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Advice with running loop, mainly kinking concerns, pics!

N

n64man120

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
3,498
Well I'm setting up my loop and I've gotta say, this isn't as easy as it looks ;) That being said, luckily I'm working with Tygon, so I get as much bend as possible. Some of the things I'm trying to pull off are a bit tight, and I'm not sure exactly when the bend is considered a kink, since I know they should be avoided like the plague. On to the pictures...



In these two shots, I'm concerned about the line that goes from CPU->T-Line->Rad. It is a bit tight there, but from the look of the pictures it doesnt seem to be kinking, correct? I don't know if it's a slight thing that can kill your performance, or it's straight up obvious. Any suggestions on this run here? It was a bit difficult since that's where I've gotta place my T-Line, considered the bottom of loop but I don't want a long tube running verticaly up the case.



Here I'm focusing on the tube going from the T-Line, between the radiator. You can get a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve in the first picture, the tube is supposed to run between the heatercore's barbs, and it goes straight up to a fillport on top. The second picture gives you a better idea of the bend in my oppinion. This seems to be bending more than the others, would it be considered a kink that can not stay? Since it's the fillport, and water does not normally flow through it, is kinking ok provided the water will still work its way down there initally?


Finally a picture between the CPU and the GPU. Everything isn't connected, but it's close enough for a general idea I think, does the bend look ok near the videocard? *Sidenote* Check out the reflection on that maze4 ;)

Any help would be appreciated, I'm not sure what I'm looking for and what is ok and what is not.

Thanks
 
Everything looks fine to me, no kinks that I can tell. And it doesn't matter if your fill line has kinds in it, except when you are filling.
 
So I've heard, but having it at the bottom would mean a huge fill line which I don't want. I'm thinking since it's not going through the rad, just the 2 blocks prior to the pump, it wont be too bad.
 
If you see or feel anywhere that's really annoying you with slightly flat tubing, stick a zip tie (or 3) or hoseclamp right over the spot of the flattening to force the tubing to stay cylindrical and not kink. Right now your tubing looks fine, so don't lose any sleep over it.
 
Well I finished putting my loop together, and went to test-fill it. I don't have hose-clamps yet, but 7/16ID on 1/2ID is tight enough for now. I start to fill the fillport with my MCT-5 fluid, leaving the fill cable raised above the rest of the system. First few times it quickly overflowed on me, so I went slower... Working in a bucket (minimized the mess), flipping the loop around and twisting it let the water move through a bit, but for the life of me I could only get about half of the loop filled.

Also gravity says since everything is below the fillport, the air should rise, it didn't at all :( So after lots of fustration, I only could get it half filled and gave up. Pouring it back out into a cup, I managed to get some of it out, but once again... all the fluid wouldn't come out now. After pouring some of it back into the still half-full MCT-5 container, I started to notice it was very nasty. The light green liquid was now redish and had lots of dirt and crap in it.

Soooo, I think we can all assume my bottle of MCT-5 is a loss? (luckily it was free) I guess my first challenge is to get all the liquid out, then I can re-evaluate and figure how I'm gonna fill it. If it's this hard now, how does it all work once its inside the case?!

Please help!

Edit: Could the MCT-5 turning from green to red have been a chemical reaction with the copper or something? I may filter the liquid to get the dirt and impurities it has in it now, out.
 
shouldnt you off flushed it out 1st, theres a procedure on the overclock.com website that involves using listerine and pinesole?
 
Flushing it out with a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and white viniger will get rid of the crap in your system. It's always a good idea to flush a new sysem before filling it with your final mix, more so when using a heater core as there always seems to be some sort of gunk in them. Just running warm soapy water through them before you install them will get rid og the gunk.
 
Alright, few questions with that.

1) After filling the system with warm soapy water, can I turn the pump on the circulate the liquid? Or is that unsafe and will break it? I've got a DDC-12V and it says it CANNOT be run dry at all

2) Is normal water ok for a few minutes, or should I still use distilled?

3) Once working on getting it in, any tips for getting the system filled because anything I tried still left about half the system with air in it. Would it be safe to run the pump for a moment at all? I wouldn't want to try it since the directions specify operating it all without water can break it, and void the warranty.

Thanks
 
If you plan on running it with the pump, I would use the white viniger method instead, less soap foam and air.
Normal water is fine as long as you flush it with distilled water after you're done, which you should do after any type of cleaging anyway.
As for "T" lines, the smaller the tubing the bigger the pain in the ass they are. It's very easy to get air trapped in the lines and hard to work it out after there's a jam................ :eek: The trick is to fill it slow and easy, after the water gets to the pump, the rest is easy and bleeds quick.
 
I'm on 7/16ID so that's rather large. Few more questins nows

1) By flusing the system with water, and cleaning it with the vinegar/soap, does that just mean filling the system with it and then draining, or should the liquid be pumped around to clean it out?

2) You said once the water hit's the pump then your in good shape, are you referring to that as long as the inlet has a flow going to it, then I can turn it on to start circulating the liquid?

I guess the first thing on the schedule today is to try and get the MCT-5 out, alot of it is still stuck in the loop by the blocks and such, and it wont work it's way to the T-Line...
 
You need to be sure that there's water INSIDE the pump, I don't switch anything on till I see water at the inlet AND outlet side of the pump just to be 100% sure that the pump doesn't run dry.
To be sure that you get the most of the junk out, you should run the system for a minute or 2, it doesn't take long. Just with a "T" line it takes longer to drain and fill.
 
Alright, i'll have to keep playing with it. Problem is I think the maze4/tdx are so restrictive, i'm having trouble getting the water to go through them and procede into the pump, so it's just sucking air.
 
Well I'm having alot of trouble getting the water down to the pump so that I can circulate it...






Gravity says it should fill, but for the life of me, aside from completely flipping the loop upside down and such, I cant get the tube between the TDX and Maze4, and, Maze4 and Pump to fill more than 1/3 with water. Suggestions?
 
Gravity says it should fill, that's true, but you also have to have somewhere for the air to go or a outside forec to overcome the traped air. The water in the "T" line doesn't have enough weight to create enough pressure to overcome the trapped air. You might try filling it a little and then blowing into the end of the "T" line to force the water down to the pump.
 
Did think about that, I may give it a shot. But what about when I'm doing this with a 5% Antifree mix in the end... is that safe? lolf

Edit: Since theres nowhere for air to escape, it's impossible to blow into it without instant pressure in your mouth, so that's a no.
 
You could also disconnect a line at the end of your loop until it's filled............... :cool:
 
Bio-Hazard said:
You could also disconnect a line at the end of your loop until it's filled............... :cool:
Click to expand...


That's probably the best way. I remember having a real tough time getting my loop filled the first time I tried, and in any future watercooling I will do, I will ensure that I put a reservoir on the inlet end of the pump for easy filling. My friend does this, and his loops will almost instantly, and without problems.
 
If I disconnected the end, like at the radiator barb or something... then when its filled it will start to flow out untill I re-connect it. Wouldn't this be a problem when I'm working inside a case with parts???
 
Install it in the case, fill and bleed it and then install your parts............... :D Easiest solution would be to move the fill tube to in front of the pump or use a res. The way that you have the "T" line makes it hard to service the system. But when it's full it should be fine.
 
Yea to update everyone, I determined it would be physcially impossible to get the loop filled and running, short of disconnecting it somewhere else temperarily. I've got too much hidden wiring, and too small of a case to reaslisticly put hardware in afterwards. I gave up on the "ugly long tube in middle of case goin verticlly" fear, and put the T-line down right before the pump.

Now it was SUPER EASY to fill and get going. Few questions:

Most of the air is out, but most of the water is in a fine bubbly foamy state. Will this work out over time? It's only been running for about five minutes.

Also, coming out of the Maze4 gpu block the foam seems to be turning into a concentrated line, like most of the waters clear and its a tight tube of bubbles in the water. I assume that's just from how the block takes water through, since after reaching the pump it's back to the full tiny bubbly status.

Any concerns or will this all work out?


Edit: Sexy kinda :)
 
What Bio-Hazard said.

Easiest way to fill a system is to take one end of the tubing off, so the water can push the air out, lol

I had a bitch of a time filling my setup the first time cause I used a res, the 2nd time it was a res, but I disconnected the tubing at the end so it wasn't so hard to fill. The 3rd time I used a T-Line, didn't have to disconnect anything, but, I did require lots of time and patience to wait for it to fill and so forth.

The good thing about a T-Line though, is that it automatically bleeds the air out of your system, where as in a Resevoir, you have to keep filling up the system until its done.
 
Well I've got my loop mounted on some blocks of wood, running to check for leaks. Any suggestions how to find a leak? I'm planning on checking periodicly, and I placed paper towels below the setup. Is the 24 hour rule to get the air bubbles out, or to be perfectly sure it won't leak? So far it seems rock solid, but I've only let it run for a couple hours. I've put hose clamps on everything, since my last pics, as well.

More technical question: I filled my system with the non-conductive MCT-5 fluid initally, and it got some gunk in it from the heatercore which it cycled through. I ran the liquid through a very fine paint strainer, and it got the big chunks of dirt and sand out. However when I look at the liquid, particularly in small quantities since it appears to sink to the bottom, I see super tiny particles like a sparkle in the water. Should I be concerned to let this ever so slightly contaminated liquid run through my system for the next year, or is it so tiny that it will be fine?
 
I wouldn't use it like that, you could try running it theough a new coffee filter or 2, that should take most of the gunk out. Remember that the jets on the Storm block aren't really all that big and you don't want to take a chace on plugging any of them up.
 
Well I have TDX, not storm, but I'm using the #5 spray accellerator nozzel anyways so same idea. I'm talking particles too tiny to feel or touch, they are just teeny tiny specs glistening in the fluid. I may try another filter, or a piece of cloth as well since it will be tougher for the fluid 's particles to filter through
 
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