Possible to clean inside of block without disassembling?

[m9x3mos]

Hello all, 

I recently added a ekwb 3090 fe to my system. Right after building it, the block looked very clean.

And after about 2 weeks it has a circle in the upper right on the nickel. 

Do you think or can recommend a way of cleaning it without taking the block apart or off the card? 

Would rather not do that if I can avoid that too prevent accidentally damaging the card. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

 

[m9x3mos]

Forgot to mention, this was an all hydro x loop with their fluid. When I added the card, I flushed it (loop and new block) with about 2.5 gallons of distilled water and used more of the Corsair coolant. 

[emosun]

you can't clean the inside of a pipe without accessing it in some form. 

[m9x3mos]

1 hour ago, emosun said:

you can't clean the inside of a pipe without accessing it in some form. 

Wasn't sure if one of the cleaning solutions like mayhem blitz or something. 

I even read about 50/50 mix of vinegar to clean it but wasn't sure if that is a good idea. It isn't clogged and the performance is good. 

But that was what I was thinking might be good but don't want to damage the acrylic or plastic of the res.

[airborne spoon]

you could try to run some PBW through there it might clean it off. I ran some through my loop to clean some gunk out of my rad and it worked pretty good. I have heard viniger works but i didn't have any and as a homebrewer i had plenty of PBW lying around.

Also dismantling a block is pretty easy and only takes a few min, just make sure everything is super clean before assembly because fingerprints will look just as bad. Jay actually did a vid the other day on pulling apart a GPU block if you haven't done it before.

[m9x3mos]

Thanks for the advice. Haven't heard of pbw before (had to Google and the context helped). I'm not really worried about taking the block itself apart, but more so about potential damage to the card. Would rather not have to take it apart (have to remove the block to open it) to clean it if it can be avoided in the rare chance I damage something. Given the current market and all. 

[bowrilla]

On 5/31/2021 at 6:22 AM, m9x3mos said:

Wasn't sure if one of the cleaning solutions like mayhem blitz or something. 

I even read about 50/50 mix of vinegar to clean it but wasn't sure if that is a good idea. It isn't clogged and the performance is good. 

But that was what I was thinking might be good but don't want to damage the acrylic or plastic of the res.

Those are a sure bet to damage or even destroy the plastics in the system. You're suggesting throwing acid in your loop without a) knowing what it is and b) without the manufacturers even hinting at that stuff being safe to use on certain materials. 

 

Both the vinegar solution and even more so the Mayhem's Blitz are meant to prep and deep clean your radiators. Nothing else!

 

I'd also expect the Mayhem's Blitz to partially strip the Nickel plating.

 

I would also expect the acids to have an effect on your o rings.

 

To clean a block beyond flushing it with distilled water there's just nothing you can do other than disassembling it. 

 

What you have there in the pictures looks like fluid pushing inbetween the acrylic top and the nickel-plated block. Nothing you can really do there. That can always happen when you have larger areas that make contact with the top and there being no o-ring in that area. It'd be quite a hassle to have that many tight bends for an o-ring so manufactureres have one going around it instead.

 

Edit: Ignore that assessment, on a second glance it's both in the channel area and next to it. Well, could be some greasy residue slowly reacting with the fluid, some deposits, some not so great nickel-plating job. 

 

Get used to the fact the nickel-plating will sooner or later not look that nice. In some areas it might even get stripped. To my knowledge there are brighteners used in the plating process which weakens the nickel layer. There are also two different ways for the plating process and I don't know which one EK uses (I hope it's electroless, but wouldn't be surprised if EK went the cheaper route). One of the first spots the plating suffers is usually around the fins. Opaque fluids are often more aggressive in this regard.

 

You'll have to disassemble your block to have any chance of removing that stain though - depending on what exactly it is.

[airborne spoon]

On 6/2/2021 at 3:19 PM, m9x3mos said:

Thanks for the advice. Haven't heard of pbw before (had to Google and the context helped). I'm not really worried about taking the block itself apart, but more so about potential damage to the card. Would rather not have to take it apart (have to remove the block to open it) to clean it if it can be avoided in the rare chance I damage something. Given the current market and all. 

If you do blow up the card somehow, (seriously that is insanely unlikely) you can just RMA the thing and say it broke when you powered on your computer as some sort of manufacture defect.

 

But you almost have to TRY to screw it up. i have dismantled a lot of waterblocks over the years sometimes for cleaning sometimes to see how they go together. i have even put a old block together without the o-ring  because it was old and cracked to shit and fell apart upon removal and it still worked for a week till i got some RTV to throw in there because it was easier than getting a new o-ring. Although i don't recommend no gasket as i really had to crank down the screws and its very unsafe but i YOLO stuff when i get bored.

 

Go watch the video Jay did a few days ago about dismantling his waterblock after mixing chocolate milk and vodka in his loop. If you've never pulled one apart its very helpful in the process. And like he says if you do happen to spill a little water just let it dry out and make sure its all dry before installing it back in the computer.