Good & Bad Maxwell Caps, MMC questions?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Bill Vanyo by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vanyo-at-echoes-dot-net>

I just blew my Maxwell cap (0.06uF, 30kV, catalog #37321 - type with
terminals on top).

I was never sure whether this was a good cap for Tesla use.  I've seen
guidelines in the past that said those with the terminals on top
(instead of on opposite sides) generally didn't have a long life.  It
worked great for a while, but now it's dead (cap makes a sort of
fizzling sound when I first power up).

Can anyone confirm that this is indeed not a good cap to use, or is this
what I could expect with any Maxwell cap?  And if mine was bad, which
are good?  The reason I'd like to get another Maxwell (if I can find a
more reliable one) is that it's "plug-and-play" - no assembly required,
and compact.

Are MMC's really any better?  To what extent are they "self healing"? 
To build a really sturdy MMC with the geek group caps (942c), for use
with 15/180 NST (three 15/60's), what is the minimum string length and
number of strings to handle the voltage and current they'll see?  I can
adjust upwards to get my desired capacitance, which is between 0.06uF
and 0.045uF --- 0.06 because that's what I was using and it worked,
0.045 because that's the "right" LTR value for 15/180 with a static gap,
but I don't know (I haven't calculated yet) if my primary has enough
extra turns that I'd still be able to tap it in tune with 0.045 (I
currently tap around 7.5 with my biggest topload, and have 10 turns).  I
understand that the strings need to be of adequate length to handle the
voltage (though I'm not sure what that length is to get a long MMC life
with 15kV AC in tesla coil use).  Am I right that there is also some
minimum number of strings needed for adequate current handling (180ma,
in my case)? 

BTW (and I'm not sure, but I think I've heard this reported before), my
coil seemed to be performing better than it ever had shortly before it
died.

	Thanks,
	-  Bill Vanyo