Open the pump. Something I wrote long ago. Rinsing the GPU blocks is usually fine. Hot water, 10% vinegar, rinse final with distiled.
Just general info what you should do once a year to keep your WC at 100%:
Cleaning a loop, not a new loop: I do this once a year, I drain and refill at 6 months, the next time I do this……
Wash hands very well, getting rid of hand oils.
For pumps and blocks, fittings, clamps, acrylic res/block parts.... not hose, tear it to smallest pieces, put in a bowl, heat water up not to boiling add 10% vinegar, when hot, pour over parts. Rinse in 10 min or so. Put aside.
The blocks will probably have some black oxidation. Take the copper parts out of the pile of parts you took out of the water. Dry well and pour ketchup on them, and set aside. Only the copper parts need this.
Rad cleaning: fill with very almost boiling hot water. Let sit 10 minutes, drain half out and shake for 5 min. Repeat till liquid is clean. You can pour it in a clean bowl and inspect the water if you like.
All the pump, block, fittings, and clamps, inspect, get in the tiniest corners with a tooth brush. Kind of meditative, time consuming, you learn a lot about o-ring size, how it all feels. It’s very relaxing with some mellow jazz in the background. Run a rag using a coat hanger and dish soap through the tubing, rinse well. I always consider replacing my hose every year. Plasticizers leach out, the tubing isn’t as flexible. Consider it a ‘Hobby Cost’.
Rinse all the parts and hose with distilled, dry then really dry with an air compressor (nice extra step to get rid of water spots). Don’t need to dry the inside of the hose.
Now on to the copper parts, they should have been soaking an hour or two. A toothbrush and ketchup should clean much of the oxidation. It probably won’t be like new, but pretty darn good. Rinse, dry, and blow the parts.
That’s it.
Building a loop, if you forgot anything..........
Okay, here is the skinny on building a loop.
Guaranteed
Once all the stuff is there, cut a 3" piece of tubing and learn how to put it on a barb and clamp it. Better now than when it's in the PC. Exercize the clamps, open, close them a few times to make them smoother.
Barbs, tighten down to finger tight and 1/4 to 1/2 turn more. Look at oring, do it a few times to get the hang of it before it's in the PC.
Rad prep:: One of the most missed things. Boil sink water, let cool 5 min. Pour into rad filling it up, let sit 10 min. Drain 1/2 water or so, shake till your arms hurt, 3-4 min like a crazy man. Drain into a clear container. Do the rad dance again and again till the water from the rad is clear and no gunk once the water settles. Then do it two more times. NOW and only now is your rad 90% clean. No worries, the last 10% will come out in the next year or two when you redo your loop for maintenance. Oh and post a vid of ya dancin, be a fun thing to see. My wife asked me what the hell was I doing..........
Inspection: Open pump, look for gunk, packing material. Run sink water thru the blocks, pump, hose. Drain as well as you can, but don't freakaziod on draining. Inspect bottom of block, don't forget to remove the plastic cover!! Seen it done by pros, funny......
Inspect screws and holes, check they go together well first. Seen more than one bad HS screw broke in a bracket. Your rad screws might not work perfect, and DON"T put a screw through the rad, seen it done more than once.
Wash hands very well to remove any finger oils, in time it will stain your copper blocks. I wipe with alcohol before handling the stuff. Keep alcohol away from acrylic, it will crack it in time.
Install blocks on parts. Take it slow, even remove to check TIM contact if you want. Install hose, measure twice, cut once, make a bit longer if your worried, you can always cut it shorter. Dry mount everything, and inspect all clamps etc. Take a walk, watch a movie. Then inspect it again.
Unplug PSU from everything except pump. Turn PSU and wall power off. Jumper the 24 pin PSU connector green and ANY black wire. Insure PSU is off. Connect pump to PSU.
Add liquid to res till full. Turn PSU on, it should run dry in a second or two, turn PSU off. It's called bumping the pump. DO NOT LET PUMP RUN DRY, ceramic bearings needs water to stay cool. Fill res, do it again, and again till water is in the loop. Watch closely, a big bubble can hit the pump and no water. Then bumping the pump, tapping hoses, turning case etc till your sure you got solid water flow. Keep an eye on it for 15 min or so, then check every 15 or so to make sure the res has water to almost full and pump is running. Pump might make a whooshing noise as bubbles get pulled through it, no worries. Put paper towels around EVERY fitting, laying below the CPU block, below the pump etc, check in an hour.
If you get water/liquid all over the place, the parts need to be taken out (meaning Mobo, GPU etc), rinsed in alcohol, lightly scrubbed with a toothbrush, compressed air AND if possible blow dryed very very well on LOW heat, then left to dry for at least 24 hours. Pay close attention to the PCI slots if they get full of liquid. Compressed air helps a lot to blow them out.
By now it's late in the day, very late. Go to sleep with it running, check in the morning. Time to bump the pump, twist and turn, pinch a tube, tap rad SIDE with a screwdriver handle to break bubbles loose. Inspect the paper towels, turn it back on, run for an hour, inspect with a bright flashlight and bits of paper towels on every connection (barb and oring). No leaks? Turn er' off.
Connect Mobo and boot er up, go to bios immediately and check CPU temp. If good, boot up and check with your fav proggy, then load er' up and revel in the coolness of water and the quiet.
It could take a few days for the last of the bubbles to go away. Depending on your flow rate etc. Bumping the pump, tapping rad/hoses, pinching hose for a sec or two helps. Don't fret unless your temps are bad.
For a first time WC'er, better safe than sorry. I don't get this anal anymore, but my first time, I started Friday night, and finished Sunday. I was this careful and it's been great WC since.
