one big air bubble, but only when pump turned off?

[Trik'Stari]

So I finally finished the installation of my Larkooler kit in my pc. You can see it here

 

http://i.imgur.com/uMfAmig.jpg

 

It seems to be working fine, except for one small problem. When turned off, it gets one giant air bubble in the cpu water block. When turned back on this goes away immediately, however there doesn't appear to be much if any air in the reservoir itself. Is this bad? how can it be solved?

 

I am putting together a parts list for rigid acrylic tubing, and I assume this can be avoided by having a fill port at the very top of the loop.

 

This is my first custom loop, questions and comments appreciated.

 

(the Glass tubing thing is on indefinite hold until x99's come out and I have the money to pay a glass blower)

 

Edit: Oh, for a fill port, I was thinking a T connector with a tube and valve sticking out from the top, reverse on the bottom of the loop for a drain, is this the correct way to do this?

[Jogostar]

pic is private.

[Ghost]

You need to move the bubble to your res. What's happening is the flow is pushing the bubble further along, but when the force stops it floats back up into the block, it could be causing restriction to wherever it's being push to.

 

Just tilt the PC and power cycle the pump (even try slowing ans speeding up the pump) to try and get the bubble out. As a last resort a sliver of dish soap and help with bubbles, but use less than a drop.

[Trik'Stari]

http://trikstari.imgur.com/all/ that one work?

or maybe this one http://i.imgur.com/uMfAmig.jpg

I'm new to imgur and in general a noob at posting photo's lol. @Jogostar

 

@Ghost that would be really hard, would having this bubble for a while be detrimental to the pc? maybe 1 month, until I can get the hardline acrylic and everything to be able to do this the right way? I ask because this pump/res is a pain, the res is on the positive pressure side of the pump, so if I turn it on with the fill port open it pushes water up out of the fill port.

[Trik'Stari]

Just thinking aloud, but I could just run to my local lowes, grab a pvc or brass T fitting, a few cheap valves, and a couple barbs couldn't I? would they work or have any odd interaction with the coolants?

 

That would actually be really convenient because I could get some fuel line, the kind with built in anti kink thingies, and make this thing look a little better than it does.

[Ghost]

Just saw the pictures. You need a feeding tube (a tube that carries the water below the water level in the reservoir) for your res. Otherwise that air bubble and the sound of pouring water will just continue.

 

Trying the ghetto rig a watercooling system on your first loop with PVC/brass pipes is not that great an idea. The brass shouldn't react. PVC is used to make tubing so that should be fine although plasticizer may leak from it depending on the type of PVC.

[Trik'Stari]

I can do all brass. I do have plenty of experience with ghetto rigging in the plumbing section from making potato guns, both combustion and compressed air powered ones, also a flamethrower that we build but were all too chicken shit to test lol.

 

So, I need a tube that goes below the water level of the Reservoir, coming from the fill port on the reservoir itself?

[Ghost]

So, I need a tube that goes below the water level of the Reservoir, coming from the fill port on the reservoir itself?

The feeding tube should be on the "inlet" of the reservoir, the fill port should just be closed.

[Trik'Stari]

oh......that makes more sense lol. Would that get the air out? @Ghost

 

Also, I like your member status thingy. lol.

[Ghost]

oh......that makes more sense lol. Would that get the air out?

It will ensure air doesn't go back in after you switch the pump off.

[Trik'Stari]

@Ghost Oh, I get it now. I need to move the return from the waterblock to the inlet below the water level of the res. right?

[Bagmup]

Take the block off the cpu, have it lower than the res and then run the pump until the air bubble is pushed out.

[Leonard]

So I finally finished the installation of my Larkooler kit in my pc. You can see it here

 

http://i.imgur.com/uMfAmig.jpg

 

It seems to be working fine, except for one small problem. When turned off, it gets one giant air bubble in the cpu water block. When turned back on this goes away immediately, however there doesn't appear to be much if any air in the reservoir itself. Is this bad? how can it be solved?

 

I am putting together a parts list for rigid acrylic tubing, and I assume this can be avoided by having a fill port at the very top of the loop.

 

This is my first custom loop, questions and comments appreciated.

 

(the Glass tubing thing is on indefinite hold until x99's come out and I have the money to pay a glass blower)

 

Edit: Oh, for a fill port, I was thinking a T connector with a tube and valve sticking out from the top, reverse on the bottom of the loop for a drain, is this the correct way to do this?

It is not bad per say but i am sure it can be removed. Although those air bubbles can be stubborn. Have you tried  removing the GPU and HDD and all wires from the bottom of the case and laying lots of bounty in case of a spill, then undo the pump/reservoir and lifting it up while the pump is not running to move the flow of water to try and send the air bubble to the reservoir and when the air comes to the  reservoir just full up with coolant. Also, make sure no power is going to the system just in case of a spill.

 

You can also try undoing the radiator and laying it flat on the ground and then with run the pump for a bit and see if the bubble moves to the reservoir then top up and close off the reservoir and then re-install the radiator.

[Trik'Stari]

I hadn't though of removing the block from the cpu and laying it below the res, then power cycle the pump and fill the reservoir. Excellent Idea. Also gives me a chance to reapply the thermal paste, the larkooler kit came with its own thermal paste, I used it because I didn't feel like looking for the tiny thing of cooler master paste that came with my old 212 evo.

 

The air bubble seems to cause something of an issue, when I cold start the computer, it gives an overclock failed message and goes into the bios automatically. then upon restarting with the air bubble out of the pump, it successfully turbo's to 3.504 (according to the bios). Could this have anything to do with me having the pump powered by the 4 pin cpu fan header?

[Trik'Stari]

Odd, the air bubble seems to be getting smaller on its own. Still, when I find my thermal paste I'm gonna take the block off the cpu.

 

Also I temporarily turned the turbo off on my cpu. I dont like getting error messages that say overclock failed lol, makes me nervous. But that's only ever happened twice(now) on this mobo and cpu.