Car heater cores ?

threedee

threedee

threedee

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Been reading some things about using heater cores instead of rads, however most sources were american and discussed american car parts.

What about european cars ? By european i mean european market cars. Which cars have suitable parts for this purpose ?

Been digging about Valeo catalogue, they denote some parts as being CU (copper), but most are Aluminium... No info if the valeo parts are copper that are denoted as CU, or are for replacement of OEM part that was CU...
 
using heater cores is really old school watercooling.
It works - but current rads are only a little bit more expensive that raiding the scrap heap. (large lumps of copper and ally are premium scrap atm)
Also you have the issues with tube size and external rad boxes.
You also need fast / high static pressure fans as the cores usually thick and have very high FPI.
 
think some are ideal for pc. someone in the oc.uk water cooling thread got a small heater core that looked more like it was made for pc . but just stay away from anything alu or mixed and flush the bugger good and proper
 
I like to diy some things, hence interest in heater cores. Plus i can always go to scrappy for some parts... But i need to know what parts to look for. I know aluminium is bad, hence i need to know what cars have good sized copper rads...
 
As mentioned heater cores are far too dense to work well. If you want your cooling to sound like a car with its internal heater fan on full go for it, otherwise be grateful that there's now a better alternative.

There's still some merit in using car engine radiators for big passive systems, but that's about it.
 
motor bike rads are better. All so you need to consider that PC rads are up to EU spec and do not contain Lead solder were are car / Motobike parts do contain Lead solder. This is why it is more expensive to produce PC rads.
 
Also you will really need 2 pumps in my experience (if your using normal PC Water cooling ones) one just before the Rad and one for just after as the flow drops down that much
 
are they really that restrictive ? I mean it cant be that bad ? People wouldnt be using them...

Also, just a wild thought, what if i take full size car rad and fan assembly. Run fan on low, stow it under the table in a sound dampened box with exhaust ?

Actually how much a single D5 can take ? Would it be able to lift the water from under table and properly service multiple blocks ? (3 to be precise)... ???
 
If considering that route I urge you to just invest in a phobya/watercool/koolance 1080 radiator, enough room to cool anything with low rpm (4x180) or no fans at all and designed for what you want it to do.

You could do the phobya 1080, pair of feet and 4x180mm fans for it for well under £150.
 
At the moment i'm considering all sorts of ghetto variations to proper cooling, due to lack of funds mainly, but also out of curiosity of what can be done from scrap.

I will not skimp on fittings/tube/pumps, but rads/fans should be jerry-riggable :D

If all else fails i'll have to go "proper" way, but it will take longer to get bits together...
 
I got my brand new car rad (aluminium) for £15 delivered, I have 12 XSPC 120mm fans on it on about 800rpm (not audible) and my water delta over ambient is less than 5C (usually around 3C)... I'm running 20-25% toyota red coolant, haven't changed it in the last 12 months and have no issues with corrosion (my rad is mounted externally on plastic so there is no direct metal connection to the case as an extra precaution)

I have a normal midrange pump (though 24v - running off a step up converter) and it easily copes with the car rad, 2 GPU blocks and a CPU block (EK LTX)
 
I now use a brand new ford escort cvh copper core rad i got off the bay for £8, I have fit 8x 150mm fans on this. (only 4 currently on at minimum rpm)

I have also replaced my previous pondpump/huge res with a normal 200mm tube res and laing d5.
I use an XSPC raystorm and an EK full cover block and deionised water.
These keep my 3930k (4.8ghz) and 7970 (1180mhz) below 40 at all times.
this is also with the laing set on 1 (the flow rate is fine, almost a running tap)

its worth checking ebay amazing what brand new stuff yuo get for next to nothing.

Heres how it looked before i went to 2011 and added in the gfx card - im a function over form guy btw :)

IMAG0046_zps5603fe32.jpg
 
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For the past ~7 years under my desk is a rad/fan/pump box.
Its using a 2.0 litre Montego radiator a grundfos central heating pump and two 140mm yate loons running at 8v
Very quiet and very efficient.

Previous to the Montego radiator, I used heater matrix cores from Austin Metro's.
If you can still find them in the yards they work really well. They are brass and copper construction, not that it matters too much as aluminium ones work quite well too.
Still using a Metro heater matrix along side a Saab heater matrix which is aluminium, in our lads machine. Dont worry about using aluminium and copper together as long as you use a good corrosion inhibitor, I use approx 15% Antifreeze mix in his. They've been together for 5 ish years now with out problems.

Pics of mine
IMG_1180_zps35947597.jpg


IMG_1181_zps164ce667.jpg
 
I had a HUGE one under my bed, kept it nice and warm in the winter.

It's kinda old school and not really needed with the newer chips as they seem to churn out for less heat.

What I'd really like to do is create a mass of copper tubing under the floorboards in this room, to give it under floor heating. I'll look into it when I replace the carpet :)
 
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@Mick-1965: could you post more detailed pics ? Rad side fittings, pump model, (external?) power for fans, what tube you use (dims), fittings on the pc side etc...

I may be tempted to do something like this...

Also, could someone advise on how to separate the loop without leak ? Some sort of no leak connection fittings ? Just to make whole setup a little bit more mobile...
 
threedee said:
@Mick-1965: could you post more detailed pics ? Rad side fittings, pump model, (external?) power for fans, what tube you use (dims), fittings on the pc side etc...

I may be tempted to do something like this...

Also, could someone advise on how to separate the loop without leak ? Some sort of no leak connection fittings ? Just to make whole setup a little bit more mobile...
Click to expand...

The pump is a grundfos UPS 15-50 B130 brass, picked it up off of ebay for 25 quids 5 years ago. Although you can use a normal cast iron central heating pump. We are using one of those in my sons machine, but you must use corrosion inhibitor otherwise it'll rust.
Power for the fans it just a knocked up power supply but using a LM317 adjustable voltage regulator to control the speed of the fans.
Tube is just standard 3/4" od, 1/2" id, I got that from a fish shop. ( not the ones that sell chips with them but sell the tropical kind :) )
Fittings used for attaching the pump to the rad are just standard pump valve. I de soldered the original bottom hose fitting and soldered the pump valve in its place.
The rest of the gear inside the pc water block wise is just the stuff you buy from OCUK, although years ago I did make my own water blocks too but there is a lot of work involved and not really worth the time.
 
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