overdoing it...again.

[Weapon]

as some in here may recall, I have a bit of an obsession with heat exchangers - mainly, the 2-302 (a.k.a. '77 b'ville w/ac). Now, most of the time, the main gripe about that core has revolved around having to make a shroud to fit the bastage. So, I decided to skip my usual tactics with the torch and I went straight to the cad software and sent it off to the CNC shop.

18 gauge steel, welded corner seams, venturi design, CNC bent and cut=

fairly sure the wife plans on shooting me in my sleep for this one.

[confuzzedintel]

how much do those heat exchangers usally run?

[saaya]

sweet!

EDIT: hey what happened to your article ,didnt you want to write a guide or something? lemme know if you need help!

[Karnivore]

Originally Posted by confuzzedintel

how much do those heat exchangers usally run?

Discussion of sales and/or prices are restricted to PM's, or our Classified section.


Very nice work weapon.

EDIT:Typo

[TheDude]

Wow! You have outdone yourself this time!
YHPM :thumbsup:

[LANjack]

Originally Posted by Karnivore

Discussion of sales and/or prices are restricted to PM's, or our Classified section.


Very nice work weapon.

EDIT:Typo

I think he may have been asking what they cost at the store.. not looking to buy one from this guy.

[Weapon]

Originally Posted by confuzzedintel

how much do those heat exchangers usally run?

if you are talking about the 2-302 heatercore, they can be had at autozone, advance auto, etc. for dirt cheap -- i.e. around $20. You can cut the factory tubes with a dremel, tubing cutter, etc. and slip 1/2" ID tubing over the remaining copper pipes on the core (provided you get the right model) or you can use an inexpensive plumber's propane torch (about $20 at walmart) to remove the factory tubes and then replace them with barbed brass fittings.

for a lot more info on the 302 mod as well as some info on the 2-199 (including modding it) and the 2-342, check these:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=25182
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.p...0&page=1&pp=30

Originally Posted by saaya

sweet!

EDIT: hey what happened to your article ,didnt you want to write a guide or something? lemme know if you need help!

yeah - I'm still working on shroud guide but these are pretty much beyond anything that could be made at home unless you have a CNC shop in your garage. 18gauge steel is very tough to bend without some heavy duty equipment and I wanted to make a shroud that was close to being bulletproof. I ran into a guy from another forum that had been making some shrouds with CNC and we ended up firing some design ideas back and forth which resulted in the ones pictured above.

Originally Posted by Karnivore

Very nice work weapon.

EDIT:Typo

thnx.

Originally Posted by TheDude

Wow! You have outdone yourself this time!
YHPM :thumbsup:

lol. wait until you see the next 302 core mod.

[HawainPanda]

wow..those look really good!

[Weapon]

already working on the next version:

[confuzzedintel]

Originally Posted by Karnivore

Discussion of sales and/or prices are restricted to PM's, or our Classified section.


Very nice work weapon.

EDIT:Typo

i ment the store not off of him

[Weapon]

shroud update:
-the new fan cutout is being worked into the design. It is based on one of the fan manufacturer's specs for a 120x38mm discharge cutout so it should allow for max airflow/no pressure loss.
-the holes for the fan screws are being slightly enlarged.
-the base is being expanded slightly to get a little more of the outer fin columns into action
-the lip on the edges is being slightly extended
-we are working on adding the divider plate between the fans - at first, it appeared that this might cost too much but we may have it worked out.
-I am losing tons of sleep working on this.

[STEvil]

With a brake and shear you could do this in your shop in 20 minutes

[Weapon]

Originally Posted by STEvil

With a brake and shear you could do this in your shop in 20 minutes

except for the inner seam welding, the corner grinding and smoothing and maybe the new fan cutouts which are very tight tolerances...and the powder coating.

I have a brake -- but I suspect it would break if I tried to run 18g steal through it....nothin' worse than a broken brake.

[Weapon]

we are down to tweaking the final bits of the 302 shroud so it won't be too long before some of them are ready.

also, being the types that run on too much caffeine we started something else and I have some news for you guys that are running other dual 120 cores - we are now in the design stage for a 2-199 shroud as well as a 2-342 shroud. the first prototypes are not far off and they will be made to the same overall material specs as the 302 models.

[STEvil]

lol.. I keep forgetting people dont have as many tools as I do, my bad.

[a5h]

very nice work! looks pro. are these shrouds being sold or put to use?

[cetoole]

Can't wait to see your shroud for the 2-342, looks great, are you just welding the divider plate in, or will it be more complicated than that?

[Weapon]

update -
pic of the new fan cutouts from the underside of the shroud:


I think it is safe to say that the shroud will not block any airflow regardless of whether the fan is mounted to pull or push air now.

also, check out the new corners on the mounting lip - they are solid all the way around. the shroud depth is a bit more as well.

[Torin]

Looking good. What is the depth now? Not still 1.5"? Are you still planning on putting a divider in?

[STEvil]

very nice

[Weapon]

Originally Posted by a5h

very nice work! looks pro. are these shrouds being sold or put to use?

Well, I am going to have several prototype left and we are definitely looking at a production run of them. As for using them, the 302 is my core of choice so I already have them bolted to my cores.

Originally Posted by cetoole

Can't wait to see your shroud for the 2-342, looks great, are you just welding the divider plate in, or will it be more complicated than that?

The divider plate will be welded in after the plate is CNC'd to the dimensions of the inside of the shroud - it will be a very tight fit and it will likely make the core more rigid (if that is possible - they are almost zero flex already)

Originally Posted by Torin

Looking good. What is the depth now? Not still 1.5"? Are you still planning on putting a divider in?

The depth on the last one we ran was 1.70" if my memory serves me correctly - ugh- did a little too much last nite. The divider plate - we are planning on adding them at this point in time. Unless something changes (like the cost of adding them is much more than expected) they will be there.

Originally Posted by whatever

what did it cost to have those made?

If they would have been done on a one-off basis it would have been extremely expensive. Since we are planning on making quite a few of them the end cost per shroud drops a lot. The machinery that is used to make these cost a fortune - most shops won't even fire it up unless you are looking at some volume. I had contacted a couple of other shops to produce one of my earlier shroud designs before I ran into my current partner. One of the shops wouldn't do anything less than 20 of them - the other one was willing to work through prototypes with me but each prototype would have cost me $145....so, getting to the point that we're at now would have been one helluva lot.

[cetoole]

When you get to actually selling them, are you going to be selling pre-modded heatercores at the same time? Won't there be some problems with different heatercores of the same model, eg. 2-302, being different sizes?

[Weapon]

Originally Posted by cetoole

When you get to actually selling them, are you going to be selling pre-modded heatercores at the same time? Won't there be some problems with different heatercores of the same model, eg. 2-302, being different sizes?

I have sold quite a few cores since I first started making them (lol - probably semi-shot myself in the foot on that one by doing the how-to but I wanted to give everyone a low cost option that would still provide really high cooling performance). In any event, I don't have any plans to quit making modded cores any time in the immediate future. Actually, I just contacted another supplier to see if they could provide me with a very specific version of the 2-302 in larger quantities. Additionally, I'm in process of tracking down some new equipment for a particular mod that should produce some very interesting performance from the 302 as well as greatly improve the appearance of it. That is still in the early stages so it might be awhile before they show up even in prototype form as I'm not sure what bugs will have to be worked out.

as for the 302 cores, there are some size differences in 302 cores depending on which company made the core but we've worked out a pretty good solution for that problem. The biggest problem isn't the minor size differences (they are normally +/- 3mm on any of the dimensions (even from the same manufacturer) but the cores from some have different specs (i.e. 10-1/2" as opposed to 10-3/4"). We also have a work around for that one so it shouldn't be an issue.

[Weapon]

just another shot of the latest revision to give some idea as to the amount of standoff we are using now:

the fans are 38mm 120s - as can be seen in the pic, the shroud is now placing a bit more than that between the fans and the core's fins.

[Karnivore]

When you get to actual production make sure to post int the BST forums here, May just have to get one, very nice work