Cleaning out WC system/components

Hi crew,

Been a while. System has been running well, but I upgraded my graphics card, in doing so I damaged my motherboard.

I noticed that my tubing still had the build up from whatever caused it, and the snake oil that primochill offered did not work

As I have to remove the motherboard, I have decided to strip it down, reinstall with new tubing etc.

What is the best way to rinse out/clean my XSPC dual bay res, heatkiller CPU block and rads?

Look forward to your help.

Cheers,

Rob

 

The best way is to dismantle each water block and manually scrub out any plasticiser build up in the impingement plate/micro channels. Do the same with the reservoir. Radiators just flush out with hot water and maybe some mild vinegar solution.

 

as long as you dont have any nickel or nickel plated stuff, run a 9 part water 1 part vinegar solution in your loop for a short period of time (no longer than 3 minutes). Then thoroughly flush by running some demineralised water through the loop. In fact, I'd just pour some vinegar solution into what u want clean, shake it a bit, then let the vinegar go out and rinse thoroughly with DI.

Plasticiser rarely develops on blocks as it is PLASTICISER not METALISER confused and usually just clings onto tube to make an undesirable faeces-like colour, so i'd definitely get rid of the tube, and get some new tube as PrimoChill has supposedly fixed the problem up. However it is advised above to open up your blocks and take a good looksee to make sure theres no undesirable shit in it

If you have XSPC rads I just poured some vinegar solution mentioned above, gave it a good shake for about a minute and poured the solution back out. Removed more red dye than three DI flushes, go figure

Bad luck with the mobo, as said if your titan shat itself you'd be in bigger woes l0l

 

Lol whut?

Plasticiser and gunk doesn't have to develop on metal to collect in the micro channels of water blocks. It just collects crud in the narrowest parts of a loop ... just like a filter.

Just like this

Click to view full size!

 

Thank you all for your replies

Motherboard was obviously my fault, trying to juggle 2 GTX 680's joined by fitting, had pressed the "lock" on the PCIE slot, but it must have caught when pulling out the cards. Weird thing was with the second card in the slot (damaged) and a Asus sound card in the lowest slot, the graphics card was viewable

I have new primochill tube. I will completely strip the system down, give it a good clean and try not to damage anything else

I have never pulled down a loop before, or opened up a CPU block. I assume the have "o" rings?

The CPU block is nickel plated. I assume vinegar damages the plating??

Again appreciate the help and PM's

Cheers

Rob

 

For some more general information on stripping down and cleaning water cooling gear, check out my worklog here. In particular, this post will likely be of the most use to you.

 

Thanks NeuDub, I really appreciate it.great pictures and info.

One thing I noticed yesterday was that even with the power supply main power connector fitted with the adaptor so that I could power the pump without power to components etc. it would NOT power up

The ONLY way was to plug the power supply as normal in the motherboard. I removed power plugs, molex etc from components just in case.

Very strange

Cheers

 

You didnt jump the psu did you?
Paperclip in the green wire and any black wire or 4th and 5th wires from top left corner

 

I did try to jump the PSU. Used to work originally but not now. Weird.

 

**UPDATE**

Using original motherboard power cable that came with the seasonic 1250W PSU, the jumping works

New primochill tubing used, DM water, liquid utopia in loop. Been running now for 2.5 hours.

Pulled apart the heatkiller CPU block, first time, some plasticiser in the channels, but no where the same in the above picture.

Pulled apart res, D5 pump. Quite clean. Impeller in top condition. No issues.

Rinsed both rads with a hot vinegar/DM solution a few times and finished up with straight DM. Again quite clean.

Old tubing was coated in the white chalky substance on the tube walls.

With some help from Creekin, managed to install the cards and connector without balancing or flexing the pcie slots

Very nervous about booting. Hopefully everything works

Cheers

Rob

 

Another reply to my own post

System back up and running again. Loop/Leak test for 12 hours. All good.

Have set the D5 pump at 1.5, too noisy otherwise (harmonics).

Have the 3770K at 4.5Ghz at 1.165V

Have Memory (corsair dominator) at 2400Hz, 11-11-11-31

Max temp 69 degrees on CPU. Max Temp on Titans 40 degrees.

Will have to increase pump and fan speed for summer though

Thanks for all the help and information.

Cheers

Rob