I agree that the magnetic pickups on Duraspark II ignitions fail and when they do it is like turning off the key and TFI's fail in a similar manner. Having read the article blaming it on being too close to the exhaust manifold escapes me. I can't think of a point much further from the exhaust manifold. I think the author got some of his facts mixed up.
As far as fires go, I'd like to see some real investigation reports that show cause and effect before I would panic over my magnetic pickups potential to **** me. I have had mine fail a couple of years ago and the only problem was, Truck No Go. It took me quite a while to figure it out, but it never showed any symptom of getting hot enough to cause a fire. In fact the failure of the module is due to heat sensitive components at normal running temperatures.
I'd like to hear a factual and plausible argument for how a failing TFI causes a fire. From the location of the fires described I would initially suspect a clogged catalytic converter. Now that is a component that glows cherry red when overheated and can cause the rug of the vehicle to catch fire. As far as the picture of an engine fire, I would suspect a gas leak combined with some other factor.
That's my .02 and I continue to drive my truck with a magnetic pickup in it and have no concern that it will cause my truck to burn. There are other things that I would worry about causing it to burn before I would consider the magnetic pickup. Perhaps you guys that drive computer controlled engines need to be more nervous but I doubt it. I definitely won't panic based on the information I have seen so far. It sounds more like they are mistakenly connecting two different problems, especially the guy that said the TFI is too close to the exhaust manifold.
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