Why do you barb the chevette heatercore?

[jesusphreak]

hey my stuff should all be in tomorrow or the next day and me and my dad were looking at the heatercore and he wanted to know y i wanted to put barbs in it y not just attach the hose to it, i was like, well that's what all the online guys do
but i started thinking, one side is 1/2" and the other is 5/8". Y not just put the tubing over the 1/2" one?
thanks in advance guys. Later

 

[Cutter]

Thats what i did with my heater core. I got 1/2 inch ID had to use some vegetable oil on the 5/8 side to get it on then use hose clamps just to be safe.

 

[Caeberos]

I put barbs on my heater core, because it simplifies installation of the tubing, and everyone else does it! Gotta follow the crowd

 

[dutchcedar]

If you have the right barb for the right hose, you don't need clamps and will have a safer connection. I happen to use stainless steel barbs I buy in bulk on eBay for pennies on the dollar, in lots of ten at a time per size... have half a dozen sizes... cheap and efficient.

 

[jesusphreak]

so pretty much it sounds like from the replies in the last hour or so it's just to make it easier?
well.... that's interesting, i was wondering if there was any performance difference or anything...............
anyone else?

 

[dutchcedar]

i was wondering if there was any performance difference or anything...............

None... it's just a hose connection, not a waterblock. But that doesn't mean every connection is a good one...

As long as flow isn't restricted... no performance hit whatsoever.

 

[TonyMc]

Because most of the time it's not 1/2" and 5/8". It's 5/8" and 3/4".
I just made a setup for my brother-in-law and had to use a 3/4" to 1/2" reducer to get the hose on untill I get around to putting barbs in it.

 

[Since87]

Adding barbs can make a huge difference in the flow resistance of your heatercore.

I (with much help from BillA, Les, and others) created an Excel spreadsheet that generates a reasonable approximation of the flowrate vs pressure drop curve of 2" thick heatercores at ProCooling.

You can read the discussion that went into it and download the spreadsheet here. (The spreadsheet was in the last post last time I looked.)

Depending on the ID of the barb, you can quite easily double the pressure drop due to the heatercore. (How significant this is to your cooling is very dependent on your waterblock and pump.)

If you can get the tubing over the heatercore's stock tubing, do it.

Edit:

Thought I'd add a graph showing what I mean.

The "Big Momma" is similar in size to a Chevette heatercore with 3/8" OD barbs. "Ralph's heatercore" is a Chevette heatercore without added barbs.

 

[Illah]

That's what I was just gonna say. Most barbs for 1/2" ID tubing aren't a 1/2" ID. What I mean is that a barb meant to fit inside a 1/2" tube is about 1/2" on the outside, not the inside. The ID of most barbs meant for 1/2" systems is 3/8".

In other words, get the tubing over the stock connectors.

A good trick noone mentioned is this: The max temp for most tubing is just under the boiling point. When you go over or near the max temp the tubing starts to soften or even worse melt. So what you do is get some hot *** water, like near boiling. Put the end of the tubing in the water for a minute, the it will stretch over the 5/8" connector easy, and when cooled it will be solid. Put a hose clamp to be safe.

I sounds more secure than having oil in the connections.

--Illah

 

[dutchcedar]

Try a little trick I use. Start measuring barbs by their inside diameter and you're problems with barbs will be solved.

But if you use Tygon smooth bore high purity tubing like I do, be prepared to slice the tubing off when you remove it.

 

[junkymagi]

I cut the copper tubing on my heater core back until it was only 1" long on each side and the OD of the tubing was 5/8" on both sides so I just changed my system to 5/8" tubing

One thing about going to 5/8" tubing is you can use the 1/2" copper elbows for cornering, I've got over 30 of these elbows in my system since I've got blocks on my cpu, NB, GPU and video memory. The flow has actually INCREASED from what it was when I was using 3/8" ID tubing and only one block on my CPU and no elbows.

Those 1/2" copper elbows aren't 1/2" OD, that's ID, the OD is over 5/8", probably around 3/4" since it was very hard to get the tubing on them. Even though the tubing was very hard to get over the elbows and I never saw a leak in the week it was running (until I tightened the CPU holddown too much and killed my CPU, turned it off then), I bought a bunch of those flat spring steel clamps from Yeager's hardware. Used wide nosed pliers to put them on all the elbows... just in case,

Clamps kind of like these except they are about 5/8" ID

 

[jesusphreak]

fine, sense you're all beating me up over it i will be forced to go no barbs
i've got 1/2 ID 3/4 OD tubing so it shouldn't be a prob getting it on either side, thanks a bunch guys.

 

[Owenator]

Shade tree way to soften tubing

Here's what I did:

First, I soldered some small peices of 1/2" copper pipe (1/2" ID ~5/8") od into my 3/4" OD heater core tubes.

Second, I chewed on the end of the tubing until it got kind of soft and slit it over the copper pipe. By "chewing" I mean that I bit down on it so it compressed flat and then rotated it slightly before the next chomp. It sounds bizzare but hey it works! Basically the deflection of the end warms and softens the tubing.

Don't forget the hose clamps because the tubing mught slip off the smooth copper as you attach other components

O

 

[JFettig]

owen, I did a very similar thing with mine, but I have the 89 camaro core, It has little connections to solder the 5/8" pipe in. Thats what I use instead of hosebarbs, It has a larger ID than my tubing

 

[Owenator]

Jon,

I tend to use 5/8" OD fittings now as much as possible to minimize flow resistance. I am trying to max flow as much as possible. I find that the 5/8" "stretch" does ruin the tubing for re-use though so clipping the ends is necessary for a system tear down and rebuild.

O

 

[altec]

Any online auto parts dealers sell Chevette heatercores?

I found one on the Advance Auto Parts site, but it is absolutely hiddeous. Any other really well performing heatercores that I can be looking for?

I found another at NAPA, and it doesn't look quite as bad, but the fitting are 5/8", and 3/4"...and I have no modding skills to put barbs on it...any suggestions?

 

[R.Rabbit]

try ebay

 

[Joe_Atlanta]

the fitting are 5/8", and 3/4"...and I have no modding skills to put barbs on it...any suggestions?

As noted above, you don't need a lot of modding skills. Hacksaw the lip off the copper tube. Heat your 1/2" tubing in boiling water to stretch over the tubes. Even easier if you run 5/8" or 3/4" tubing between the pump and the inlet.
or
Find some appropriate sized threaded pipe to hose barbs at home depot and JB Weld (metal epoxy) them on.
or
A radiator repair place can put barbs on for you. D-tek and Dangerden carry premodded heater cores $31 and up.

 

[Diggrr]

Well I don't use hose barbs because everyone else is doing it, I could care less (not that I don't love ya'll and everything).

I do it because I rebuild and remake my system every few months. Once you've expanded your tubing and it hardens, you should cut that section off anyway for best fit, and I hate to surrender even that much tubing. Worse yet, I'd hate to wait a week for a new section to arrive by FedEx because I have no slack.
Nothing in my system is permanent, not even the computer itself. My watercooling changes faster than nvidia or ati can release new cards (fast, huh?).
The only thing that's been constant in my 3 1/2 years at this 'sport' is the heatercore, and I've changed barbs on that 3 times now too.
Never satisfied.