.

I threw the old orange box in the trash a few months ago.

I've run several orange boxes over the years, never before had one melt on me.

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You still got a decent box, though. You got one with the real transistor in it.
 
I had one do that on the shelf.

So it didn’t have a short in it, it wasn’t connected to anything! LOL
 
That happens to original production ECUs. I have one here circa 1975, been sitting on the shelf a few years & the potting mix has drained out of it.
 
I was gonna ask for your Old box cause I was looking to hid an HEI in an old box but I see you threw it out already. Definitely don't see that every day.
 
Get it out of the trash and re-pot it. Likely, nothing is wrong other than the potting broke down.
 
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