Bah! Water cooling

Mekrel · 8 Feb 2007 at 13:47

God damn, I think I'll stick to air in the future, this is too much hassle.

Why oh why is my system taking ages to bleed. 95% distilled water and 5% zerex and with the pump in motion it makes the coolant all foamy and a opaque pinky milkshake colour.

Pump off:

Right colour but some big air pockets and loads of little bubbles.

Pump on = milkshake :/

How long is this going to take?

Stelly · 8 Feb 2007 at 13:50

WOW... I have never seen it that bad ever... are you sure air is not getting in anywhere??

Stelly

w3bbo · 8 Feb 2007 at 13:53

Bleeding your system like that is gonna take some time as by the looks of things your pump is sucking bubbles back into the loop from the res. Also your radiator being that way orientated is gonna cause some air traps (air rises - barbs at bottom - no where for air to go).

Try placing your case 'motherboard down' (side panel down) onto the table as this should prevent less bubbles from re-entering your loop and also help bleed the rad quicker as air will then escape from the rad to the res and be held there as the suction barb will be at the bottom for the pump.

Bleeding will take time m8, just gotta be patiant and try not to let your pump got overun with bubbles as this can overheat it if there is too much cavitation for long periods.

Sparky · 8 Feb 2007 at 13:58

I used to leave the res cap off mine and surround it with Paper towel .Out of the case of course :]. This usually sped up the process.

malccy · 8 Feb 2007 at 13:59

Have you not ran it for a while with res top off and tilted etc (with top on obviously)?

Mekrel · 8 Feb 2007 at 14:05

w3bbo said:
Bleeding your system like that is gonna take some time as by the looks of things your pump is sucking bubbles back into the loop from the res. Also your radiator being that way orientated is gonna cause some air traps (air rises - barbs at bottom - no where for air to go).

Try placing your case 'motherboard down' (side panel down) onto the table as this should prevent less bubbles from re-entering your loop and also help bleed the rad quicker as air will then escape from the rad to the res and be held there as the suction barb will be at the bottom for the pump.

Bleeding will take time m8, just gotta be patiant and try not to let your pump got overun with bubbles as this can overheat it if there is too much cavitation for long periods.

Ok, but I'll have to close the res then as the fill hole is on that side, so water will just come gushing out.

Dreamcaster · 8 Feb 2007 at 14:17

Mine was like that. To sort it out i took the res cap off (to release trapped air) and put the pump on lowest setting and left it running for a while untill it was clear. Worked great.

Mekrel · 8 Feb 2007 at 14:21

The DDC pump I'm using doesn't have settings.

Right, webbo, which way do you mean? So that I can look into the side and see the motherboard, or look inside and only see the motherboard tray?

I put it on its side and then back normal again and a lot of air is hissing from the rad now.

sniper007 · 8 Feb 2007 at 14:24

Yeah make sur eyou run the pump only when water can get in and out of it otherwise will over heat. HAs your rad not got a bleedvalve/screw at the top? You need to keep at it and tilt the case about loads and take res cap off. You'll get there - be patient and try different angles and thing sto get it out. This is why I alwasy use a fill port right before the pump. Much easier and safer for pump.

Marci · 8 Feb 2007 at 14:43

Lie case on it's back as you have in your last pic. Turn everything off (inc pump)

Pull res out the front as far as you can so you can tilt it so that it's cap is pointing roughly upwards. Open reservoir cap.

Remove top CD Blanker. Open bleed screw on end of radiator. Water level should slowly drop in res, and a trickle come out the bleed hole in radiator. When it does, tighten bleed screw back up (gently - don't overtighten it - it's only brass so will strip easily, hence we provide a spare). Rad is now bled.

Tricky bit - getting the case the right way up without air leaving res and heading back to rad... with cap back on res, tilt it the other way... up towards the radiator... so all air in res is uptowards front of the res... then SLOWLY pull the front of the case forward and down onto it's base so it's sitting properly. Hopefully waterlevel in res won't have dropped below the barbs.

Top it up, seal it up, fire it up. Leave it running for 48hrs - bubbles / foam will settle.

Did you MEASURE the water & zerex or guess it?? Looks to be guessed - ie: little too much zerex. 5% zerex shouldn't be enough to tinge the water that color...

Zefan · 8 Feb 2007 at 14:45

I'm having very very similar thoughts at the moment. My tubing is as bent as a bottle of chips and I just really can't be arsed anymore. Seeing as a scythe would give me better performance with less noise (Just a fan instead of fan + pump) I might as well just sod it!

Mekrel · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:08

Marci said:
Lie case on it's back as you have in your last pic. Turn everything off (inc pump)

Pull res out the front as far as you can so you can tilt it so that it's cap is pointing roughly upwards. Open reservoir cap.

Remove top CD Blanker. Open bleed screw on end of radiator. Water level should slowly drop in res, and a trickle come out the bleed hole in radiator. When it does, tighten bleed screw back up (gently - don't overtighten it - it's only brass so will strip easily, hence we provide a spare). Rad is now bled.

Tricky bit - getting the case the right way up without air leaving res and heading back to rad... with cap back on res, tilt it the other way... up towards the radiator... so all air in res is uptowards front of the res... then SLOWLY pull the front of the case forward and down onto it's base so it's sitting properly. Hopefully waterlevel in res won't have dropped below the barbs.

Top it up, seal it up, fire it up. Leave it running for 48hrs - bubbles / foam will settle.

Did you MEASURE the water & zerex or guess it?? Looks to be guessed - ie: little too much zerex. 5% zerex shouldn't be enough to tinge the water that color...

Hi,

The Zerex was measured, I filled using 500ml each time. So measured 475ml distilled water and 25ml of zerex. Did this with a measuring jug and mixed it with a bit of spare tubing before filling up.

Thanks for the info, I will try this shortly. I have just tried some angles and a lot of the little bubbles have come out. Just got some massive gaps where no water is in now. Is this because of air or not enough water?

w3bbo · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:09

Mekrel said:
The DDC pump I'm using doesn't have settings.

Right, webbo, which way do you mean? So that I can look into the side and see the motherboard, or look inside and only see the motherboard tray?

I put it on its side and then back normal again and a lot of air is hissing from the rad now.

On its side so you can see the motherboard. The air hissing out of your rad is the trapped air...this is good as its bleeding off. What you are aiming for is this air to be transferred from the rad (and your blocks) to the res where the volume can be replaced with water. The escaping air will obviously be replaced with water which will need to be topped up from the res, make sure the 'output' barb in your res is completely covered with water i.e no air escaping back into your loop. The more air that is bled from your loop the more water will replace it and hence your water level in the res will drop - keep an eye on it or you will suck air back into the loop.

w3bbo · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:11

Mekrel said:
...snip

Thanks for the info, I will try this shortly. I have just tried some angles and a lot of the little bubbles have come out. Just got some massive gaps where no water is in now. Is this because of air or not enough water?

You will need to keep angling your PC so that the air bubbles travel towards your bleed point (Res). Air will always attempt to reach the highest point it can

Marci · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:17

Is this because of air or not enough water?

Both are the same thing. If there isn't enough water, then there will be air in it's place.

Marci · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:20

And if those are hiflow fittings as opposed to perfect seal fittings on the gpu block, then the clamps should be behind the lip of the fitting, not on it... otherwise it can suck air up the sides of the tube. Looks like those clamps need slackening, moving further down the fitting, then tightening back up again.

EDIT: Nevermind - no clamps there - optical illusion almost!

Mekrel · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:36

Thank you so much everyone, with a mixture of what you have all said, but especially Marci's idea has now got water everywhere in my loop with what appears to be no air.

I have however, got the waterlevel just a smidgen under the barb in the res so not going to run the pump.

So, just top up with more water yeah? Do you think I should just put some plan distilled in as the zerex appears too much?

Yet again, big thanks guys.

edit: Yes marci, no clamps although I wanted some. Stupid here bough some plastic clip clamps but forgot to get the right size (ie, wall thickness onto barb) and bough the size for tubing on its own. Doh!

Worst is, I ordered the right size

then thought I was wrong, canceled and ordered wrong ones. I'm an offical plank.

Marci · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:41

Heh - never mind, such is life. Shouldn't need em anyways if using 7/16" over 1/2" fittings. If that's the case, you don't need em on the rad barbs either...

Yep, just top up res with distilled water - don't add anymore zerex...

Mekrel · 8 Feb 2007 at 16:34

Oh dear lol,

topped up with distilled water so I had a lot of clearance above both barbs and same again (but no where near as bad) real ligh pink rushing water. Must be air somewhere.

So I unscrewed the rad bleed screw and heard a lot of air come rushing out, but i think some air came from other parts of the system so pushed water into res which was a tad open so lost some water through there.

bah! I'm sure I will get there in the end.

pegasus1 · 8 Feb 2007 at 17:49

Just confirm that you have the res going straight to the pump