How to mod a Heatercore (Dual 120mm version)

SGTFury said:

Weapon, question about the 77 bonni mod - is it necessary to tap the holes once you take out the factory tubes? I don't have a tap, and it appears Home-Depot only carries that part online, so it looks like a pita to get one. Can I just use the torch and solder the barbs directly in without the threads?

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The threads add a little extra strength but they really help with getting the fittings in straight. Trying to thread in the fittings and keep them straight without tapping the tanks before hand is a PITA experience.

Delirious said:

I had to special order a fedco 2-342, and before i read this thread i went to pick it up and it ended up haveing the oval holes for the tubes .

How hard is it to mod these, if at all possible?

Weapon? do u sell pre moded 2-342's?

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If you get a 342 with oval holes (and a lot of them have oval punched-in tubes) the best/easiest way to mod them is to cut the tubing about an inch and a half or so out from the tanks and then solder on 1/2" pipe x 3/8 NPT threaded female adapters. 1/2" x 3/8" NPT barbs will thread into those adapters with no probs and you can use teflon tape if you want to be able to remove the barbs or you can solder the barbs into the copper adapters.

SGTFury said:

Yeah, I had no idea how hard it would be to find a 3/8-18 NPT tap. NO ONE has the thing, I went all over town, plumbing, hardware and auto-parts stores. Finally, just ordered the one off the Home Depot site. Oh well, I'll have it mid-next week.

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that's odd -- did you check with plumbing supply stores or auto stores like Napa? Last time I looked, I found four or five places that had them locally.

Ace Hardware has 3/8 pipe taps...at least the ones around me here in central Florida do.

Ace is the place ...so they say

Bill

hmmm, I ordered the one from Home Depot finally. I'm also having problems getting the 3/8 x 1/2 brass barbed fittings. I mistakenly picked up ones at Home Depot that were 1/2 on the thread side and 3/8 on the barb side. When I went back, they didn't have the other size. I tried Lowes and they didn't have that size either. Then, Home Depot said they couldn't cut me a piece of sheet metal for the shroud. They only have rolls which cost like $38.00. sigh. This is getting frustrating. Maybe I'll try that onlinemetals link. What gauge do I need again?

At least I got a good bonni core at Advance Auto parts, $19.98. Fired up the propane torch and the factory tubes came out pretty easily and cleanly. Followed Weapon's suggestions with the towels and water and it went without a hitch.

Whew, i just read all 6 pages, and weapon you got some skills, ok so i am working on a project in my asus vento case heres my thread:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=389143

Anyways my space is a bit limited, and i have never modded a heater core, but my dad is a plumber so he is good at soldering and stuff, so i think we could do it, but given th e pictures in my thread, and my space, what heatercore do you recommend/shround? thanks guys, i am new, and need all the help that i can get,

as for all of the custom work in this thread it is amazing, keep it up...

xCRF450 said:

Whew, i just read all 6 pages, and weapon you got some skills, ok so i am working on a project in my asus vento case heres my thread:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=389143

Anyways my space is a bit limited, and i have never modded a heater core, but my dad is a plumber so he is good at soldering and stuff, so i think we could do it, but given th e pictures in my thread, and my space, what heatercore do you recommend/shround? thanks guys, i am new, and need all the help that i can get,

as for all of the custom work in this thread it is amazing, keep it up...

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we already covered this in PMs but just in case anyone else needs this info, I am going to add it to this thread.

The top of that case has fairly limited space to work with and getting a shrouded 302 or other shrouded core into that space is going to be difficult. If you mod a 302, add a shroud with the usual balanced shroud depth of around 40mm and then add 38mm thick 120mm fans with grills, you end up with an heatexchanger that is around 5.25"-5.5" thick. That will fit in a lot of full tower cases with no problems (by full tower - I mean the old definition of full tower - one of those large cases with 6 or so 5.25 bays) but usually requires an external setup for midtower cases. Of course, if you are willing to give up a little performance, you can cut the height of the shroud down to about 1" and then use 25mm fans. That would make it about 4" thick or so.

4-40 threaded rods for core and shroud mounting -
Most lowes hardware stores carry these but it seems that most of the people that work in them have no idea where to find them in the store. lol.
no idea if this info will help sort that out but here is the info off of the package for the 4-40 threaded rods at lowes:

They show up on the receipt as: 137933 6" ALL THREAD #4
The package is a clear, plastic, sealed bag labelled:
HILLMAN
4-40
Threaded Rod
6 inch
H# 880995
137933

They are normally in the section with all the specialty fasteners (that aisle with all the drawers mounted to the wall that has stainless steel screws and the like).

Say Weapon, did you ever get your camera fixed? I'm still interested in those autopsy photos of a 2-342 you were talking about earlier in the thread. Of course, I know all too well that there's always more worthwhile things to do than time to do them.

Otter said:

Say Weapon, did you ever get your camera fixed? I'm still interested in those autopsy photos of a 2-342 you were talking about earlier in the thread. Of course, I know all too well that there's always more worthwhile things to do than time to do them.

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i have chopped up quite a few different cores now. I can't recall which ones these came from but here are some pics of the assorted carnage:

stripping off a layer:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/weapon/images/hci_layer.jpg
close-up of the same:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/weapon/images/hci_layercu.jpg
^if you check the mid-lower left of that pic, you can see the seam on one of the waterchannels opened up.
another shot with an arrow pointing to the opened up waterchannel:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/weapon/images/hci_waterchan_fins.jpeg

Thanks Weapon. I was mostly interested in an interior view of the tanks, as I'm thinking about switching the outlet to the other side for a more direct return route from the second of two 2-342s in series. (Yeah, I know, parallel is better, but there will be four cores, so I'll do that too ) I was also thinking about a less restrictive way of joining the cores than just plumbing outlet to inlet.

Sorry, I should have been more specific, but those are still very interesting pics. It's easy to see why heatercores outperform expensive tube and fin radiators.

Otter said:

Thanks Weapon. I was mostly interested in an interior view of the tanks, as I'm thinking about switching the outlet to the other side for a more direct return route from the second of two 2-342s in series. (Yeah, I know, parallel is better, but there will be four cores, so I'll do that too ) I was also thinking about a less restrictive way of joining the cores than just plumbing outlet to inlet.

Sorry, I should have been more specific, but those are still very interesting pics. It's easy to see why heatercores outperform expensive tube and fin radiators.

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fittings on a 342 can be switched from the front of the tank to the back of the tank but the one on the top tank has to be placed diagonally across from the one on the bottom tank or it will screw up the waterflow through the core.

Right. Otherwise the path through one side of the tank is shorter than through the other.

My pics in this thread will be down on October 31 and for a few days thereafter until the new server is up. I will have them back up as soon as possible.

weap

switching servers again. pics down for a few days but will be back up soon.

edit: pics (most of them anyway...) should be back up. checking old backup CDs for pics lost in the change-over. Looks like only a couple pics poofed -- none of the crucial ones.

been awhile since anyone posted here, but i'll try my question anyways... did anyone ever verify weapon's question on page 1??? do all 2-342 cores have the oval punch holes for the tubes entering the tanks?? how can you mod the barbs you add to fit in the oval holes?? just fill the sides of the barbs you add with jb weld or something?? or do most people just cut down the tubes allready there?? any info would be appreciated!!

Philup_Bowls said:

been awhile since anyone posted here, but i'll try my question anyways... did anyone ever verify weapon's question on page 1??? do all 2-342 cores have the oval punch holes for the tubes entering the tanks?? how can you mod the barbs you add to fit in the oval holes?? just fill the sides of the barbs you add with jb weld or something?? or do most people just cut down the tubes allready there?? any info would be appreciated!!

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Okay - so I likely should be hit over the head with a belated response award (and possibly a back from the land of the lost award) but someone else might have the same question so...

The oval punch out holes in the 2-342 cores (or in any other core for that matter) are a PITA to fill in. If you have some overwhelming desire to rid your 342 of the oval holes, the best way to do it is to cut a piece of copper or brass sheet that is just about the same size as the face of the tank, rough up the tank and the copper/brass sheet a bit and then solder the plate over the face of the tank to effectively seal the oval hole. You can then drill and tap the copper/brass sheet with whatever size/shape you need. It is a nice project if you want to waste a decent amount of time, possibly melt the solder seal on the top tank which will produce a leak and maybe get a few decent burns while trying to keep all of this together until the solder cools. Bonus: you will likely get to make much more noise with the Dremel and play with the torch longer than the next option.

Options 2 (generally referred to the sane approach). Go to the hardware store and find some threaded copper female pipe fittings that match up with the pipe diameter coming out of each end of the 2-342. Cut the original copper pipes coming out of the 342's tanks just a little longer than the depth needed to fully seat the female fittings over the pipes (3/4-1" if you want a little extra length for test fitting and a bit of room for trial and error). Rough up the outside of the tubes coming out of the tanks and the inside of the female fitting with some 400grit emery paper. Then clean off the pipes and inside of the fittings with alcohol (I use 91% as it dries faster and has a bit more bite than 70%). Silver solder or jb weld the female pipe fittings over the factory tubes. You can then thread whatever barbed fittings you want to the core with no probs.

Since this has become an Overclockers.com sticky I feel like this is the best place to post this data.

Somebody was recently asking about various heater core sizes so I've attached a db (*.xml and *.txt copy) of several heater core dimensions and another db of what vehicles the cores come from. I don't remember where I got these originally so I'll just put out a general Thank You for whoever assembled the originals.

I should also note, and maybe this is a re-post on my part, that I've been using heater cores on various loops for about four years now and I've never once added barbs to them. IMO, that particular part of the procedure is not required.


Otherwise, Thanks! Weapon - even in late 2010 people are still reading and using the information you've provided here ...!

QuietIce said:

Otherwise, Thanks! Weapon - even in late 2010 people are still reading and using the information you've provided here ...!

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High performance cooling that is relatively dirt cheap apparently never goes out of style.

Adding barbs is not entirely necessary - however, as many cores come with really thin and/or odd shaped tubes (for our purposes) adding barbs can make your life easier when it comes to plugging the core into your cooling loop and getting leak-free hookups with your tubing.

Yeah - I still check in every now and then. One of these days, my job will calm down enough to where I can be more active in the forums again. *fingers crossed*

Edit: I just noticed this thread has now been read more than 37,000 times....thanks to all who managed to tolerate my somewhat-often nonsensical ramblings.

weapon

Nice to see you dropping in weapon.

I recently had to get a new heater core to replace one that caught a pinhole in one of the tubes. I had bought it used and it ran for 3 years or so before it started leaking. It was a 77 Boinne with AC heat core and not the one w/o AC. The one with AC is around an inch or so taller and roughly 1/2 narrower than the 2-302. Instead of removing the tubing coming out if it, I just trimmed them back with a hacksaw and cleaned off the burrs and rounded the edges of the tubes. 1/2 inch ID tubing can then be forced over them (very tight fit) and a hose clamp put on instead of going through the hassle of modding it for barbs. Plus in the future if I decide I need barbs, I can probably just find some to slip over the tubing and sweat them on. And again, I was able to get the heater core for less than $30 with tax and I personally think they cool as good as a 120 X 3 computer rad.

Great to see you check in, weapon!


The sad news, or so I've heard, is that the newer units seem to be aluminum. I hope someone keeps making them in copper. Even if the price goes up to match the cheaper dual-rads (~$40) it would still be well worth it!

QI, the one I just bought from Auto Zone was copper. But that is the one for a 77 Bonnie with AC, which is a little narrower and a little taller. I went back with it because I already have a shroud to fit that model and didn't want to build another shroud for a 77 Bonnie HC w/o AC.

In retrospect, I apparently failed to add my most insane creation to this thread...this was the final version of the weapon monstercore (yes, those are SanAce120s...)...




cooling capacity - I have no idea - I could never get water temps more than a degree above ambient when I was testing it.