Oops...Screwdriver = Through Radiator...

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Dillusion

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 21, 2003
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So i was being myself the other day and tried to force a screw into my radiator while modding it. And the scredriver didnt hit any of the veritcal lines, but all the little horizontal thing pieces of whatever that go back and fourth between the vertical pieces got dented and some broke off. It didnt even go straight through, just dented those mini-fins and knocked one of them off the soldering.

Is this going to cause a leak? or does water only stay on the bottom where the barbs are, and not travel through the whole rad...
 
If you look at the rad, you'll see pipes running through the center of those tiny fins. The pipe is what holds the water. If you didn't get that deep, your fine. If you messed up a lot of those little fins, then you'll have a rad with degraded performance for cooling. If you didn't mess up that many and were able to straighten most of those out, then you probably won't notice a difference.

Chances are you won't have a leak. If you question it, then take the rad outside the case (if it's not already) and hook it up and run for a couple hours to see. If no leak, you're good...if you have a leak...time for a new rad. ;)
 
I did the same thing to mine also. As long as you didnt hit the middle bars, you will be fine. No leaks here!
 
I on the other hand was not quite so lucky. just punctured my brand new bip2. :( is it worth trying to patch this thing?
 
Will there be blantantly clear leaking if you puncture it? *Worries about sticking allthreaded rods though*
 
n64man120 said:
Will there be blantantly clear leaking if you puncture it? *Worries about sticking allthreaded rods though*
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The key word here is gently..........;) gently screw the rods through using a little pressure and you'll be fine, I've never had a problem usinf this method so far..................:)
 
XtuRmN8r said:
I on the other hand was not quite so lucky. just punctured my brand new bip2. :( is it worth trying to patch this thing?
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if the hole isn't that big, I'd try patching it. It isn't like a car radiator where you have to deal with really hot water/steam.
 
i was on mcguyver, he had to repair a car rad hit with bulletholes. all he did was put egg whites in there. sure it won't work for you becuase its got nowhere near the same heat
hope everyone learned something today
 
Yeah my 'main' vertical tubes werent ddamaged, only the thin cross-bar pieces got smushed and torn off their solder points...but hopefully all is well.
 
In that case, sounds like you just got the fins and not the passages. You could always fill it up with water, plug one hole with your finger and blow into the other. That's my super quick test method :)
 
There easy to fix if you put a hole in it, you can use silver solder, just heat up the radiator well and let some of the solder flow into the hole ( if there is one)
Just make sure to prep it right and that its clean and you will have a fix that will be top notch.

I patched a 1/10 " hole in a black ice rad and it was cake to fix
 
ya, i did pretty much the same thing, trying to jam some oversize screws through my new BIP2 and then my dog jumped off my bed and hit me in the back, screwdriver slipped and put a good dent in the fins, again luckily it didn't puncture, no leaks so far.....
 
is silver solder a specific brand of solder? if so, would every brand work? Thanks :) (PS, I have golden solder brand solder :p :p )
 
you can just use any kind but i would recomend a rosin core and using the liquid/gell flux on the area so its clean. resualts will be much better .
 
guzmanistan said:
i was on mcguyver, he had to repair a car rad hit with bulletholes. all he did was put egg whites in there. sure it won't work for you becuase its got nowhere near the same heat
hope everyone learned something today
Click to expand...

They did this on Mythbusters, it actually worked.
 
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