Radiator cleaning

[brighttail]

So I am a little confused on a radiator I have.  420mm x 30mm is the measurements.  I've owned this for a year and I took it out for a cleaning a few weeks ago.

 

When I cleaned it i put it under the tap, used hot water and filled it up multiple times and shook it vigorously many times and emptied it.  My issue is the the flow in my loop seems very limited after it hits this radiator. It is the last radiator and last object before my loop goes back into the reservoir.  I have bled everything out as far as I can tell, but after a few hours I will notice the last part of the line from the rad to the reservoir has air in it.   If I tilt the case forward, I can hear audible sloshing which is a first. Normally if the whole rad is filled with water the sound isn't as loud, but this, it really seems like there is a lot of air trapped in there.

 

When I do tilt it forward, that part of the loop that had air in it, is filled properly but it will only last a few hours before I once again have air in it.  Even on full power, the amount of the liquid coming through the radiator seems to be a trickle, whereas the rest of the loop it seems like a steady flow.

 

So I'm assuming the following:

1. Not all the air is out of the system

2. I may have some sort of blockage in the radiator.

 

I should note that I used Mayhems BLITZ after my initial cleaning and left it in for 20 hours.  I flushed the loop 5 times.

 

So is there a better or another way to check if there is blockage in the radiator?   Being that the radiator is at the highest point in the case and is the last part before the return line to the reservoir, will I always have some air in there?  I have gotten a new reservoir and a new D5 PWM pump so I can swap it out to see if the new one has more power, but the old one is registering at 4400 RPMs.  At least I can ascertain if it is the pump or not.  I'm just worried i have something in the rad that I won't be able to get out.

 

Help?

[W-L]

5 minutes ago, brighttail said:

-SNIP-

You can try to hookup the rad directly to the faucet on low and see if the flow is really bad or very restrictive I usually use this method to flush my rads in both directions. DO you have a photo of the loop it can really help at times but moving the case around should force the air back towards the res and you should notice a drop in the water level. 

[brighttail]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

You can try to hookup the rad directly to the faucet on low and see if the flow is really bad or very restrictive I usually use this method to flush my rads in both directions. DO you have a photo of the loop it can really help at times but moving the case around should force the air back towards the res and you should notice a drop in the water level. 

I don't have a direct way of hooking it up directly to the faucet. I don't have  fitting that would allow me to do so.  Here is the loop tho.  From the CPU to the rad in the top is part of the loop that can get air into it as you can see.  The other part is behind the panel as it comes back into the reservoir.  Part of me thinks the pump may not be as powerful as it needs to be, the other part thinks that there is something in the rad that is keeping air in the loop.

[W-L]

7 minutes ago, brighttail said:

I don't have a direct way of hooking it up directly to the faucet. I don't have  fitting that would allow me to do so.  Here is the loop tho.  From the CPU to the rad in the top is part of the loop that can get air into it as you can see.  The other part is behind the panel as it comes back into the reservoir.  Part of me thinks the pump may not be as powerful as it needs to be, the other part thinks that there is something in the rad that is keeping air in the loop.

I assume the flow goes around from the bottom rad to the GPU, CPU, and the front rad? It would make sense why the flow after the CPU is low cause the Poseidon series of waterblocks have pretty small water tubes. making it quite restrictive. Try tiling your case back so that bubble is able to travel down the tube to see if it can make it's way out. 

 

Also try varying the speed on your pump to see if it helps to move the trapped air bubble out.

[brighttail]

17 minutes ago, W-L said:

I assume the flow goes around from the bottom rad to the GPU, CPU, and the front rad? It would make sense why the flow after the CPU is low cause the Poseidon series of waterblocks have pretty small water tubes. making it quite restrictive. Try tiling your case back so that bubble is able to travel down the tube to see if it can make it's way out. 

 

Also try varying the speed on your pump to see if it helps to move the trapped air bubble out.

I've done all that. I get the tube clear for a few hours and then it gets air in it again. 

 

The reason why I'm wondering about the rad is i had this same setup before, the only difference was the top rad was turned the other direction.  The order remains the same just the orientation.  I did this cause it is much easier to empty in the end.  During the original loop I never had a problem with air in the loop or flow.

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, brighttail said:

I've done all that. I get the tube clear for a few hours and then it gets air in it again. 

 

The reason why I'm wondering about the rad is i had this same setup before, the only difference was the top rad was turned the other direction.  The order remains the same just the orientation.  I did this cause it is much easier to empty in the end.  During the original loop I never had a problem with air in the loop or flow.

Sounds like the air is trapped in the rad or end tanks itself and since that is the highest point it's making it's way back up there. You can try very carefully cracking open one of the extra ports on the rads to see if it lets it vent out once you tilt your case back.

[brighttail]

I wish this rad had extra ports it only has two.  OH well I am putting in the new reservoir pump in this weekend and I'll pull out the rad and give it a very thorough cleaning again.