Kill me now. Radiator help!

im4gine3

im4gine3

im4gine3

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In all my years of watercooling i have only ever stabbed a fin into a radiator once, and that was during the Thermochil days.

Just received a HWLabs GTX420 radiator no less than 1hour ago and i've managed to poke a hole in one when my hand slipped.

Water doesn't seem to leak when i tested, but then i used a leak tester and can confirm it is leaking air. The leak is not audible unless you stick you ear to the hole.

Any potential fix for this.. albeit the radiator ain't cheap!

Picture below.. i want to cry so bad!

7IbY7DQ.jpeg


Maybe this will help but theres so man ydifferent types, any particular one to try

OriginalEpAdh | JB-Weld

www.jbweld.co.uk www.jbweld.co.uk
 
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im4gine3 said:
In all my years of watercooling i have only ever stabbed a fin into a radiator once, and that was during the Thermochil days.

Just received a HWLabs GTX420 radiator no less than 1hour ago and i've managed to poke a hole in one when my hand slipped.

Water doesn't seem to leak when i tested, but then i used a leak tester and can confirm it is leaking air. The leak is not audible unless you stick you ear to the hole.

Any potential fix for this.. albeit the radiator ain't cheap!

Picture below.. i want to cry so bad!

7IbY7DQ.jpeg


Maybe this will help but theres so man ydifferent types, any particular one to try

OriginalEpAdh | JB-Weld

www.jbweld.co.uk www.jbweld.co.uk
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It looks like its only fin damage and not the water tubes itself, are you sure it's leaking from there?

JB Weld works great, i used this to repair a radiator many many moons ago back in early 2011.


I take it you poked the radiator with a screw driver?
 
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I also think that looks like you've mangled some fins but missed the water tubes.

Can you fill it with water and pressurise it a little or fill it with air and stuff it underwater?
 
filled with water and set the leak tester to 0.75 bar.. will see how quick/slow it decompresses.

IIRC, a loop will decompress slowly before stabalizing, but doing the same to a radiator, it never stabalises right, it just very slowly drops pressure
 
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left it for a couple hours and its holding pressure with water inside...

I did use tweezers to straighten out the fins so that may have helped somewhat.. crysis averted *fingers crossed*
 
Fill it with water and run it with the pump until satisfied after wrapping it in that nasty and thin blue industrial tissue paper, you'll instantly see the smallest drop.
 
Or any sort of tissue that looses shape/deforms with liquid contact.

Just to confirm, how long were you looking at for the leak test? I think with testers if it retains "green" pressure for more than 15m you are OK?
 
Are you sure the air leak was from there?

Won't the coolant become thinner as it warms up meaning and system ran pretty hard might make it leak? I have got plenty of bent fins on my radiators like and I doesn't seem like you hit the tubes from the pic.
 
There is one way to test this, fill it with water, attach your leak tester and pump air in. If water squirts out from that damaged area, then you know its buggered.
 
pre said:
Or any sort of tissue that looses shape/deforms with liquid contact.

Just to confirm, how long were you looking at for the leak test? I think with testers if it retains "green" pressure for more than 15m you are OK?
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for about 2-3 hrs.. it depressurised slowly for the first 15-20min or so before it stabalized for the rest of the period
 
Hotwired said:
Fill it with water and run it with the pump until satisfied after wrapping it in that nasty and thin blue industrial tissue paper, you'll instantly see the smallest drop.
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I'll give that a go..

I did try the washing up liquid method where you dabble the area with a qtip to spot any bubbles forming, but couldn't see anything... maybe this will produce any other results
 
Jay85 said:
There is one way to test this, fill it with water, attach your leak tester and pump air in. If water squirts out from that damaged area, then you know its buggered.
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thats what i tried.. not sure if it was me trying to fix it with tweezers and what not, but can no longer hear a hiss when filled with water and .75bar of air inside.. but to be safe, will try the other methods tested
 
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D1craig said:
Are you sure the air leak was from there?

Won't the coolant become thinner as it warms up meaning and system ran pretty hard might make it leak? I have got plenty of bent fins on my radiators like and I doesn't seem like you hit the tubes from the pic.
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yeah.. the hiss was more noticiable on the first tube (closest the side). I'll try getting a better macro picture of the area.. Pictures don't do justice i'm afraid
 
no blue paper but thin kitchen towel will do.. as long as i dab the area few times.

Trying to get a good shot with an iphone, magnifying glass and a torch is difficult!

kq5uJMm.jpeg


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If you have a containter big enough to submerge it under water ie the bath.
empty the rad of water, pressurize it just with air, then drop it under the water.
Its a lot easier to see air bubbling out than water coming out of a pin hole.

But from the pic it look like you have just tore the fins off which are usually soldered on.
 
im4gine3 said:
for about 2-3 hrs.. it depressurised slowly for the first 15-20min or so before it stabalized for the rest of the period
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According to EK's Leak Tester manual somewhere from 5 to 15 minutes should be enough if it's stable at 0.3-0.5 bar?
When you pressurize the loop with air, wait a few moments for the pressure to stabilize. Read and memorize the pressure mark on the Pressure Gauge and wait for five (5) to a maximum of fifteen (15) minutes to check for a drop in the Pressure Gauge’s needle. If there is no pressure drop (leak), your liquid cooling loop is watertight. Also, keep in mind that air leaks more easily than coolant.
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