How much air does an MSD box need

[jwinkler]

I have just finished installing a 6AL in the passenger compartment on the firewall.

In order to keep the car somewhat civilized, I left the interior carpet in place, which means that even with its isolator mounts, the bottom of the box is against the carpet, so my question is how important is it to have a gap under the box? Since it's inside the passenger compartment, it won't see the same temps it would in the engine bay, but will it give off enough heat to hurt itself?

I'm a little overly sensitive to this, since the MSD is going in in place of a Mallory that got cooked (as best I can tell) by being too close to the heater hoses in the engine bay.

Thanks,

JLW

PS - I asked this before, but before I start the motor, I'm going to pull the distributor and turn the oil pump. If I mark where the distributor rotor is in relation to the body, can I pull it out and put it back in without having to move the motor to TDC?