Question about radiator damage.

G

Gorilla

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 14, 2007
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Ok, long story straight, I'm picking up some water cooling stuff from a local guy. I'm getting a XSPC RX360 for $10 which is pretty swell. The only thing though is he says there are holes in some of the fins because when he attached the fans he used screws that were too long. I don't know anything about the flow path of water on water cooling radiators, but is there any chance that he somehow punctured it so that it leaks? Or did he just ram screws between the fins? I tried to get an explanation from the guy but it he wasn't really clear. He mentioned maybe using jb weld which got me thinking.

So long story straight, if you took a RX360 and screwed long screws through it, what would happen?
 
If he just got the screw through the fins, then it's fine. The water flows through tubing between the fins. If he punctured the tubing, then I wouldn't touch it.
 
So theoretically if the screws were long enough and he tightened them down far enough he would hit a tube between the fins?
 
rustygunner said:
Right. Been there, done that... stoopid me. JB weld fixes stupid, fixed mine at least.
Click to expand...

So just to clarify. If you use too long of screws you will puncture the radiator? It will leak? Is it an easy fix with jb weld? I'm just struggling because I've never actually handled a WC radiator so I can't think about what I would actually need to do.
 
It's best to bypass the damaged radiator, without seeing close-up photos, it's difficult to say if only the fins are damaged (no problem), a tube is punctured (big problem = leakage) or both.

Especially seeing you're only starting out with WC -> of course it is possible to have it sealed off, but the efforts would not be worth the trouble - just buy a new rad, which you know will work without any headaches.
 
JapaneseGorilla said:
So just to clarify. If you use too long of screws you will puncture the radiator? It will leak? Is it an easy fix with jb weld? I'm just struggling because I've never actually handled a WC radiator so I can't think about what I would actually need to do.
Click to expand...

There are water channels between the small fins on a radiator.
It's not so much the length of the offending screw as where it contacted the radiator.
Fins bent, who cares.
Water channel opened......well......it will leak like a big dog.

If the guy will let you, take the radiator home and test it out. Take some tubing, hook it up and run it on a pump for an hour or so.

If you see only a small leak in one spot, place some JB Weld (available at any Tractor Supply) on ther spot and you're good to go.

But if you want to do this right......buy a new radiator..........best place.........Sidewindercomputers.com
 
So the short of it is if the screw hit a fit and bent it, no big deal, but it it went between the fins, bad news bears and avoid.

I'm meeting the guy on Wednesday, so hopefully it doesn't leak. Worst case scenario I'm out $10.

Thanks for the help.
 
If it hit a fin, fine. If it hit between the fins, which is where the water channels are, then it is not fine. Fins get damaged all the time, it's common and normal. Him selling for $10 makes me believe that it's not just the fins that were damaged, it's the water channel as well.
 
Tsumi said:
If it hit a fin, fine. If it hit between the fins, which is where the water channels are, then it is not fine. Fins get damaged all the time, it's common and normal. Him selling for $10 makes me believe that it's not just the fins that were damaged, it's the water channel as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that line of reasoning makes sense.

This pdf is exactly what I was looking for.
http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3831109860205.pdf
 
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