Project Capella (Lian Li PC-P50R)

[Kibbler]

Wanna see something different?

It's finally time. All the planning and mental preparation. In the radiator world, this is pre-meditated murder with intent to be fabulous. Some guys get 20 to life without parole for this kind of craziness...

The scene of the crime.


The accomplice.


WWRRRLLLLLLLLLLLL------GGRRRRIIINNNNDDDDDD------YYYEEEEOOOOONNNNWWWWW....

Silence.

Yikes! Looks like sustained trauma sir with what appears to be a Black and Decker 8mm!


Found the body right here sir, in this dirty old bathroom. Didn't do nothing, radioed in to precinct first thing, sir.


Damn shame...good lookin' broad, too. What you reckon, detective. Filipino? 3x120? 20FPI? Damn shame...


Ok all nonsense aside these were taken with a P&S and they suck. I wasn't about to lug the DSLR setup into the bathroom while I'm sanding and flushing away.


Whee watersports!


More watersports!


Can you guess where I'm going with this?


One internet cookie to Graeme, your guess was just about there mate!


Flux applied to the bare brass and in she goes. Water is just a precaution, to keep the original solder joints from de-soldering. In the end I don't think it was really necessary. Man if I'm not ghetto I don't know what I'd be...


Five minutes and 600F later.





Before you say anything, I happen to like that couch thank you very much.


More on the way!

***

This was more of a photo-summary than an actual guide. If you're actually interested in the specific steps let me know, and I'll write up some more like the CD-ROM eject button thing from my last worklog.

[CptDreadFlint]

That was SO worth the wait. You always manage to make posts of mods I haven't seen before.
Facinating, innovative stuff.

Bravo, Kibbs

[aka_GK]

wow, nothing to add
I was wondering where the hell that thing goes

[ipuoL]

nice project, but i have one question:

what tubing are you using in this picture:
orange tubing

[Kibbler]

That was SO worth the wait. You always manage to make posts of mods I haven't seen before.
Facinating, innovative stuff.

Bravo, Kibbs

wow, nothing to add
I was wondering where the hell that thing goes

Thanks Flint and GK . But we're not out of the woods yet. Still undergoing extensive leak testing to make sure I didn't desolder any of the existing joints. The dense double-row core acts like a sponge and holds A LOT of water, so I am waiting for all that to dry out before going further.

Good news is the "plug 2 openings and blow into the 3rd" test passed but that's hardly scientific. Could just be weak-ass lungs.

Then there's the re-painting for both ends (obviously the soldered side, and also the inlet/outlet side as I managed to scuff it up while sanding ).

nice project, but i have one question:

what tubing are you using in this picture:
orange tubing

Thanks. It's Feser 3/8-1/2 leftover from my other project.

[kgtiger]

Excellent work kibbler, that looks to be a sweet join too.

You should be preity right as to de-soldering or weakening any internal joins, I feel the heat transfer would affect the joins connected directly to the brass
plate that you soldered the fitting onto first.
Plus it would really take direct heat onto a join to get the solder to liquify again and as there is still heaps of paint around your join, I would bet your rad is prety safe from leaks.

The best way to test for leaks is to connect a pressure gauge to the rad, plug the ends with stop fitting and pump the rad full of air to about 20-25psi, even a bicycle pump would work for this.
BUT you really do need to find out what the maximum psi pressure your rad is rated to before you start filling it with air
Once full with air you can just watch the needle in the pressure gauge to see if it moves at all over, say 1-5hrs.
Air will pour out of even the smallist of hole but water may take a day or more to just form a single water droplet, it's the really small holes that are the hardest to find.
If you do have a slow leak, either spray soapy water around the area you have worked, the soapy water makes big bubble where the leak is.
Or Submerge the rad in water and just look for the bubbles.

Anyhow.
Rather than get 20 to life without parole, you my friend are well on your way to the XS modder's hall of fame.
Reserved, not just the best modder's with the sweetest designs, but also for the bravest modder's on this earth.

Nice work mate, now I just need to work out that your doing with the sli fitting's and the pump.
Damm! wouldn't that be sweet, cause then I would have two internet cookies.

[Kibbler]

Intermission

Prepping for re-painting. Sanding is serious business, giving my hands a break for now.

That brass looks surprisingly cool! I'm almost tempted to just clear-coat over instead of priming/painting, but alas it would not match my color scheme so I'm passing on that idea.

[Wezly]

That looks perfect for aka_GK!

You have done the most sanding that I have ever seen done to a rad before painting!

When do you do the fins? :P

[Kibbler]

Haha now that you mention it you're right!

Not quite copper tho...too yellow and not enough red to match his other parts. But it'd be a good start.

[aka_GK]

brass body looks suprisingly cool

and yeah a bit too yellow for me

[Elpy]

Looking cool . Hey kibbler how are you going to paint it?`Just use normal sprays (and primer ofc)? I'm interested of seeing how it will look since I gotta paint my MCR220 too . Dont like the glossy black and it has already lost paint in some places. I was planning on using normal primer and matte black sprays.

[Kibbler]

You have done the most sanding that I have ever seen done to a rad before painting!

To solder the fitting, I had to sand down to bare metal, which means I will need to primer before repainting. Then I was worried about mis-matched blacks if I just repainted the end tanks. So in a decision made by my brain but opposed strongly by my hands, I decided to sand everything down to bare metal, re-prime, then repaint.

Must give credit to HWLabs. Their paint job is second to none and it takes a lot of elbow grease to remove.

Looking cool . Hey kibbler how are you going to paint it?`Just use normal sprays (and primer ofc)? I'm interested of seeing how it will look since I gotta paint my MCR220 too . Dont like the glossy black and it has already lost paint in some places. I was planning on using normal primer and matte black sprays.

I'll be using Rustoleum universal grey primer and Rustoleum universal gloss black.

[taters mcgee]

i'm a bit puzzled as to what you did there, did you basically turn your normal radiator into an X-flow? and also, why the g1/8 fitting? either way, it's very interesting

[Kibbler]

i'm a bit puzzled as to what you did there, did you basically turn your normal radiator into an X-flow? and also, why the g1/8 fitting? either way, it's very interesting

Truth is my intentions are humble, it's only a drain for the rad (hence G1/8 because restriction doesn't matter on a drain, and so I wouldn't have to drill as big a hole as if I'd used G1/4...8mm vs 10mm is a big difference when the f-ckup potential is so high).

BUT

With a G1/4 fitting (or G3/8 even) and the same procedure you can do a wide range of rad mods e.g. 2 (original) inlets + 1 (additional) outlet for a parallel loop. Or you can turn any rad into an MCRXXXDrive: Add 2 ports, 1 to each end-tank. One hard mounted to pump, the other as fillport. (but this wouldn't work on a GTX because of the way the tanks are split back-front, other left-right rads would work).

Or add more ports to the other side to make any rad stackable if that's more your flavor.

A lot of possibilities.

[taters mcgee]

the drain port makes a lot more sense to me this way

[Kibbler]

A black box

My hands are sore as heck but the sanding is done. Priming the rad tonight!

Impulse buy. I picked this up from the post office on the way to work today.


<3 Eddy for $5 water block


More photos tonight if time allows!

Now, whatever should I do with my NIB XT...?

[ohms]

Sick sick SICK work on the radiator Nibbler. Was that to just so you have another spot to have an output/input or was it for a fillport? What is your application going to be?

[Kibbler]

Thanks V²/P, mine is only a humble little drain line, but the same can be done for many other applications. More outlets, more inlets, etc.

[Arthur]

Amazing progress on your radiator @Kibbler, I still cant believe it. We want more details down here. Keep up the nice work my friend.

Cheers,
Arthur

[Kibbler]

Amazing progress on your radiator @Kibbler, I still cant believe it. We want more details down here. Keep up the nice work my friend.

Cheers,
Arthur

Thanks Arthur for your kind comments, I'm watching your Lian Li build as well!

***

Update

I've applied the first primer coat to the rad. Nice smooth neutral grey. Will finish up with a light 2nd coat tonight. Then I thought...hmm, I don't HAVE to go back to black...what if I repainted the whole thing some other color?

So I made a poll, please vote and let me know what you think!

***

Didn't get to shoot any waterblock :banana::banana::banana::banana: last night as, well, I was busy spraying (hopefully) non-toxic chemicals onto my rad and into the air. I'll try to take some photos in the next few days. Believe me the unboxing is worth it, kinda reminds me of opening Apple gadgets which, however you may feel about the gadgets themselves, the packaging is always so yummmmm.

I somehow feel 'shoot' and ':banana::banana::banana::banana:' should never be used in the same sentence...

[aka_GK]

I've applied the first primer coat to the rad. Nice smooth neutral grey. Will finish up with a light 2nd coat tonight. Then I thought...hmm, I don't HAVE to go back to black...what if I repainted the whole thing some other color?

So I made a poll, please vote and let me know what you think!

Awesome idea Kibbler!
I voted for other, because I think black is boring and glossy red is a bit vulgar to me (not sure it is correct word, I mean not enough elegant).
Also it is much harder to find red color that exactly matches your case

May be matt red? or white (looks soo cool)


And yeah, we wanna see that :banana::banana::banana::banana:

[Kibbler]

Softcore

All dolled up.


Ooh la la...that orange will catch your attention a mile away.


Goodies on top...


Mounting hardware, backplate, midplates (small tube of MX2 tucked in there, too).


Chastity sticker...? Let's get you out of those uncomfortable clothes...


I want my white acetal top!


Ok Eddy. I get the point of the sticker and all but it was still a PITA to remove (FYI it's the kind that flakes and doesn't come off in one piece). Yeah I get that that's the point...but it still took a bit of fingernail scraping. Thank goodness it didn't leave any residue. (I'm referring to the little round warranty sticker by the way, not the big square one.)


Gonna take a look inside.


That looks yum. Very high quality machining.


Hot nickel-on-acetal action baby!

[Wezly]

Gorgeous.
I must say, even though I am a Swiftech fan, I love these new EK supremes (I have one, check my sig (not trying to steal thread views, but I'd rather not post a picture in yours)).

Can't wait to see the white top and what it looks like on the board!

Btw, I can't find a component list.... And I have a strong suggestion for your backplate depending on what your platform is...

[GregSG]

Nice work on the rad!

How bout Black with a tinge of red?

Or Vice versa

[aka_GK]

nice parts!