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Leaky DTek Core

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sp00L

Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2003
Location
Buffalo, NY
I got my water stuff in this week and hooked it up inside the empty case to do some leak testing. I noticed today when I got in from work, I slow leak around one of the barbs on the dtek radiator. It appears they used some green goop to seel it. I'm wondering if I should unscrew the barb and apply teflon plummer's tape or should I got with something stronger.
 
Teflon tape didn't cut it. Still leaks slowly around the barb. I'll drop by HD and see what kind of plummer's gunk I can get to stop leaks.
 
If you decide that you want to stop the leak yourself, go and get some contact cement in a tube. It works wonders on this type of application. Your tape may not have worked because the fitting that is on the dtek may be a little rough and will not seal properly with tape.
 
Thanks. I'm headed to HD shortly. I thought about contacting Dtek but I don't have time during work. Besides, it's only a $30 raddy and should be easily fixed.
 
I'd remove the barbs first and fill that core with vinegar overnight and thoroughly flush it.
I removed the barbs to my D-Tek Pro 120 and noticed a lot of tiny metal shavings mixed with black dirty flux inside. Not good.

Marine Goop works well too.
 
Just picked up some Thread Sealant at AutoZone. I'm going to give it a try tonight. Good advice on the vinegar, I'll do that to clean the barbs and threads.
 
Ok, I had to download the Data Sheet from Permatex to see how long the thread sealant needed to cure. 24 hours, 72 hours for pipe burst strength, ack!!! So I applied it last night and boy did the smell reek! So, today after getting tired of waiting, I wiped it off and took some vinegar and baking soda to clean off the barb and raddy threads. That permatex stuff is going in the trash, way too strong. After looking at putty and other things at HomeDepot, I grabbed some high strength teflon tape. A lot stronger than the normal 50 cent roll for about $4.50. I wrapped it almost 10 times around the barb and hooked everything up. So far, 2 hours leak free. Whoohoo! I used regular twist ties to hold the pump down to the bottom the case. Right now I'm letting the t-line bleed out the air. Slow but getting there.
 
Next round, I leak tested for a day and things were fine. I hooked everything back up with mobo, vid card, sound card and hdd's. Runs soooo much quieter with that 42 db delta gone. My cpu idles at ambient with the system. I only gain 10 C at full double prime load. This nets around 5-6 C drop in load temps without the whiny fine! I'm happy.

So, I come home today after work, computers been on for another 12 hours. There's ANOTHER small leak around the second barb on the raddy. Nothing has dripped down but a tiny pool of liquid has accumulated on the top of the raddy, about half the size of a dime. This is ridiculous.

I should have gotten the Danger-Den heater core. It's slightly bigger and probably performs better. Shame on Dtek for this. I'm not rma'ing a $30 raddy and have my system down for who-knows-how-long. Luckily I should be able to fix this one like the first, which is NOT leaking now. Just be forewarned about the Dtek Pro radiators.
 
Sounds like a bad batch of barbs or thread inserts, I would atleast let D-Tek know so they can check other stock... ;)
 
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