I am a bit baffled by Mark's ignition overheating issue.
About 2 years ago, I recommissioned an S3 FHC for a friend. This ended up just short of a full rebuild. The car was delivered with a botch job of an ignition system but I had an HE ignition system in stock complete with dissy (with operational vacuum advance
), Lucas AB14 amp and dual coils which I installed to the car.
Although I have never had a bad experience with this Lucas system, I have read a few negative reports about it.
I mounted the the Lucas AB14 amp in the V, as close to the dissy as I could. The only heat measure I took in this installation was to install heat insulation between the amp mounting plate and the engine. I did this simply because :
1) I wanted to keep the wires from the dissy to the Lucas amp as short as possible to reduce induced noise to a minimum;
2) I wanted the engine to appear as neat as possible, with as few wires as possible.
This car (and my own E-type with the Lumenition system) and my XJS were driven on a 500km trip on a day that was exceptionally hot (I estimate well above 35ºC) and we suddenly hit a tail wind that saw all three car's temperature gauges rise steadily to levels that had all of us rather worried. But they all ran perfectly.
My point is this (rhetorical): How is it that a 35 year old ignition system is working perfectly under adverse conditions and something modern can not cope under similar conditions.....