A good idea for coolant color?

[Alexontherocks]

After some time I feel comfortable posting my results regarding the use of another sort of dye to color the coolant.

I have read about separation, gunk and other beatiful and (sorry but) amusing stories about rigs devastated by coloring chemicals.

In my rig I have experimented with another type of ink which supposedly should last for years, should be resistant against UV rays should not break down during time and probably most of you are looking at some of it right now.

High quality printer ink!



I don't know the chemistry behind the stuff but the results so far are very itneresting. I have used a small amount (2ml) of blu high quality Hp ink and the coolant is now a very satisfactory shade of blue. I have been running 2 iwakis at 18m of head pressure for several weeks, opened the ek supreme and found no trace of gunk or other subproducts.

Temps are unchanged (!) however I have no idea if this is to be explained tih the huge radaiting area I have or the quality of the ink itself.

I will open my rig in the following months to keep an eye on coloring on the tubing or on the ek supreme but so far so good!

Also I have looked into the properties of these inks and apart from chemical intereractions I may be unaware of the list of characterstics is the same to the one we look for in artificial dyes!

Comment away on whether this is a useful post, a waste of time or old news.

Cheers!

[Alexontherocks]

oh well I guess it wasn't so original after all...

[Vapor]

I'm pretty interested in what comes of this long term

I think the long term issue might be tube staining, but from the sounds of it, the actual gunk/performance problems of additives might be alleviated with this

[xTKxhom3r]

wow i let us know how it goes man thanks for taking the time to test it all

[Alexontherocks]

Well the tubing I have is 90% black industrial hose but for the other 10% it is clear cheap plastic tubing. Not the tygon stuff. After 6 weeks I have not noticed any stain and so far the ek supreme is perfectly clean. I have not taken pictures but I can assure you that it is as new.

I will also buy some tygon and proceed like so.

I will prepare several small jars and fill them with different concentrations of distilled and ink dye up to 10%. I will then place small pieces of tubing and check after 1,2 and 3 weeks. If not even the 10% solution stains the tubing whatsoever then we may be looking at a viable alternative to commercial products.

Also keep in mind that with a basic 3 colour set of inks you can prepare your own shade and correct it by trial and error.

[xTKxhom3r]

looks interesting bro how much is that ink your buying?

[Alexontherocks]

the photo is just an indication. In Italy I got 3 ink bottles 30ml each for a total of 10 euros (+ 2 latex gloves and 3 syringes). You must look for refill kits based on high waulity ink.I used 2ml and "stained" over 6 litres of coolant. (my rads hold a lot of water) so you can see the economic viability of this project.

I intend on adding some more blue (maybe 2ml or less) to get a deep blue shade. If my temps are still unchanged then I will be very happy indeed.

I must only look into adding UV reactivness to the mixture and then I will be definetely done with commercial solutions.

[hellcamino]

I'm pretty interested in what comes of this long term

I think the long term issue might be tube staining, but from the sounds of it, the actual gunk/performance problems of additives might be alleviated with this

I suspect you are correct but who cares about tube staining anyway until you want to cange colors? If that is the only side effect then it sounds like a good idea to me!

I usually change my tubing and coolant about every 6 months anyway, usually due to being a moron and insisting on upgrading my hardware.

[Serpentarius]

I suspect you are correct but who cares about tube staining anyway until you want to cange colors? If that is the only side effect then it sounds like a good idea to me!

I usually change my tubing and coolant about every 6 months anyway, usually due to being a moron and insisting on upgrading my hardware.

actually the gunk in the waterblock .. the staining of acrylic is pretty much a pain

not to mention those res

[hellcamino]

actually the gunk in the waterblock .. the staining of acrylic is pretty much a pain

not to mention those res

No I said who cares about tube staining, stained acrylic and gunked blocks are bad.

[Alexontherocks]

I haven't noticed any stain whatsoever in the tubing nor on the waterblock internals....

The problem would be adding uv reactivness.

[LockBreaker]

Any pictures of the colour?

[fox3]

I thort alcohol was no go with plexi, how would that work with blocks w/ acrylic tops?

[NaeKuh]

alex remember martin said red color loops cool better..

[gena]

Did you add PT Nuke to your mix? Very interesting experiment. Please, keep us updated.