Car heat exchanger as a PC radiator?

[EnergyEclipse]

Hello all!

I am upmost aware of the issues surrounding mixed metal liquid contact, therefore planned beforehand to prevent any metal mixtures. Anyhow, is it recommended/'safe' to use of a car radiator, as such: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Radiator-for-RENAULT-CLIO-KANGOO-MEGANE-SCENIC-KUBISTAR-LOGAN-SANDERO-Manual-Car-/152365515018?hash=item2379b1410a:g:GgoAAOSwtfhYrnnk for an Intel® Core™ i7-4790 @ 4.0ghz CPU? Is it sufficient  enough? I am yet unsure of which pump to use so I will likely wait until I purchase everything else.

Thank you very much! Sorry if I missed out some information required, as if I did please do not hesitate to ask me them!

-EnergyEclipse

[Xaring]

Yes, you could... The real question is... Why???

[RollinLower]

the amouht of heat a car produces is waaaaaaaay more than modern PC's produce, so that rad should keep your non-overclocked chip nice and cool.

the only problem with this is that you are likely going to get gunk from that rad into your CPU block, so you'd have to clean that out more often.

[EnergyEclipse]

3 minutes ago, Xaring said:

Yes, you could... The real question is... Why???

OVERRRRRRRRKILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDD
 

Anyhow, enthusiast ways aside thank you very much for your help!

-EnergyEclipse 

[tlink]

its not designed for it so i wouldn't advice it. even if it can handle much higher temps, that might mean the efficiency curve lies much higher creating worse heat transmission at lower temps (for example 70 c). cars wouldn't operate properly at too low temperatures so im assuming that is something they have designed to prevent. a cold engine is an inefficient engine.

[EnergyEclipse]

On 4/10/2017 at 6:57 AM, RollinLower said:

the amouht of heat a car produces is waaaaaaaay more than modern PC's produce, so that rad should keep your non-overclocked chip nice and cool.

the only problem with this is that you are likely going to get gunk from that rad into your CPU block, so you'd have to clean that out more often.

I will flush the radiator through with some distilled water a good few times before I proceed to install of it in an actual system. Cars produce a million times more heat I understand, but putting my way simple:

 

Overkill <3

On 4/10/2017 at 7:01 AM, huilun02 said:

Yeah sure, if you manage to get the tubings to fit, a big enough reservoir, and a strong enough pump. Kind of overkill though. And where you gonna mount it? 

I was planning go on having it mounted off of a side panel on my chassis with some modifications to the left side panel, with some long standoffs holding it out from being directly in contact with it, therefore allowing airflow. I'll certainly have a powerful pump though as I can imagine the pressure you'd need for such a monster

 

Thank you very much for your help!

On 4/10/2017 at 7:03 AM, tlink said:

its not designed for it so i wouldn't advice it. even if it can handle much higher temps, that might mean the efficiency curve lies much higher creating worse heat transmission at lower temps (for example 70 c). cars wouldn't operate properly at too low temperatures so im assuming that is something they have designed to prevent. a cold engine is an inefficient engine.

Well, it is at basis just a normal heart exchanger. I mean look at this:

I cannot see anyhow as to why any poor operation should occur only from the radiator from lower temperatures considering cars are shipped globally, thus fluctuating climates shouldn't interfere with operation to any severe degree. But I suppose you're correct about the efficiency curve but I highly doubt I would be seeing 70^o ever as I will have a car fan as well to accompany it.

 

jeee I am shaking. I so badly want to go liquid.

 

Thank you all very much for your mammoth help on such matter!

[Nicnac]

pls do a build log once you get this stuff! would love to see it  

[Drak3]

It's more or less how water cooling enthusiasts did it before companies like EK existed. It was a pain in the ass back then, and not worth it.

[EnergyEclipse]

On 4/10/2017 at 7:27 AM, Nicnac said:

pls do a build log once you get this stuff! would love to see it  

Oh jee, I wish I could  I haven't anywhere near the money as of now. But that won't stop me! I shall make sure to do so as funding gathers, as I can't wait to see how this project will turn out. Oh and yea, I do actually have a very minimalistic build log on the beginning construction of my system, 

On 4/10/2017 at 7:51 AM, Drak3 said:

It's more or less how water cooling enthusiasts did it before companies like EK existed. It was a pain in the ass back then, and not worth it.

I do love EKWB products quite a lot, especially there FF4-120 Fans & there slim line radiators <3 Awesome construction qualities.

 

I do remember hearing a lot about the difficulties of it, although times have changed for the btter in the liquid cooling world I would personally say. I can source things quite easily now of Over Clockers UK & Ebay UK and maybe a plumbers when it comes to the fittings which will come of the radiator.

[tlink]

4 hours ago, EnergyEclipse said:

Well, it is at basis just a normal heart exchanger. I mean look at this:

I cannot see anyhow as to why any poor operation should occur only from the radiator from lower temperatures considering cars are shipped globally, thus fluctuating climates shouldn't interfere with operation to any severe degree. But I suppose you're correct about the efficiency curve but I highly doubt I would be seeing 70^o ever as I will have a car fan as well to accompany it.

 

jeee I am shaking. I so badly want to go liquid.

 

Thank you all very much for your mammoth help on such matter!

 

I hope you all have a great day!

EnergyEclipse

 

because it has a lot to do with fluid-dynamics and thermodynamics. yes cars are shipped globally but that was not my point, cars are meant to operate at higher temps. if they get below a certain temperature it damages them and becomes very inefficient. by this logic i would assume that they designed it in such a way that it wouldn't transfer as much heat at lower temps because that would make the car run worse, and perform optimal at higher temps which protects the car from overheating.

[EnergyEclipse]

May I ask all though, to which fan sizing would I require of for such a mammoth radiator? I personally haven't a clue as to which measurements I should search for since I am horrific at maths. Thank you once again!
 

-EnergyEclipse

 

[jasonvp]

On 4/10/2017 at 0:34 PM, tlink said:

if they get below a certain temperature it damages them and becomes very inefficient. by this logic i would assume that they designed it in such a way that it wouldn't transfer as much heat at lower temps because that would make the car run worse, and perform optimal at higher temps which protects the car from overheating.

The car's HX has nothing to do with keeping the engine warm enough or not.  That's entirely up to the thermostat that's inline.  It opens and closes based on fluid temperatures, which are, of course, directly influenced by the heat pump that is the engine.

 

An HX is an HX.  It doesn't matter if it's a PC-sized one or a car-sized one.  The principles are all the same: run a coolant through the HX which has a large enough surface area such that air flowing through it cools the liquid.  Simple and easy.

 

The problem with our OP's plan (and I still think this is a troll that's playing out), is:

• Car HXs are usually aluminum for light weight.  Most good CPU and GPU cooling blocks are copper.  Mixed metals are silly; don't do that.
• Car HXs are massive and require a huge amount of pressure to push the water through.  That pressure will destroy the fittings within a PC's cooling loop.  They'll just pop right off the lines completely.  The pressures required might actually obliterate the cooling blocks, too.  I'm not sure.

This whole idea is beyond stupid.  I'm sorry if the OP takes offense to my use of that word, but it's a ridiculous idea.  Put it to bed before you start spending money on a solution that will not benefit you in the least.  In fact, it'll probably cause no end of disaster.

 

Even if you keep everything together without fittings, lines, and blocks bursting, the amount of noise your system is going to make will be obnoxious.  Water sloshing through a car's rad will be heard in an office.  Have you even thought of what kinds of fans you're going to attach to it?  Or are you going to hope that passive cooling does the trick?

 

Dumb.  Beyond dumb.  Buy proper cooling gear including PC-sized rads, and build yourself a loop.  It's not hard, nor expensive.

[Wyre]

If you are going to use a car part for water cooling, the AC condensor would probably be a better choice... Something like this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182516620256

 

Notice how it uses much smaller diameter tubing, and the radiator portion is probably much better suited for water cooling from a small pump. My first water cooled system had an AC condenser from an over-the-road truck (Semi Tractor) and the overclocked 600MHz Thunderbird operating at 1.2GHz ran at ambient temperature.

 

Another option is to use a heater core... Something like this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322378965343 This one is actually made of solid copper, and isnt too expensive. It is new old stock, and you will need to clean it thoroughly. However think about how hot the heater in your car gets... that is how much heat these things can actually handle! That is a lot more than your CPU would put out.

 

 

Hope that this gives you some ideas, and is of some help.

 

Good luck to you!

[tlink]

2 hours ago, jasonvp said:

The car's HX has nothing to do with keeping the engine warm enough or not.  That's entirely up to the thermostat that's inline.  It opens and closes based on fluid temperatures, which are, of course, directly influenced by the heat pump that is the engine.

 

An HX is an HX.  It doesn't matter if it's a PC-sized one or a car-sized one.  The principles are all the same: run a coolant through the HX which has a large enough surface area such that air flowing through it cools the liquid.  Simple and easy.

 

The problem with our OP's plan (and I still think this is a troll that's playing out), is:

• Car HXs are usually aluminum for light weight.  Most good CPU and GPU cooling blocks are copper.  Mixed metals are silly; don't do that.
• Car HXs are massive and require a huge amount of pressure to push the water through.  That pressure will destroy the fittings within a PC's cooling loop.  They'll just pop right off the lines completely.  The pressures required might actually obliterate the cooling blocks, too.  I'm not sure.

This whole idea is beyond stupid.  I'm sorry if the OP takes offense to my use of that word, but it's a ridiculous idea.  Put it to bed before you start spending money on a solution that will not benefit you in the least.  In fact, it'll probably cause no end of disaster.

 

Even if you keep everything together without fittings, lines, and blocks bursting, the amount of noise your system is going to make will be obnoxious.  Water sloshing through a car's rad will be heard in an office.  Have you even thought of what kinds of fans you're going to attach to it?  Or are you going to hope that passive cooling does the trick?

 

Dumb.  Beyond dumb.  Buy proper cooling gear including PC-sized rads, and build yourself a loop.  It's not hard, nor expensive.

no but what i meant was that the efficiency of the radiator might be very low at low temperatures because it was never designed to cool to such low temperatures in the first place. i know its not actively regulating temperatures. as analogy: you can strap computer loudspeakers to your ears as a diy pair of headphones, but they will be way too load to be usable because they where not designed to operate at such low volumes.

[Ithanul]

I remember seeing such a setup.

Give me a moment.  I know I saw that wacky thread on a different forum.

 

Yep, here is wacky job of vehicle rad cooling a computer.

 

[AnonymousGuy]

Aluminum radiator.  Danger will robinson.  Danger.

 

If you want to go big you need something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/20x20-Water-to-Air-Heat-Exchanger-1-034-Copper-Ports-/141564946180

 

I've used this seller before for their water to water heat exchanges (vs. air to water).  Exercise left up to reader to figure out adapting the 1" copper pipe to barbs.

[EnergyEclipse]

6 hours ago, Ithanul said:

I remember seeing such a setup.

Give me a moment.  I know I saw that wacky thread on a different forum.

 

Yep, here is wacky job of vehicle rad cooling a computer.

Now that is even more ghetto than Luke's water bottle reservoir! Awesome find - I seriously need to meet the creator of such masterpeice.

50 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Aluminum radiator.  Danger will robinson.  Danger.

 

If you want to go big you need something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/20x20-Water-to-Air-Heat-Exchanger-1-034-Copper-Ports-/141564946180

 

I've used this seller before for their water to water heat exchanges (vs. air to water).  Exercise left up to reader to figure out adapting the 1" copper pipe to barbs.

Hello!

 

Thanks for your help on this matter! My only issue with purchasing such would be that is is situated in the USA Ebay store, therefore I likely would have to pay around £40 for shipping alone to Britain.

 

I shall look for something similar to as give here in the uk, as I can only imagine how powerful the atmospheric disspatation is in that

 

[Ithanul]

2 hours ago, EnergyEclipse said:

Now that is even more ghetto than Luke's water bottle reservoir! Awesome find - I seriously need to meet the creator of such masterpeice.

Hello!

You think that nuts.  This the peep who was building a geo thermal loop for their computers.

 

O, and there are still copper vehicle radiators.

[en1gMATIC]

the heat exchanger is just a radiator

[en1gMATIC]

Just now, en1gMATIC said:

the heat exchanger is just a radiator

but why?

[LargeHadronCollider]

I know this is necromancy, and I know that's quite strictly enforced here, but..

 

What others said about the higher circulatory volume of the disembodied car system is important. I consider that a water to water HX between the computer system and the car system would be necessary, as would independent regulation of the respective pump speeds, as well as a shunt valve across the L2L HX in the computer system to disconnect it from the car system when the computer system gets too cold (if the car system is holding 5°C, it could conceivably bring the computer system down to too low of a temperature).