My car's radiator?

[aeiou]

I am going to be parting out one of my cars pretty soon and it occured to me that I should use the radiator from it for water cooling my rig. I was just looking for sugestions on the parts I will need- tubing, water block, pump, ect. What is the best way to do this. Radiator is out of a 1987 subaru RX, BTW.

[Craptacualr]

Depends... what kind of fittings does it have on it now? barbs? threads?

You can pretty much go with any blocks you want. Do yourself a favor and try to adapt your radiator to a specific tubing ID and then use that ID on the rest of your blocks and fittings (1/2" is usually the most flowrate-friendly). You'll need a pump with somewhat decent pressure drop to pump through a radiator of that size. I'd reccomend something with a bare minimum of 6ft of max pump head.

[aeiou]

I don't know... I haven't taken it out of the car yet. I was going with 1/2", probably. What kind of specific recomendations for blocks, pumps, ect? Are there external housings that can be bought, or do people usually just build them?

[Craptacualr]

People just build any enclosures for something that big traditionally as you cant really make a commercial mount for using a car radiator for watercooling since there are so many different models of car radiator ;)

As far as blocks, most people around here either like the D-tek White Water, or the DangerDen TDX blocks, and still others like Cathar's custom jet-impingement blocks. And a few people also like the Swiftech series blocks, but those are usually a little pricey and sometimes difficult to work with fitting wise. As far as pumps, for a radiator that big, I'd go with a larger Hydor, Ehiem 1250 or a Danner Mag5. But that's just my $0.02, I'm sure other people have a variety of reccomendations.

[Diggrr]

First off, I'd check to see if that radiator's aluminum or if it's copper/brass...I wouldn't mix an aluminum rad with copper waterblocks..

[Craptacualr]

Good point sir :D

[aeiou]

How loud would that pump be? I'm looking for something that would be more quiet than ultimate cooling. Also, sould I need a fan on the radiator do you think?

[sevendevilhell]

the thing that will make the most difference is how you adapt the car radiator to fit in its surroundings. you also might want to clean the radiator a bit.

just make sure you have all your plans laid out on how to fit the radiator in the case (if you're trying to fit it in your case) and then get the tubing to fit also. make sure it fits, works, and runs efficiently and you've got yourself a winner. i had never thought of taking the radiator from a car and putting it in a computer

[Craptacualr]

If you're using a full car radiator, no fan is necessary. There's plenty of surface area there in a fullsize radiator. When mounted properly, just about any pump is quieter than a harddrive if you put it internally

[enduro]

Something I've wondered is couldn't you just make a custom sound proof box for the pump? Keep case vibration down and you could just run the lines through the back since the rad isn't going to be in the case anyway..................I know nothing about WCing but I was just thinking about that. I've seen some guys build custom boxes for their pc's with sound proof padding all around it so they don't hear their computers.

[Craptacualr]

Yeah, it can be done. Lots of styrofoam and other types of foam

[enduro]

That would be pretty sweet. Custom box for your pump :D Although do pumps generate a good amount of heat? I'm guessing you couldn't use spray in foam...........granted you probably wouldn't want to do something that permanent anyway.

[Craptacualr]

Yeah, spray in foams are bad ideas since most pumps do generate decent amounts of heat. A lot depends on the pump size and a whole other host of variables.

[aeiou]

Here is a link to a description of the radiator- http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?mfrcode=GNO&mfrpartnumber=433698&parttype=31&ptset=A

Are there parts to make the inlet/outlet smaller so it will fit the tubing?

[enduro]

Home Depot copper fitting mod time :D

[Craptacualr]

Tough to say, it doesnt tell if the hose fittings are barbed, or threaded. Either way, a quick trip to home depot and a few pieces of either different size tubing or fittings will mod it down to 1/2" If you had pics I could tell you what you needed to buy

[slowmike]

i would not use a used radiator. unless you like particles flowing through your whole system. radiators get buildup over time, esp if the car wasnt properly maintained, and can be broken loose to mix in with the coolant. although you could put a coolant filter on it like diesel trucks use, but i dont know if the pump has enough power to push the water through the filter.

[Diggrr]

Since it's brass, you can flare out the tube with a pair of pliers slowly until it fits a 1" copper pipe fitting with a female thread on the other end.
The 1" end just fits inside the tube with only the threaded "bell" shaped part sticks out. Then clean with sandpaper and solder it into place with a torch and copper fitting solder/flux.
JBWeld quick would do a good job too, so you don't need to solder.

That's how I did mine. That's a 1" female thread there to fit my system, yours would be a different size on the threaded end.
http://home.wmis.net/~jberg/OutletMod.jpg

And yeah, you want to run a flush kit through it to remove any gunk built up from using it. Prestone makes a nice kit.