[DonRotolo]

Fluffy,

I agree with the advice above, and you'd be well served to heed it.

Thinking a bit outside the box, this sounds to me like a perfect pre-season experiment: What, exactly, does it take to overhat a victor? And, does it go into shutdown or thermal liquidity (i.e., melt) when it passes the safe point?

Start with some research with the IFI folks, I am sure they'll take your phone call and shower you with data. Next, take a Victor, and associated items to simulate various current loads, along with an accurate temperature probe (like a thermocouple). Measure the temperature at steady-state under variuos loads and both with and without the fan, and also in different kinds of restricted areas (a small box, for example).

Then, the important part: Publish your findings in a white paper for the rest of us to see. In this way, not only do you really learn the answer to your question, even the part about "it depends", but so do all of us...

Don