Back to air for me (be careful with your heater cores)

[grunjee]

Last night tragedy struck, the sad thing is it was my own carelessness.

I was working on my box and wanted to switch out my Nidec fan (cooling my Heater Core) for my Panaflo to reduce the noise. So I'm putting the bolts down through the fan grill, fan, shroud and HC just like I've done 100 times before.

Somehow I must have nicked one of the channels/tubes because water started trickling down the side of it. Now my HC is useless.

I went ahead and sold my pump and block. I can't afford another HC (please don't refer me to the junk yard, I can't solder barbs or anything) this month, and honestly I'm afraid I'd do the same thing again if I got another HC.

Guys this is a sad day for me, I am gonna miss watercooling. I feel so cheap, so empty now just having a heatsink. No more 2.10 Vcore for me... no more 500 MHz overclock... *breaks down*

I've never fried a chip or vid card or anything... this is my first time losing a piece of hardware... man it sucks.

 

[SkiFletch]

I hate to say it dude, but holes in heatercores can be patched easily and reliably with jbweld, you didnt need to ditch it. a tube jbweld is like $5 at a hardware store if I remember correctly

 

[wildfrogman]

Yeah, welcome to the world of epoxies. Crazy stuff that can stick stuff together almost as tight as a weld if not stronger in some cases. JBquick takes around 4 minutes to set and 4~hours to harden unless you put it under a halogen lamp and cook it.....1 hour later heheh all done. Menards, home depor etc i have seen for around 4 bucks so look into how to use epoxies and fix it right up. Hope this helps.

 

[Turando]

bit of a drop out buddy, and u must of gave it some "whack" to break a copper tube, ive had a car fan plough through a heatercores fins and even dented the tubes but not break them u shouldent have given in that early, sounds like there was another reason because a teeny hole in a heatercore wouldent even make me think about giving up....

Cheers, Turando

 

[ThePunkGeek]

if you got a HC from the junk yard or a car and it had 5/8 copper pipe you can fit 1/2 tube over them without worring about leakage.

 

[brodo]

that was one sharp screw!

well I have fried 2 cpus, and they cost more than your whole water system put together so don't feel too bad.

and if you do, I'll add this to the pot:
ruined GeForce 2 (actaully broke some lines, but I used conductive ink and reactivated it!) but I was down for a couple weeks and many attempts before I fixed it.
ruined Epox motherboard (this one is still down... similar issue too, ran my screwdriver across some lines)

with the vid card I never gave up and got it working again (hell it is a good card) and the motherboard I am still working on when I have time - ain't no way I am giving up on it (even though it is a kinda crappy board)

GET BACK ON YOUR HORSE MISTER! don't let a little slip like that take you out of riding the water cooling beast!

 

[wymjym]

like I've done 100 times before.

maybe that is where the problem lies,
each time you wore a little metal away?
anyway..unless you are looking for a reason to leave watercooling using jb weld is a viable/reliable repair.
wj

 

[[EG]~NaTz~]

come on man ive lost some hardware nothing big an old k6-2 board i ripped a capacitor off it. i would have re soldiered it but i lost the thing....

 

[grunjee]

What the hell, can I really just patch it up that easily?... I had no idea. I honestly thought it was beyond repair, otherwise I wouldn't have sold my stuff.

Although how in the world could I do it?... I mean, this is kinda hard to describe, but the leak is somewhere within the "maze" of the fins and junk, below the surface... I can't even see it... there is no way I could stick my finger in there, the opening is too small (just as wide around as a bolt, about 1/4"). It looks like I'd need some kinda probe with a camera on it or something to be able to find where the leak is.

Ok, so there might be some hope... now I need suggestions on what to do next.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

 

[wymjym]

It won't look pretty but use some little wire snippers and cut the fin material away from the area of leakage. Even removing a few fins isn't going to affect your cooling. When you can see the damage...clean it...JB weld it...wait 24 hours...and you are back in business (except you no longer have the other pieces....)
wj

 

[grunjee]

It won't look pretty but use some little wire snippers and cut the fin material away from the area of leakage. Even removing a few fins isn't going to affect your cooling. When you can see the damage...clean it...JB weld it...wait 24 hours...and you are back in business (except you no longer have the other pieces....)
wj

Yeah that sounds like a good plan about clearing away some of the fins.

I've never used JB Weld, have no idea what it is. Is it just some kind of "goop" you apply and just let it dry? Guess I'll be heading to the hardware store soon and ask the guys there about it.

Also wymjym -- maybe you're right about the bolts slowly eating away as the tubing or whatever, maybe that caused the leak, who knows. But then, say I patch the leak with JB Weld... won't it just erode that away in time?

 

[MajinSSJVegetto]

in a HC the air goes through the little rectangles.

If you cuoldnt use a toothpick to cover just the cut, you could just epoxy off one rectangle pass through area.

 

[wymjym]

jb weld is a two part epoxy...mix one with the other and apply it to a 'clean' surface, let it cure the specified amount of time and that is it.

I would peel off about 1" of fins so that I could get at it and make sure you smear enough jb on and around the hole so that it plugs the hole and has a large enough surface to adhere to. Too little is bad in this situation.
You should probably look at the other mounting areas as well.
wj

 

[juliendogg]

could just pick up a chevette or equivalent h/c at an auto parts store brand new for under 20 bucks. think mine was $16.99. certaintly not enough of a loss to make me go back to aircooling.

 

[wymjym]

could just pick up a chevette or equivalent h/c at an auto parts store brand new for under 20 bucks. think mine was $16.99. certaintly not enough of a loss to make me go back to aircooling.

I agree...unless you need some special sized unit I would purchase a new one and be careful (more) how you mount it.
wj

 

[Frodo Baggins]

you can go get a new heatercore (10 bucks) used, get 2 barbs (3 bucks) and just glue it on wither with JBweld or some goop

 

[country_3030]

You could just use some model glue if you let it set. That is if it is not a high pressure system.

 

[gulp35]

The epoxy can dry even quicker if you need it to. My Dad is a chemical engineer that makes epoxies that cure [dry] under UV light. Of course this isn't your normal UV light this is like space levels of UV. They usually use these on premanufactured furiture and magazines as lamanents.

 

[grunjee]

Cool, I appreciate all the comments and guidance. Plus all those who've railed me for "giving up" so quick -- it shows your true commitment to watercooling

 

[lebe0024]

WHACK! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN!