Am I screwed?

[TwoTone]

So I'll admit I haven't done a great job of maintaining my loop. I'd check it every so often, but this last time the water had gone from clear to black in a month.

You can see the growth in the GPU block. That I can take apart and clean, I'm worried about the radiator. Even with a back flush there's no way to know how clogged it is. I'm I better off just getting a new rad?

 

[Mr.Scott]

CLR for the rad.

What did you use for coolant?

 

[TwoTone]

CLR for the rad.

What did you use for coolant?

The EK stuff that came with the kit. It was concentrate, but I used distilled water.

Now if I'm being honest the fluid has to be over a year old, I just kept checking it and figured as long as it was still clear it was all good.

I bought some fittings and a ball valve to make fluid changes more often easier.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I'm surprised it gunked up that quick.

 

[JRZoid]

That is Nasty....Yeah clean it and dump a little Glychol in. I know it was ek's cryofuel...stuff got real cloudy in there after about a year and a half couldn't see through the hoses...

 

[Silver Surfer]

So I'll admit I haven't done a great job of maintaining my loop. I'd check it every so often, but this last time the water had gone from clear to black in a month.

You can see the growth in the GPU block. That I can take apart and clean, I'm worried about the radiator. Even with a back flush there's no way to know how clogged it is. I'm I better off just getting a new rad?

View attachment 202941

There is no perfect water cooling setup, ***** Happens, just clean it and put it back in service, you're not screwed.

 

[TwoTone]

I guess I should have phrased my question better. My concern is the rad. If I don't get that completely clean- wouldn't that contribute to the growth happening faster the next time ?

Would you all bother taking that risk or just replace the rad. Scott mentioned CLR, but their own FAQ says to not use it radiators.

 

[maxfly]

ive used it in rads/blocks many many times without anything happening. well other than the rad/block coming out nice and clean. matter of fact i just used it in a hwlabs 240gtr. i doubt they are referring to our little rads. more than likely they are talking about car rads.

fill it full of clr wait 5 mins. shake the hell out of it. drain it out into a clear bowl so you can show off the crud that comes out. then rinse it really well with tap water 4 or 5 times until the clr is gone. rinse one more time with distilled and your ready to put it back in the loop.

 

[Silver Surfer]

If you use CLR just rinse it out real good and get all the CLR out, overkill with rinsing is good in this case.

 

[Nebulous]

Another reason why I only use distilled water and a biocide (PTH-Nuke). My loop has been in service since I built it new. I think I may have flushed my loop out twice since then. Everything crystal clear with the exception of the fins on the rad which collect dust/lint. When i do a complete wash/flush I use CLR and plenty of hot water. Turn on my tunes and do the radiator shake and dance. I get a good workout and my rad/parts come out squeaky clean. Win win!

 

[larryccf]

what Maxfly said about CLR "... i doubt they are referring to our little rads. more than likely they are talking about car rads." X2. Car radiators are for the most part aluminum - i used CLR in a 25 yr old Honda tractor radiator (surprisingly all copper, tanks and cores) and had no issues. I play with restoring the older water cooled honda lawn tractors, and on the next radiator, i used about 75% distilled water & 25% white vinegar mix - saw the same result as the CLR. Both radiators had a white crusty calcium looking build up inside

fwiw

 

[Stoneyman101]

Wow, looks like the corrosion is eating away at the metal.
That's the worse I've seen. Made me look at mine-lol
like others here have said, just distilled water and some biocide

 

[wagex]

Another reason why I only use distilled water and a biocide (PTH-Nuke). My loop has been in service since I built it new. I think I may have flushed my loop out twice since then. Everything crystal clear with the exception of the fins on the rad which collect dust/lint. When i do a complete wash/flush I use CLR and plenty of hot water. Turn on my tunes and do the radiator shake and dance. I get a good workout and my rad/parts come out squeaky clean. Win win!

a little late, but for future reference since the thread seems popular, i too use distilled (recently switched to reverse osmosis for topping off) and pt nuke but i also use a kill coil, but i broke mine down for the first time in 4 years and it just had a couple little pebbles in the cpu block everything else pristine i just dumped the pebbles out and put it back together even the copper was still good with almost no corrosion.. maybe a little darker than new. i think the pebbles (pink) are what's still remaining of what ever the original owner like 8 years ago put in the radiator, my water is still pink after several flushes and soaks, oh well what ever it is isn't too bad lol.