Radiator punctured?

Hey guys,

I got my new rig up and running. Optimizations, installations, drivers and all that good stuff. So I popped open my WC equipment and started fiddling around, getting the feel of everything and trying out my hand with the fittings. Well anyways, I tried some screws for mounting my Thermochill PA 120.3/Gentle Typhoons and I think I accidentally hit one of the tubes, or even punctured it with the screw. I immediately removed the screws, and thought I'd fill the rad with water to see if there was any leakage from the damaged area. There was none. Is this enough to say that the rad was not punctured and still functional?

Should of used the 1-1/4 6/32 machine screws to fool around with the rad .

Here is the best picture I could get of the damaged area with my camera:-

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/755/dsc01385b.jpg

Cheers,
Mass

Kind of looks questionable to me. The only way to tell for sure would be to run it for a while and see what happens. If your water level starts dropping quicker than it should, I would look into trying to get some JB-Weld on that (I hear it works very well for patching punctured rads), or maybe taking it in to a local radiator repair shop to see what they would charge to repair it. It may be quite a bit less than replacing it altogether. Let us know how it works out.

It looks as though that area is slightly dented rather than punctured. It may have weakened it a bit though. I would run a long leak test, maybe a couple of day or more to be sure. Maybe some reinforcement with JB Weld would help give peace of mind.

Elfie said:

It looks as though that area is slightly dented rather than punctured. It may have weakened it a bit though. I would run a long leak test, maybe a couple of day or more to be sure. Maybe some reinforcement with JB Weld would help give peace of mind.

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I was having a hard time telling if it was actually open or just dented from that pic. OP, is there any chance that your camera has a Macro mode, so that you might be able to get a better close up of it? Also, with the right lighting and ISO setting, you may be able to take the pic without flash, which may make it a little easier for us to tell for sure. I may not know for sure what I am talking about, and these are just things I have picked up from my wife, who seems to be getting very much into her photography. She treats her camera with the same respect that I show towards my computer.

This might be slightly better .

Elfie said:

It looks as though that area is slightly dented rather than punctured. It may have weakened it a bit though. I would run a long leak test, maybe a couple of day or more to be sure. Maybe some reinforcement with JB Weld would help give peace of mind.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I should do that. I only filled it with water and let it sit there for a couple of mins. Had no leakage. I should probably assemble the loop out of my PC and leave it running for a day or two and see how it works.

Note: Camera is out of battery! I'll give it a quick recharge and drop a better picture in a couple of mins. Let's just hope I can get one, lol.

Cheers,
Mass

Massacah said:

Yeah, I should do that. I only filled it with water and let it sit there for a couple of mins. Had no leakage. I should probably assemble the loop out of my PC and leave it running for a day or two and see how it works.

Note: Camera is out of battery! I'll give it a quick recharge and drop a better picture in a couple of mins. Let's just hope I can get one, lol.

Cheers,
Mass

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The problem with just filling the rad and letting it sit for a few minutes is the fact that there is minimal pressure on the damaged area. Disconnect everything from the pump, or hook the pump up to a spare if you have one, and since the fans are already off the rad, leave them off. Let the pump run for a while, I would say 24 hours or more, and keep an eye on the water level in the res. Shut it off while you sleep, so that you can be sure the pump doesn't get damaged from running dry. The pressure from a pump pushing the water through the rad will expose a leak a lot quicker than just filling it and letting it sit, due to the huge increase in pressure.

By the way, check that camera for a setting called Macro. It is for extreme close ups. Usually with Point and Shoot cameras, its not the best, but it can work well in some cases. Also, try to get the best ISO setting, to reduce the need for flash, and you may be able to get the picture to come out a bit clearer. I am not an expert with photography by any means, but I have learned a little bit from my wife being so into it. One thing to keep in mind, too high of an ISO will make the pic very grainy, so the more you experiment with it, the better you will get at judging what setting to use.

Well, I've been trying to get a better picture for 20 mins. No game . Guess we'll have to do with that picture, or the one Elfie posted. In the meantime, I'll probably get a second power supply to test the rad under some pressure from pump like you suggested and see how it turns out.

Cheers,
Mass

What i probablt would have done is to put on some jbweld or some solder just to make sure
If your doing so just make sure you clean the area real well and prefably do a little sanding on there to get a little better grip with the jbweld or solder

it looks dented, slightly cracked at worst. i would leak test as you were told already and regardless of the results get a bit of jb weld and clean the area. then get a blob of the jb weld on the spot and let it sit for how ever long they want you to.

Man...seeing you guys fretting over that little ding freaked me out into leak testing one of my rads that's going into an upcoming build. If you guys saw it, you'd have a heart attack. Fins bent out of shape left and right, and several really significant dents in the fins...and yet...it's still going strong. I'll get a picture in a few (with it actually running in a loop) just for some shock value.

You don't need to hook it up to a pump just to test , just dip in water , close one hole and blow into another and look for bubbles , make sure it is empty.

I mean it looks fine to me just bent