Heat sink compound vs. dialectic

[Clarence L.Snyder]

Roger Heflin wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 9 Jan 1999, Clarence Wood wrote:
> 
> >   A salesperson at AutoZone tried to sell me some heat sink
> >   compound stating that it was a dialectic.  Of course I challenged
> >  the statement and he told me that he had used heat sink compound to
> >  insure good connections.
> >   Is heat sink compound a dialectic?  Curious minds want to know!
> 
> A diaelectric is an insulator.  It does not maintain a good
> connection, that is the whole idea.  Using heat sink compound to
> insure a good connection would be really bad.  Most heat sinks the
> case is ground and you want it to have a good connection with ground,
> dielectric is supposed to not maintain a good connection.  Of course
> if most of the people he was selling it to are using it in the spark
> plug boots I really don't see it making that much of a difference.  In
> the books I have the insulating material in a capacitor is called a
> dielectric so that would lead me to believe that dielectric grease was
> non-conduction.
> 
>                         Roger
What you want is electrically neutral. A conductor would cause shorts
between connectors in a plug. The ideal is an insulator that displaces
easily from pressure points - like connector fingers/pins, sealing air 
and moisture from the connectors. A good dialectric or heat sink
compound meets this requirement, unless you are working with very low
current/low voltage signals where specialized stuff like the Stab22 is
required.
Do NOT use RTV silicone, as it produced Acetic acid as it cures (hense
the vinegar smell) which will (or can) corrode connections.