Radiators and other newbish WC things.

Okay, most of you have probably helped me recently in my last post i made in here....it was long and no longer on topic, so i'm going to stop reviving it.

At the time, i've decided to try making the jump from high end air to low end water. with no job, this is hard. i want to keep the entire thing under $100, but its not looking good...so right now i'm just looking for the cheapest effective watercooling setup.

So far, i've become interested in the following.

D tek spiral Waterblock
Via Aqua 1300 pump
Unpainted Pro-120 Core
Clearflex tubing from McMaster
home depot stuff

I'm still unsure about the radiator, its $30 which is a bit much. Lots of people have told me to go with the chevette '86 core, but i cant get that for less than 26, and it has one 1/2 barb and one 3/8...whats up with that?

What would be perfect is a relatively large heatcore thats inexpensive. i have room for a 17" by 5" radiator, with about an inch extra clearance if its not perfect.

i'd like to keep this quiet, as quiet is my main reason for doing this. Quietness and a new project...a reason to break out the dremel and take the barbs off where i cut my grilles.

so yeah. its like 3 hours later now and i'm finally getting to post this. stupid dialup. Gr.

you can stretch the tubing over the chevettes large tube. its kinda hard, but it is do-able

Well, you could make your own waterblock with some copper bar stock from onlinemetals. Go to a junkyard or an auto scrap place and try to find a radiator off of a motorcycle or a heatercore from a car. Definetly get the VIA pump, though. That's what I have in my system, and it's a great little pump, in my opinion. You don't need really good tubing if you're trying to do this on the cheap. Just buy some generic stuff from Home Depot, along with some zip ties for hose clamps.

Another thing you could do, if you don't care about having a ghetto setup, is to get a really big bucket of water (I mean like 500 gallons or so) and not even have a heatercore or a radiator.

Don't worry too much about getting this stuff for under 100 dollars. I was in the same situation as you, and I think I ended up spending about 30 bucks on my setup.

I just rebuilt my external cooler and used a core from an 85 Impalla. Its rough measurements are 12 3/4 x 6 3/4. I got it at Napa for $20. All the heater cores I've seen have different sizes on the in/out. What I did is saw off the barbs then sweat 1/2 x 3/4 copper female fittings to the tubes. Then you can screw in the barb of your choice. If this core will work for you let me know and I'll find the part number.

mateo88 said:

Another thing you could do, if you don't care about having a ghetto setup, is to get a really big bucket of water (I mean like 500 gallons or so) and not even have a heatercore or a radiator.

Click to expand...

A 500 gallon bucket + 500 gallons of water? That might be more than $30!

"you can stretch the tubing over the chevettes large tube. its kinda hard, but it is do-able "

i was more worried about the small tube restricting. i though that large one was the 1/2 one htat i'm suppsoed to have on everything...


that 85 impala one...that sounds big and promising, whats the tubes, is it restrictive? does it work good?

i dont really mind ghetto, but i would like to keep this inside the case...its not MY house its going in

Here are the specs on that core from napa online:
Item#: BK 4603056

Price: $ 19.99

Attributes: Heater Core
Length: 5 5/8''
Width: 2''
Height: 10 3/4''
Hose Size: I 3/4'' O 5/8''
Type of Packaging: Boxed

The "tubes" swell out at the ends to the barb sizes (3/4 and 5/8). If you cut the bars off you have just 1/2 copper. Thats what I ment by the tubes. That length (height) measurement is just the cooling area, I does not include the tanks so the overall lenght is closer to 12 3/4.
Here's the Link

the small tube is bigger than all my barbs. i dont know how or why now that you pointed that out.

edit: the tubes on the chevette are actually 5/8" and 3/4" so thats why

http://www.napaonline.com/cgi-bin/n...r=15557101&prmenbr=5806&usrcommgrpid=78756153


the $19.99 quoted for the other core on the website might not be the actual price at your local napa. i ended up paying more for my chevette (something like $30)even though i brought in the webpage and tried to contest the price.

is that core all copper and brass uthungover?

I got it at my local store for that price. zip22, the core has brass tanks and fins, the tubes are copper.

how does brass do? is it better than aluminum, or worse?

that thing is beefy, and looks to be about perfect size.

how does it do when compared, to say, the chevette core, which is smaller and more expensive?
how about the Unpainted Pro-120?


i'll have to start thinking about how this is all gonna go together....i'm gettign exited!

I just bought a 87 Pontiac Bonneville heater core from the Napa store for $25. You want to get the core for no AC, the barbs are straight. The core is 91/2X61/8, overall it is about 11X61/8. I cut the 3/4 end off which left me with 2-5/8 tubes. I soaked the 1/2 tubing in hot water and it went fairly easy. You can use 2X120 fans with this core. I made a shroud from a 11X14 sheet of plexiglass from Home Depot $1.79.

Heater core 460-3026 $24.99
Black plastic hose clamps $.69@

dont suppose you have a link, huh? the fans i can fit arent a worry at the moment, i dont plan on putting any fans directly on my core...but i may have to, later.

which cools better? $5 for a 10% decrease in temps is worth it to me, but only to a point...i think $20 is about right for a heatercore.

D tek spiral Waterblock - $25
Via Aqua 1300 pump - $23
heater Core - $20
Clearflex tubing from McMaster - $12
home depot stuff - $15
shipping/surprise -$10

thats about $110.

does it sound good to you guys? is there something i'm missing?

fhanderson said:

I just bought a 87 Pontiac Bonneville heater core from the Napa store for $25. You want to get the core for no AC, the barbs are straight. The core is 91/2X61/8, overall it is about 11X61/8. I cut the 3/4 end off which left me with 2-5/8 tubes. I soaked the 1/2 tubing in hot water and it went fairly easy.

Click to expand...

My tubes are the same size, 1/2 i.d. 5/8 o.d. after cutting the barbs off. I then sweated 1/2 x 3/4 female copper fittings so I could use 5/8 barbs. I went for the with ac core because the angled tubes worked out better in my setup.

Como said:

how does it do when compared, to say, the chevette core, which is smaller and more expensive?

Click to expand...

My opinion, the chevette core is to small. If you have the room I would go for the largest core you can fit in your box. The more surface area, the more efficent the core is assuming the same design. Your setup looks good except I can't comment on the pump since I know nothing about it. What is the rig your cooling?

if you have a junk yard and some tools near by you can get one for a dollar or so. in fact you can spend all day going through the cars till you find one you like

87 Camaro Heater Core from AutoZone, Hacksaw off barbs, $17.00

"87 Camaro Heater Core from AutoZone, Hacksaw off barbs, $17.00"

how good is that core? $17 is good. i'd rather not have to sweat new fittings on, though. i have a history of overheating things.

i do have tools, my dad used to be a mechanic and he has loads of tools...junkyard i lack.

The rig i want to cool is in my sig...
the larger the core, the better? in that case i want to get the cheapest big core i can get, and buy another when i have enough...and maybe a third. i can find space for it, i'm sure of that.


i'm open to suggestions for heatercores still, i'll be looking at every one that seems to be credable...time to attack google.

dont you hate when you click a link in AIM and it uses the OCforums window, and ereases what you've typed? Grr.

anyways, after searching a bit i found 2 cores, the WITH AC and the WITHOUT AC heater cores for the '78 bonniville

i liked the pipe setup on the without ac, but some dimentional math made me realise its a few square inches (like 10) smaller, and a bit too wide for where i want it. so the WITH AC it is.

http://www.napaonline.com/cgi-bin/n...r=15557093&prmenbr=5806&usrcommgrpid=78770947

i'll have to be rid of the pipes, guess i gotta learn to sweat that thing.

i assume i can get the correct 1/2" barbs from home depot. whats the correct ones, exact name? i'm bad at gettign the right parts. How much are they?

Also, do i have to sweat them in, or will a good amount of that white teflon stuff do? (i've used teflon to screw co2 fittings together with no leaks, thats 800psi)

and i should get the tubing from that mcmaster place, and not home depot, right?

i'm so exited to begin this...but i cant order for a month, we're gettign ready to move. Grr. maybe i can pick up the heatercore before then and get it squared away....for something to do

Como, you can cut the 3/4 expansion off the end of the intake. This leaves you with 2X5/8 tubes. You can easily put the 1/2 tubing over these by soaking the end of the tubing in boiling water for about a minute. For the fittings take the pump with you to Home Depot, You need 1/2 pipe to 1/2 barb and maybe a 3/4 pipe to 1/2 barb. I'm sure Home Depot will have what you need.

i dont understand why i need those...

you said i could connect the hose dorectly to the rad's tubes if i cut them a bit. what would the barbs be for? i figured i just needed them to connect the hose to the rad...

everything else should have the correct fitting already, right? wll, i still need o make a res...i would need some for that....

Depending on the pump you order, you may need hose barbs for the pump. You can make a resevoir from a waterproof electrical box from Home Depot. The box is thick enough to drill and tap for pipe threads.

hmm...how big is the box? i want a relatively small res, i have plans for location.

Well, I graduated yesterday. Whoot. i also got something i was not expecting....a prepaid credit card type deal with some cash.

So, with the proposed WC setup, what would just a little bit more cash get me? (i'm not talking amount values because i dont want to sink that much more...but if i can get allot more for not too much extra, i may jump for it)

Is there such a thing as an Nvidia/ATI WC block? i currently have an Nvidia card and i want an ATI in the future...and its my understanding a gpu puts out allot of heat. with the proposed setup my case cooling is going to take a hit, and that means i need a better idea of whats going on.

So, if GPU's create allot of heat, GPU cooling is added to the list. I still need to know about getting my hands on a boneville copper core, and the whole barbs issue.

i also need to replace my NB cooling. stupid bearings. (i'll make a different post for that, watercooling northbridge is rediculous to me)