My first Waterblock ( & many questions )

Hello, I am new here & also to this watercooling game. I have been reading about it for some time & it has held my interest. I finally decided to go for my own "home brewed" setup. Here is a pic of what I got so far.
This is my first attempt, but I think it will work. I plan on eventually making one out of copper, ( probabally redesing it a few times ) but for now I will stick with the alum version ( cheaper & much easier to work with )
The cap will have 3/8 barbed fittings on it.

so now for the questions...
1- I designed the waterblock to have 1/8" thickness between the cpu & the water channels. Is this too much/little or does it make that much of a difference? I put the grooves in the bottom for no particular reason other than it looks kinda cool...plus I read somewhere that turbulance is a good thing.

2- I am planning on using a heater core out of a car/truck for my radiator. Have any of you gone this route & if so, what make of car/truck did you use? Also, rough dimensions for the heater core would help me out immensly.

3- For the pump, I would like to use a non-submersable model. Having a totally sealed system I think would be best, but the I really don't know. What are the advantages of going with a submersable pump. Also, I have noticed that almost all pumps run on AC, which is fine for now, but how would I get the thing to turn on by using the power button on the computer?

4- What are some good pumps to use? I have been looking at the VIA 1200 mainly due to price.


About meself...I have been a machinist for 12 or so years & am fortunate enough to have a boss that does not mind me using whatever. So thats how I got started with the waterblock in the above picture.

Thanks.

If I am correct my block is .087 between the CPU and the bottom of the water channel. Sounds to me you are to thick. You are at .125.

Hi Zymrgy. and welcome to the forums. Wow nice job on the block. You should add it to the gallery. I use 1/16" thick base on mine but 1/8" is fine I believe it's what most blocks use(could be wrong). Those grooves in the bottom not only look very good, but will aid in turbulance which is a good thing. Most of us use heatercores. The most popular is the 86' chevette, but the list is endless so be creative(looks like you have no problem with that). As far as the pump goes I have never had a problem with my Via Aqua, but the general concensus is their not very reliable so I would suggest an Ehiem or an Iwaki also maxijet for a cheap albiet good performer. Great to see another skilled craftsman in the forums there are alot of them here so join the club.

*EDIT* I just measured my Spir@l and Maze2 and both came in at 5/32". The Spri@l is factory lapped and the Maze2 has been lapped twice by me.

1/8" should be fine for your first block. You can tweak it from there. I've got some blocks that perform well with a 0.25" base. There is no single thickness that will magically make all waterblocks perform their best. You have a very nice channel design there, I believe you will get good temps.

Since that is aluminum, try to find an aluminum heatercore. That way you won't have to worry about corrosion as much. my heatercore is from a '70s ford F150. It's about 6.5"x8"x2" It is a brasss radiator, not aluminum. I'm not sure what vehicles (if any) have aluminum heatercores. Good luck finding some, and let us know how that block performs!

on the alu heatercore issue, i think they are all copper, but most oil coolers, and transmisson coolers are alu, they will work fine in most cases, although i did have to mount my tranny cooler outside the case but i like it there, i know i am wierd, or you could use a copper rad, but make sure you use a corsive retardant in your water, such as WW or anti-frezze, anti-frezze will stop the corosion better and as long as you dont use too much of it it wont hurt you cooling too much. my water mix that i like is as follows
Water wetter aka WW 2 oz
prestson anti-frezze 2 oz
water de-ionized 1 gallon

and on my p4 2.8 on water it folds at around 30C temp from dd5

not all heater cores are copper, there are alu ones.

BTW- Great job on that block, it looks great!