[phantasm]

Ok, so stupid me decided to try and water cool the system in my sig (which is 1 week old).

I got everything plumbed up (took about 4hrs) and the hose clamps tightened. I started to fill my loop and all was going well. I checked for water anywhere near the connections and lo and behold, the Apogee is leaking. I don't understand how, the clamps are tight and the barbs are tight. But there it is leaking.

So I get to this piont and decide i need to drain it, wrong. I didn't plumb in a drain valve. I have no idea how to fix this problem, I know i need to drain it but how is escaping my mind.

Oh and to top it off, i think i damaged tarcer on the mobo to. I'm seriously just considering removing all this equipment and selling it. Way to much crap involved to just get it up and running.

Please, someone advise me. I'm freaking out.

[SiGfever]

Did you use a T-Line or a Res? Pictures would also help to suggest best drain point. Is the Apogee leaking at the barbs or at the seam?

[phantasm]

T-line. Wife left digi-cam at work to. lol.

I think the bars are leaking, but i know i tightened them down. I even tripled checked it.

[SolidxSnake]

Dismount a block, the pump, something you can move away from the components. Place it over a bucket, loosen the clamp, and pull/cut off the tubing and let the coolant drain into the bucket. Then tilt the system around to get the water into the bucket, out of components, etc. When you get most of the water out, take out each component one by one, disconnect tubing runs, and hold loose ones up to prevent water from dripping out, and then empty those components over the bucket to ensure all loose water is gone.

I don't plumb a drain line into my loop, I find it easy enough doing this.

[phantasm]

Originally Posted by SolidxSnake

Dismount a block, the pump, something you can move away from the components. Place it over a bucket, loosen the clamp, and pull/cut off the tubing and let the coolant drain into the bucket. Then tilt the system around to get the water into the bucket, out of components, etc. When you get most of the water out, take out each component one by one, disconnect tubing runs, and hold loose ones up to prevent water from dripping out, and then empty those components over the bucket to ensure all loose water is gone.

I don't plumb a drain line into my loop, I find it easy enough doing this.

Ok, doing this right now, how tight should my barbs be? Do i tighten them as tight as i can get them with a wrench? I'm re-tightening the apogee now, i'll jump the PSU in a minute and pump the water out the best i can.

The babrs on the radiator even have teflon tape on the threads and it leaked.

[SolidxSnake]

Barbs only need to be finger tight, maybe with a quarter or half turn with a wrench. Teflon tape should only be used with metal barbs. Plastic barbs, use silicone/RTV sealant (I believe). If you have o-rings on your barbs, you don't need any sort of thread sealant.

Don't pump the water out. You'll risk running the pump dry, which is to be avoided at all costs. Just let gravity do the work. You can put your mouth on one end of the loop, and blow through it to push the water out the other open end of the loop. Be sure not to get any coolant in your mouth though

[phantasm]

Ok, thanks for your help, the main crisis is averted. I got the Apogee off the mobo and removed the tray, i'll let that sit overnight before powering it up to make sure no damage was done.

The loop is drained, the parts are dangling from the case. Tomorrow is another day and i'll try and set it up again. I noticed you said finger tight and then 1/2 a turn. This is what i did and it leaked both at the apogee and the radiator.

I think i'll be wrenching it down and tightening the hose clamps as tight as i can (wihtout cutting the hose). I'll give it another shot seeing as this is the final step of my project, if it fails again though... there might be a hell of a sale in the Classifieds. lol.

Thanks again.

[dylskee]

Yeah, if you're using plastic fittings definitely don't over tighten them. Just as solid stated, finger tight and then a quater to a half turn with a wrench and that should do it. I wouldn't suggest selling the water cooling setup, just take your time and give it another try. It's well worth it in the end, don't give up.......

[Otter]

This is a fairly common problem with the Apogee. I don't have the block, but from threads like this one, I gather the barbs require more tightening than one would think. A quick search turned up this on switftech's website:

Originally Posted by Swiftnets.com

Install the fittings with their o-rings into the water block. Tighten each fitting until the flange of the fitting mates with the ledge of the waterblock, then lock it by adding ¼ to ½ turn.

Notice they don't say finger tight. They say flange to the ledge. Swiftech has great tech support, btw. If the problem continues, use it. They'll get it sorted for you.

And if it turns out you did damage that trace, don't despair. Traces can be fixed. Just be sure everything is good and dry before you power up your system again.

[myndlessdayz]

Don't sell and give up. Connect the loop out of the case and not connected to your components. Its a tedious job but worth it before something happens. I ran into the same problem when i switched the barbs on my storm to EKs but luckily I test ran it out of case. Its a good idea to use plumbers tape and silicone (although I don't use them I should). Good luck on it and hope you get better results

[phantasm]

Thanks for the info guys. Ok, I'm up, reested and fed. I'm filling the loop again but man is there alot of air in there. I can't seem to addd water without it spitting out the top because of the air bubbles. I've rocked the case back and forth as well but i can't seem to get the air out. lol.

[dylskee]

It actually took about 8~10 hours for mine to bleed!! One thing I learned the second time I filled the loop was putting the pump on low, that helped and cut the bleeding time in half. I'm not sure what kind of pump you have but if it is a variable speed then turn it down on the lowest setting for a while.

[phantasm]

It's an MCP-655. I can set it to low, the porblem though is i cant add water to the fillport. lol. The air bubbles are so frequent in the loop that i can add a couple of ml's of water and then it overflows.

edit:

Should you be able to hear the water going through the system? THe pump runs silent on 1 (obviosuly) but i can water moving around... normal or do i need to add more water?

edit:

System is running quiter now... no leaks.. crossing fingers.

edit:

This is Project Event Horizon, used to have a log but i had it deleted. Powder coating was just finished. This is how the loop is run right now: Pump -> Rad -> CPU. I'll be adding a VGA block at some point in the future. Fans on the rad are Yate Loons.

[SiGfever]

Tilt the case so it is on a 45 degree angle towards the back. This will position the rad's barbs so air can escape easier. I really like that tubing but I think I would have used it with a Swiftech Micro-Res for ease of bleeding and being able to check your water level.

[phantasm]

45 degrees. Got it. Well the system has been leak testing for ~4hrs. SO far nothing has dripped. I re-assembled the system because i wanted to test it out and see if that trace was damaged.

So far the system is running nicely. Idel temps are at 20c. Before on air it was around 27-28c. I haven't loaded it yet though.

One annoying thing i've noticed is that whe nthe system boots it halts and says "CPU Fan Error." I imagine it's because there isn't a CPU fan plugged in. Hopefully i can find a BIOS option to turn it off.

[kbtat2]

Man, that is one hell of a setup you got there. I have an Apogee as well and when I replaced my mobo I noticed a small pile of gummy stuff on my 7800 GS.
Turns out it was coolant that had been leaking out of the apogee and congealed. Nothing bad happened but I tightened those barbs down pretty tight after that. I really like that powdercoating on the case, how much did that run you?

[dylskee]

Looks nice phantasm, glad to hear your having some success. Yeah you can disable the cpu fan error in the Bios, just go to the pc health or something similar and disable the monitoring of the cpu fan. Nice case BTW, love the powder coat....

[Captain Slug]

If your pump is not speed adjustable it helps to turn off or unplug the pump once every hour, let it sit for a few minutes, then plug it back in.
It also helps to turn the case around in different orientations to make sure no bubbles are trapped in the loop (particularly in the radiator).

To drain that setup I would turn the case upside-down over a large cake pan, pot, or bucket then uncap the fillport.

[noxqzs]

to disable CPU fan in BIOS, go to:


POWER\HARDWARE MONITOR\CPU Fan Speed -> DISABLED

[phantasm]

Cool, thanks for the help guys.