[Kgw51gmc]

A few years ago, when I swapped out a PMD in a hurry while at the store, I installed my PMD onto the cooling plate, back inside the front bumper, and I didn't notice these plastic covers.
Truck started stalling while idling a few weeks ago, and continued getting worse for a week or two. So one day, I quickly swapped out the PMD and it's fixed, perfect. Zero trouble since.
I assume the plastic covers, in the pics below, held the heat in and burned up the PMD. I'm surprised it lasted through all the summer heat while hauling, dumping, and running the lime spreader. No other PMD I have ever had, has had these covers. I've only bought two PMD's, ever, and they were used.
This post is a simple reminder to everyone to double check before installing. Pop these off and trash them.
If somehow I'm wrong and they are supposed to be on there, it'll take some convincing. I looked up the covers and they are listed as:
THERMALLOY 8909NB Insulating Cover for TO-3 Semiconductor NSN# 5961-01-103-6222

 

[dieselolds]

I usually pop off the covers as well before I mount them to the heat sink.Seems to perform well but my last grey stanadyne pmd started giving me grief with low mileage on it even with the covers removed.

 

[It's just my van.]

That's a pretty specific alloy to be using to make a cosmetic cover, wouldn't you think? Considering the environment where this device is designed to work, in the hot valley of a V-8, I'd bet those thermalloy covers over the power transistors are there to shield them from external heat by shunting that heat around the cases of those transistors to the heat sink to be cooled by incoming fuel. The idea would be to limit the heat the transistors must endure to the heat they generate themselves while operating.

I think.

 

[JMJNet]

That's a pretty specific alloy to be using to make a cosmetic cover, wouldn't you think? Considering the environment where this device is designed to work, in the hot valley of a V-8, I'd bet those thermalloy covers over the power transistors are there to shield them from external heat by shunting that heat around the cases of those transistors to the heat sink to be cooled by incoming fuel. The idea would be to limit the heat the transistors must endure to the heat they generate themselves while operating.

I think.

In the original design, that may be the case.
I am not sure if they put any thought on the composition of the cap anymore, though.

In my case, I took it off also before I mount the PMD into the heatsink.
I also use the heatsink compound like the one used in Computers like Arctic Silver.

 

[Kgw51gmc]

The fact that they are called "Insulating cover" tells me they probably hold heat in or they'd call it a "conducting cover"....

 

[DieselPro]

The covers won't make them over heat, the transistors are pretty much sealed in there even without the covers.. Doesn't hurt to just tweak the transistors in a bit with a nut driver.

 

[It's just my van.]

I remember reading some detailed failure analyses of these drivers, and it isn't thermal runaway that's killing these PMD's. It's the stiff epoxy the manufacturer used when they potted those modules. The epoxy has different thermal expansion properties than the leads of those big power transistors. Every time the unit heat cycles with engine operations, those transistor leads tug a bit on the circuit trace pads to which they are soldered. Enough of that cyclical stress cracks the solder loose at the circuit board, creating a high resistance or intermittent connection, making your injection pump's fuel servo behave erratically.

I'm sure Stanadyne must know this, but there sure seems to be a lot of these modules failing.

I was relieved to learn I had the DB2 pump on my 6.5! But, on the other hand, the solution to a fueling problem I'm having isn't immediately obvious

That's a pretty specific alloy to be using to make a cosmetic cover, wouldn't you think? Considering the environment where this device is designed to work, in the hot valley of a V-8, I'd bet those thermalloy covers over the power transistors are there to shield them from external heat by shunting that heat around the cases of those transistors to the heat sink to be cooled by incoming fuel. The idea would be to limit the heat the transistors must endure to the heat they generate themselves while operating.

I think.

I think I have it backwards. It just dawned on me the photo is of the machined plate that gets the thermal paste and then bolted to the side of the injector pump.

It's hard to tell in the photo. Are the tops of those covers level with the heatsink? Do those thermalloy covers get thermally coupled to the injector pump with thermal paste as well? If so, they would hugely help cool those power transistors by conducting some more of their heat away with those covers instead of those transistors radiating it away.