My Alphacool Acrylic DDC Mod Top

[Sneaky]

got my Alphacool Acrylic DDC Top in the other day from VoyeurMods, thought I'd get some pics up so you know exactly what it looks like (didn't see any good thorough pics up before)








i noticed i left my mac formatted floppy box in the picture... ignore that LOL, i bought 4 25-packs of thoes disks for a buck a peice and formatted them myself instead of buying windows formatted floppy disks for 6-7 bucks a pack :sn: )


and drilling out the inlet from a meager 1/4" to a nice 1/2" hole:

before:




after:






here's a couple pics of the Alphacool Delrin Repack reservoirs I got as well (damn nice!)

[JoeBar]

Nice job and very nice res!

U need a better camera...

[Shpoon]

That's a really nice job there, how'd you do it? (Just checking if you accidently bored out the threads :p

[Sneaky]

i used one of the plugs that came with the DDC tops to cover the threads and just drilled until the bit hit the plug

drilled really carefully though with some water as lubricant, as i don't have any special plastic/acylic drilling bits



edit:

the camera has some weird crap that happens and takes fuzzy pictures when the flash isn't on


i'll probably pick up a new one sometime eventually, but for now it works... and the macro function is pretty good

[mcflurry4321]

I like the looks of those reservoirs. Very nice!

[onewingedangel]

how does the mod affect temps?

[Shpoon]

i used one of the plugs that came with the DDC tops to cover the threads and just drilled until the bit hit the plug

drilled really carefully though with some water as lubricant, as i don't have any special plastic/acylic drilling bits



edit:

the camera has some weird crap that happens and takes fuzzy pictures when the flash isn't on


i'll probably pick up a new one sometime eventually, but for now it works... and the macro function is pretty good

Can you explain that again? Sorry you lost me there, I'm not visualising it :p

[Sneaky]

Can you explain that again? Sorry you lost me there, I'm not visualising it :p

i took a G1/4 threaded plug that came with the pump top (just a plug to cover one of the open holes, if you're not using the top inlet, etc.)

i screwed it into the front port, and then drilled out the hole, drilling until the drill bit touched the backside of the plug

the plug protected the threads from getting marred by the drill bit, and let me drill to the perfect depth to bore it out

[creidiki]

Youll want to consider your loop's characteristics before doing that, as enlarging the hole gains you flow but you drop from 20ft head to 18.5-ish.

If you have a very stacked loop - say, dual MP-1s or fullcovers, nb blocks or loads of tube for an external radbox - youll probably want to leave the hole at its original size.

[Sneaky]

well, it was the inlet hole, which making it bigger will help, no?

its the outlet if you enlarge that, that drops the head, yes?

[creidiki]

no, inlet is what I'm talking about.

its hard to say exactly what the crossover point is without seeind detailed PQ curves for them though.

for dual pumps, it goes without saying that enlarged inlet is best.

[Shpoon]

i took a G1/4 threaded plug that came with the pump top (just a plug to cover one of the open holes, if you're not using the top inlet, etc.)

i screwed it into the front port, and then drilled out the hole, drilling until the drill bit touched the backside of the plug

the plug protected the threads from getting marred by the drill bit, and let me drill to the perfect depth to bore it out

Can you take a pic of the plug? I think that's why I'm not understanding (or the fact that I'm at work....doing nothing...after playing pool last night from 10:00-7:00 and had 1/2hour of sleep )

Edit: Cause I'm looking at the first picture, and I see the plugs, they seem standard, but I don't see how you'd drill in :/

Also, did the plug trick work really well, or just fairly well? It seems like a really clean job, not sure if that's because of the plugs, your steady hands, or both...

[Sneaky]

Can you take a pic of the plug? I think that's why I'm not understanding (or the fact that I'm at work....doing nothing...after playing pool last night from 10:00-7:00 and had 1/2hour of sleep )

Edit: Cause I'm looking at the first picture, and I see the plugs, they seem standard, but I don't see how you'd drill in :/

Also, did the plug trick work really well, or just fairly well? It seems like a really clean job, not sure if that's because of the plugs, your steady hands, or both...

plugged the front port with a G1/4 fitting that i cut down:





drilled in from the rear end starting with enlarging the hole from 1/4", to 5/16", then to 3/8", and finally to 1/2":





with each drill bit, i drilled until i hit the back side of the cut-down fitting that i used as a plug to protect the threads from being drilled out with the hole:

[Shpoon]

Thanks, that makes more sense to me, good job

[septim]

good job on that...

where does repack reservoir go...

[tommrussell]

cool res's where did you get them from cause i may have to reconsider my "t" line and those are the best i have seen

[Sneaky]

the Repack reservoirs are for the 5.25" bays, and I got them at VoyeurMods

(they make both aluminum and delrin versions of them, so make sure you get the right one... and VM copied the same description for all of them, so even the delrin ones in the description says that they're aluminum

[nealh]

i took a G1/4 threaded plug that came with the pump top (just a plug to cover one of the open holes, if you're not using the top inlet, etc.)

i screwed it into the front port, and then drilled out the hole, drilling until the drill bit touched the backside of the plug

the plug protected the threads from getting marred by the drill bit, and let me drill to the perfect depth to bore it out

So the Acrylic top came with a metal plug(the silver one) and delrin G1/4?

Anybody from Performance-pcs..get a delrin plug too...if I got one of these my issue with the mod would be getting a plug the fitted all the way down the threads like in your photo

[nealh]

i took a G1/4 threaded plug that came with the pump top (just a plug to cover one of the open holes, if you're not using the top inlet, etc.)

i screwed it into the front port, and then drilled out the hole, drilling until the drill bit touched the backside of the plug

the plug protected the threads from getting marred by the drill bit, and let me drill to the perfect depth to bore it out

So the Acrylic top came with a metal plug(the silver one) and delrin G1/4?

Anybody from Performance-pcs..get a delrin plug too...if I got one of these my issue with the mod would be getting a plug the fitted all the way down the threads like in your photo

[kemist]

For future modders, i see everyone who drills these out does it to 1/2". Since the size of the impeller inlet is less than this (IIRC), it probably makes sense to go a size or two below a 1/2" bit to allow all of the flow to go straight into the inlet rather than washing around the impeller. Also, it appears that most people end up flaring the acrylic just above the impeller inlet which seems like it would increase the tendency to wash around the impeller rather than the inlet. Perhaps these 2 things are what cause lowered Head height? It just seems like it would be less efficient than a slightly smaller hole that puts all of its water into the inlet. Not sure if i am correct but just a thought.

[Sneaky]

its not a delrin plug, its just a black nylon G1/4 fitting from eldon james that i cut the barb off of and threaded it into the hole (it is longer than the supplied plug)

[SiGfever]

@Sneaky,

Could you post a picture of the top sitting on the impeller to show the impeller inlet in relation to the inlet hole? I would like to see how the impeller inlet is designed to accept the incoming water.
Thanks...

[nealh]

oh..thanks..I have no barb that would be long enough

[Sneaky]

nealh, I'll send you a barb to use as a plug for $2 (they cost me that much plus shipping) if you want


and I don't even have my DDC Rev. 2's yet - I got cheap and paid for fedex home delivery from danger den, so they get here on wednesday, but I'll get pics then

[septim]

yah pls post said pic when you get the ddc...

lucky you can get dangerden to post payment,
me can't get pass payment to post my order...