CPU block corrosion?

[AbsoluteZero951]

It's been about 10 months since I built my first custom loop and when disassembling the whole thing do cleaning and maintenance on the whole computer I noticed that the Nickel plated copper EKWB Supremacy Evo CPU block was exhibiting what I believe is galvanic corrosion, but am not sure as I made sure to not mix metals when building the loop and did not use a silver kill coil as I was running mayhems pastel (white). Was wanting to get opinions if it is galvanic corrosion or something else, in addition to thoughts on what may have caused it and what to do moving forward. I have attached some pictures of the Block in addition to some pictures of some of my G1/4 plugs some of which exhibited the same corrosion as the block while others were completely fine.

 

[Uptivuptiz]

Could it be that there is something in the water? Like gunk?

[Enderman]

7 minutes ago, simonbyrial said:

Could it be that there is something in the water? Like gunk?

It's corrosion, not clogging.

[AbsoluteZero951]

10 minutes ago, simonbyrial said:

Could it be that there is something in the water? Like gunk?

Don't think so as I made sure to flush the rads really well when I first got them and they did not have much flux, additionally I think the white pastel fluid would have shown if any flux was getting circulated maybe turn greenish from the copper. Don't think its due to plasticizer either as I was using PETG tubing and there was/ is nothing caught in the micro fins, just the discoloring.

[W-L]

14 minutes ago, AbsoluteZero951 said:

It's been about 10 months since I built my first custom loop and when disassembling the whole thing do cleaning and maintenance on the whole computer I noticed that the Nickel plated copper EKWB Supremacy Evo CPU block was exhibiting what I believe is galvanic corrosion, but am not sure as I made sure to not mix metals when building the loop and did not use a silver kill coil as I was running mayhems pastel (white). Was wanting to get opinions if it is galvanic corrosion or something else, in addition to thoughts on what may have caused it and what to do moving forward. I have attached some pictures of the Block in addition to some pictures of some of my G1/4 plugs some of which exhibited the same corrosion as the block while others were completely fine.

What did you have in the loop exactly?

 

If you had a serve mixed metal corrosion you would have nothing left of the fins in the copper block, that is however corrosion from something. 

[AbsoluteZero951]

Had The Supremacy Evo Nickel, x2 EKWB 980ti full cover nickel water blocks w/ parallel block, Ekwb res, Alphacool AX480 rad, Phobya 360 rad, EKWB D5 pump, Primochill PETG tubing, Primochill Revolver fittings, Bitspower rotary 90, Bitspower ball valve, Bitspower g1/4 plug, with mayhems pastel white as coolant ( was the kind you mix with distilled water, not premix).

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, AbsoluteZero951 said:

Had The Supremacy Evo Nickel, x2 EKWB 980ti full cover nickel water blocks w/ parallel block, Ekwb res, Alphacool AX480 rad, Phobya 360 rad, EKWB D5 pump, Primochill PETG tubing, Primochill Revolver fittings, Bitspower rotary 90, Bitspower ball valve, Bitspower g1/4 plug, with mayhems pastel white as coolant ( was the kind you mix with distilled water, not premix).

Overall that shouldn't have caused a problem as long as the fluid was mixed in the correct proportions. Were the fittings that also corroded nearby the CPU block and did anything happen to the nickel GPU blocks?

 

 

[AbsoluteZero951]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

Overall that shouldn't have caused a problem as long as the fluid was mixed in the correct proportions. Were the fittings that also corroded nearby the CPU block and did anything happen to the nickel GPU blocks?

 

 

 

The plugs that are corroded wherein the reservoir which directly followed the CPU, but two of the plugs that are fine as well as two more not in the picutre still in the reservoir, are completely fine as well. As for the GPU blocks, I haven't checked on them as I haven't yet decided if I want to open them and break the EKWB factory seal on them yet, as since they are Acetal and not Plexi so I can't Just see in to check if they were affected.

[W-L]

Just now, AbsoluteZero951 said:

The plugs that are corroded wherein the reservoir which directly followed the CPU, but two of the plugs that are fine as well as two more not in the picutre still in the reservoir, are completely fine as well. As for the GPU blocks, I haven't checked on them as I haven't yet decided if I want to open them and break the EKWB factory seal on them yet, as since they are Acetal and not Plexi so I can't Just see in to check if they were affected.

I would take a look and check, I'm guessing they may be affected also if this has occurred. My only guess would be the fluid in the loop dropped in PH and went slightly acidic to cause something like this, not totally sure though unless the old fluid was tested. 

 

@EK Luc might have more experience in case like this as I'm mainly speculating. 

[jools]

ph test fluid

and maybe

copper base was not cleaned properly before nickel electroplating, hence weakly attached nickel to copper spots.

 

[AbsoluteZero951]

5 minutes ago, W-L said:

I would take a look and check, I'm guessing they may be affected also if this has occurred. My only guess would be the fluid in the loop dropped in PH and went slightly acidic to cause something like this, not totally sure though unless the old fluid was tested. 

 

@EK Luc might have more experience in case like this as I'm mainly speculating. 

 

I might just do that tomorrow just to be safe. Never heard of mayhems pastel dropping in pH itself, but plenty of cases of pH causing it to rapidly lose/change color. I found a picture of the block from when I first built the loop and was installing the jet plate, and it looks like there was even corrosion then and I just didn't catch on that that may have been a red flag for the block. I've got to get some rest so I won't be able to respond for some time but thank you for the help so far.

[AbsoluteZero951]

6 minutes ago, jools said:

ph test fluid

and maybe

copper base was not cleaned properly before nickel electroplating, hence weakly attached nickel to copper spots.

 

 

leaning toward the blocks nickel plating potentially having been the issue as other nickel plated parts seem to have been fine, still need to check the GPUs.  I have read that EKWB has had issues with their nickel plating in the past and that is wasn't uncommon to have the coating fail. 

[aithos]

If that last picture was from before you installed then I would say you got a bad product because that definitely does NOT look how I would expect a new block to be...

[AbsoluteZero951]

8 minutes ago, aithos said:

If that last picture was from before you installed then I would say you got a bad product because that definitely does NOT look how I would expect a new block to be...

 

It was taken after I had installed it and ran just the loop for about 2 hours to test for leaks before I did a power on test and had immediate thermal shutdown because as it turned the CPU block was rotated 90 degrees from what it was supposed to be so the CPU wasn't being cooled right. It was when I went to fix this that I took this picture. I can't remember clearly if the spots were there at very first as my brother installed the jet plate, but I think that they were and I'll ask him to make sure. Also during the time that I was doing this early loop testing, I was just using distilled water with nothing in it ( as it was never intended to stay in for long) and indeed did not as it was only in just water for about 15 hours, the two previously mentioned and ~12 hours post picture being taken for long duration leak test over night.

[wzrd]

30 minutes ago, AbsoluteZero951 said:

It was taken after I had installed it and ran just the loop for about 2 hours to test for leaks before I did a power on test and had immediate thermal shutdown because as it turned the CPU block was rotated 90 degrees from what it was supposed to be so the CPU wasn't being cooled right. It was when I went to fix this that I took this picture. I can't remember clearly if the spots were there at very first as my brother installed the jet plate, but I think that they were and I'll ask him to make sure. Also during the time that I was doing this early loop testing, I was just using distilled water with nothing in it ( as it was never intended to stay in for long) and indeed did not as it was only in just water for about 15 hours, the two previously mentioned and ~12 hours post picture being taken for long duration leak test over night.

How thoroughly did you flush the radiators before you installed them, do you remember? Both Alphacool and Phobya radiators can be absolutely filthy, and some flux/manufacturing by products can effect pH and cause corrosion issues, and is almost impossible to remove by just running water through the loop as you did.

 

I've had similar issues when forgetting to flush them, wherein there are noticeable effects on blocks even after short periods of time, but I have never seen it as drastic as yours was after only 24 hours.

[AbsoluteZero951]

1 minute ago, wzrd said:

How thoroughly did you flush the radiators before you installed them, do you remember? Both Alphacool and Phobya radiators can be absolutely filthy, and some flux/manufacturing by products can effect pH and cause corrosion issues, and is almost impossible to remove by just running water through the loop as you did.

 

I've had similar issues when forgetting to flush them, wherein there are noticeable effects on blocks even after short periods of time, but I have never seen it as drastic as yours was after only 24 hours.

 

I read a ton of things on ways to clean the rads and what I decided on was using near boiling temp distilled water and pouring into the rads, sealing the rads and then shaking them (with heat gloves on) like there's no tomorrow. I did that for over an hour for each rad and did get flux out of both, more from the phobya, but not tons and tons from either. Also if it where flux, I think that I would have noticed in the fluid when I drained it but did not see any when I checked or in the micro fins of the block. 

[wzrd]

Just now, AbsoluteZero951 said:

I read a ton of things on ways to clean the rads and what I decided on was using near boiling temp distilled water and pouring into the rads, sealing the rads and then shaking them (with heat gloves on) like there's no tomorrow. I did that for over an hour for each rad and did get flux out of both, more from the phobya, but not tons and tons from either. Also if it where flux, I think that I would have noticed in the fluid when I drained it but did not see any when I checked or in the micro fins of the block. 

It's not just the flux, but metallic residues that can cling to the insides of the rads and are almost impossible to get out without some kind of active cleaning solution, like the phosphoric acid supplied as part 1 of the Mayhem's Blitz cleaning kit. The resides can cause a slight drop in pH of the fluid that causes corrosion over time, without actually contributing visible particulates to the loop.

[AbsoluteZero951]

1 minute ago, wzrd said:

It's not just the flux, but metallic residues that can cling to the insides of the rads and are almost impossible to get out without some kind of active cleaning solution, like the phosphoric acid supplied as part 1 of the Mayhem's Blitz cleaning kit. The resides can cause a slight drop in pH of the fluid that causes corrosion over time, without actually contributing visible particulates to the loop.

 

Makes sense and explains how the fluid pH dropped but still wondering why if the pH dropped why only some of the components exhibited the corrosion and others were unaffected. 

[wzrd]

Just now, AbsoluteZero951 said:

Makes sense and explains how the fluid pH dropped but still wondering why if the pH dropped why only some of the components exhibited the corrosion and others were unaffected. 

Honestly, that has me stumped as well. The corrosion does look like what I've seen from the process I described before, i.e. existent, but no where near as harsh as the full on galvanic corrosion seen when metals are mixed, but I can't think of an explanation as to why corrosion was localised to a certain area.

 

Are all of the plugs from the same manufacturer? If they are not it could be a case of them being different grades of metal - lower grade nickel, copper, etc., has less resistance to pH change, and it's theoretically possible that the pH change could have been small enough to cause corrosion of lower grade metals, but not higher, though that is pushing it a bit.

[AbsoluteZero951]

1 minute ago, wzrd said:

Honestly, that has me stumped as well. The corrosion does look like what I've seen from the process I described before, i.e. existent, but no where near as harsh as the full on galvanic corrosion seen when metals are mixed, but I can't think of an explanation as to why corrosion was localised to a certain area.

 

Are all of the plugs from the same manufacturer? If they are not it could be a case of them being different grades of metal - lower grade nickel, copper, etc., has less resistance to pH change, and it's theoretically possible that the pH change could have been small enough to cause corrosion of lower grade metals, but not higher, though that is pushing it a bit.

 

They are all EKWB and they were all attached to the Reservoir yet only two show the corrosion and the others are perfectly fine. Unfortunately, I don't remember where each one was in the Res, but the two that I left in that where at the bottom of the res are perfectly fine as well.