My DIY Liquid Cooling System

[pdxer1]

Just bought this yesterday in the want to DIY myself a water cooling system. 86 Camaro Heatercore picked up at Autozone for $16.99usd. No shroud or mounting equipment, so I must fabricate most of this build. It fits on the top of my Antec 300 with less than a 1/4 inch of case appearing from both sides if your looking down onto the top of the case. This will make it easier to mount a shroud around it. There is not much room inside the Antec 300 to mount the heatercore and I don't want to cut "any" of the case other than where the tubes are going to have to go through the top case panel. However, I don't mind drilling holes in some areas of the sides of the top panel, than tapping them with threads for securing a shroud.

The Antec 300 has a 140mm fan port in the top of the case. I can use the pre-drilled fan screw holes for mounting the heatercore. With a 140mm 3spd fan on top of the heatercore, screws will have to be shoved through the top fan, through the heatercore, through plastic or other martial spacers, through the case fan screw holes, on through the case 140mm 3spd fan, where nuts can be used at the bottom of those screws inside the case. Where they can hide.

I'll have to use some kind of washer between the spacers and heatercore to keep the spacers from crushing the heatercore grills. The fan I want to get for the top is very thin, so it will have a nice low profile sitting on top the heatercore. The inlets and output on the heatercore will face to the front of the case so that the tubes will be able to go straight down into the case. I really don't want much of the tubing outside the case at all. I will be using a 10oz. Stainless steal reservoir and I want that located inside the case as well, it's small and has many places it can go inside my small case. With the SS reservoir next to a fan pushing cool air on it, it would than act as another cooling device for the liquid.

So for now, all I have is the heatercore, the right length of screws and I'll be picking up the black polymer spacers and washers Monday. I can go to the local hardware store and pick up tubing rated at 45 psi in either 1/2" or 3/8" id, but I need to get a pump first before I decide on what tube id I'm going to use.

If you guys have any great links for quality parts(barbs, quick-fit, pressure fit, compression fittings, plastic elbows of 45* & 90*, mounting solutions, loop diagrams and anything I might not have thought of) to aid in such a project, please drop some links... DIY is great!

 

[Conumdrum]

Your biggest worry at this early stage is a thin fan doesn't have enough pressure or CFM to get the benefits of a heater core. HC rock, they just need lots of air to cool. The fins are VERY dense, so consider a 38mm deep HS fan blowing into the case.

As far as fittings for the rad, whats the OD of the pipes coming off the rad? And depends what hose ID you want to run. No reason ya can't just slip the hose over the pipe and clamp it down, true DYI ghetto, it does work.

Otherwise, the rest of the build is a standard WC loop. Plenty of info all over the place here and other forums.

 

[Bobnova]

You might consider grabbing the heater blower fan thing out of a car as well, they move a tremendous amount of air and aren't too noisy at low speeds, plus they run on 12v

That'd blast a hurricane through that heater core. Sure, it's a bit overkill, but whatever.



If i ever go water cooling i'll probably use an entire civic radiator.

 

[pdxer1]

It will have a 140mm 3spd below the rad inside the case, exhausting, pushing air upward, with a 140mm 3spd on top the rad to pulling air through the rad. Think I should up the fan size that sits on top the rad?

I can get 1/2" OD barbs that will fit in the pipe pretty snug, but I'll sweat weld those into place, than pressure test the rad. 40psi should be enough test pressure.

 

[Perseus]

Your biggest worry at this early stage is a thin fan doesn't have enough pressure or CFM to get the benefits of a heater core. HC rock, they just need lots of air to cool. The fins are VERY dense, so consider a 38mm deep HS fan blowing into the case.

I'd suggest a 120x38mm fan as well. However, people have gotten by just fine with cores for a very long time using standard 25mm thick fans. The trick is to use a shroud, like this baby. The cool thing about heater cores, even with all the modern rad options available, is that they still stand up pretty well, if prepared and kitted properly.

 

[pdxer1]

Was able to cut and prep the radiator setup before work this morning.

 

[jr1]

looks good exept for the plasticbarbs on there
i'll recomend changing those for some out of metal

 

[cadman420]

Those plastic barbs tend to break off right at the base leaving the threaded part still in the pipe. I would go with SS ones.

 

[thorilan]

something you can do to help out on dense cores ( i did this on one of my personal builds) is to make all fan intake except the HC exhaust fan . i was using 2x 25mm evercool aluminium fans in push pull ( i know you dont want to do that) and i had them on a rheo to control noise .

btw the core you have is a pretty good one but you probably want to make sure that you clean out the fins . even new i have found stuff lurking inside (well that goes for internals as well).

 

[Bobnova]

That's a very good idea. Also make sure you keep them clean, the denser the fin count the more quickly it'll get plugged up with dust.
In my house i'd have to clean something like that every two months at the most, assuming i had solid airflow through it.
My house has horrible dust though, so you can probably go longer.

Beyond that, it looks like a very good core, and i second the motion of getting metal barbs. The concept of a barb breaking and flooding the computer is a scary one.

 

[dark bishop]

i use a 77' boneville heater core and can attest to having to clean it regularly, i keep my cpu at 43*C under full load, ill probably add my gtx285 to it also.

 

[pdxer1]

I'll look into some metal fitting, that's a scary thought... Eek!

I'm using 3/8Id-5/8Od for my tubing with anti-crimp cover where I have to have the tube bend. I did not see any 3/8 metal barbs at the hardware store, but that was just one of the various stores in my area. I'll check around!

I've already wired out the fines, was not much in between them. My place never gets to dusty and with a raised push-pull idea I have with a 140mm & a 120mm blowing upward I don't think It will get much dust buildup at all. The way my case fans cool my case now I rarely see dust!! (My exhaust runs faster than my intake.)

 

[JLK03F150]

Look for brass fittings. Steel fittings in contact with copper will cause electrolysis & corrode quickly.

 

[pdxer1]

I'll look into some metal fitting, that's a scary thought... Eek!

I'm using 3/8Id-5/8Od for my tubing with anti-crimp cover where I have to have the tube bend. I did not see any 3/8 metal barbs at the hardware store, but that was just one of the various stores in my area. I'll check around!

I've already wired out the fines, was not much in between them. My place never gets to dusty and with a raised* push-pull idea I have with a 140mm & a 140mm blowing upward I don't think It will get much dust buildup at all. The way my case fans cool my case now I rarely see dust!! (My exhaust runs faster than my intake.)

*I plan on having the top rad mounted fan spaced 3/8" above the flat laying rad, not sitting on it. The fan that will push from the bottom will be inside the case and about an 1" from touching the rad. I'm designing a shroud for the system now. It will have side intake slits the full 360 diameter, each being an 1" tall. It will hide the rad and allow the 3sp 140mm fan to be mounted inside of it. Making the package look nice and clean... So is how I hope it comes out. I'm designing it, my friend is going to fabricate it in his shop, but he is a great machinist/fabricator, the work I've seen of his has been quality for years.

 

[Junglebizz]

Couldn't you cut the elbow bend off of that one pipe to straighten it out?

 

[Owenator]

I use plastic fittings all the time and have had zero problems. You can get them in all kids of great sizes at boating supply stores. Nice build!

 

[thorilan]

Couldn't you cut the elbow bend off of that one pipe to straighten it out?

yes you can but unless you are EXTREMELY carefull you could cause a leak at the joints in other places while trying to torq the tubes straight. with the right tools and technique ( proper heating ) you can do it but you need experiance before you want to do it on something you just spent money on

 

[pdxer1]

Not only that, heating such a small pipe could cause the joint solder on the rads reservoir to melt and cause a leak and than unwanted repair.

Couldn't you cut the elbow bend off of that one pipe to straighten it out?

I thought about that, but I also didn't want to have two holes in my case for the tubes to go through. Ironically, I have too cut two holes for my case to make the slightly larger slot!

$110 with coupon. Very excited!

• Danger Den - MAZE5
• DD-CPX-Pro 12V Pump
• Feser One - UV BLACK Illusion
• Silver 5

 

[Diggrr]

A couple tips for heatercores if you'd like:
*The tubing on them is usually 5/8 OD, and so is 1/2" copper plumbing pipe..a direct replacement.
*Brass male thread hose barbs are 5/8" ID inside the threaded collar usually, so they'll solder right onto the pipe without an adapter cluttering things up. I've even ground the male threads off to make it purty and custom looking, but grind slowly so the brass doesn't clog the grinder wheel.
*You can fill the heatercore up to the fin area with water while the heatercore is held in a vice (bundled with rags to protect it from dings). Then solder away. The water will keep the existing solder from remelting. Do not fill it up to the holes you're soldering on though, as you won't be able to get the hole metal heated enough to solder well.

If you like the plastic barbs, it's no sweat. Used them for years myself, and can't really see how people have broken them.

 

[pdxer1]

I was able to get the brass 1/2 NPT to 3/8 barb for pocket change. Same with a brass 3/8 t-junction. Wont replacing the plastic with metal actually help with cooling the water, just ever so slightly? Also, the 3/8 brass barbs have a bigger id than that of the plastic 3/8 barbs!