Took apart a broken AIO and the cpu block is full of greenish nasty smelling goo, how should i clean this?

[Viesulis]

I was thinking acetone or alcohol but im not sure if copper reacts with either of them

[johnno23]

I fixed up an older Alphacool AIO for my wife. I took mine apart cleaned the block carefully with isopopyl and the tubes and radiator I took down to a local car mechanic who laughed at me but did use his air compressor and a bucket of distilled water. just rinsed and filled with said water let the tiems drain and blasted some air through them. !st time around some gunk and debris came out second time looked fine did a third run as I think he thought it was fun. anyways he charged me zero cash but took a cigarete.

I came home reconnected everything used a small kitchen funnel refilled with new alphacool liquid and bobs your uncle. been working perfectly now for over a year.

 

Anyways iospropyl alcohol is very gentle and evaporates real fast..no risk to the copper

[Alex Atkin UK]

52 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

Anyways iospropyl alcohol is very gentle and evaporates real fast..no risk

Depends, as it could be the seals themselves corroding so you'd need to replace those too or risk leaks.

[johnno23]

thats very true but i was merely answering the question about possible reaction to the copper. any AIO taken apart and reused is at the risk of the owner.

but I do aprreciate your comment as my no risk comment was indeed something that could be misinterpreted. thankyou for emphasising the risks due to the breakdown of the seals overtime..

have edited my post to reflect that no risk to the copper . thanks again.

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

thats very true but i was merely answering the question about possible reaction to the copper. any AIO taken apart and reused is at the risk of the owner.

but I do aprreciate your comment as my no risk comment was indeed something that could be misinterpreted. thankyou for emphasising the risks due to the breakdown of the seals overtime..

Its very much on my mind as I resisted liquid cooling for a long time due to not trusting the longevity of them compared to traditional coolers, but am about to install one in an ITX PC as its just not possible to get enough airflow with a tower cooler in this case as it blocks THREE FAN POSITIONS, leaving only a single rear 140mm fan.

 

It seems almost all ITX cases are designed for low-power CPUs or AIO these days.