GPU Waterblock leaking

[moocow]

I took apart the watercooling loop so I can access the motherboard to swap a NVME drive under a cover. After I put everything together and used a hand air pump to pressure test, it start leaking at the connector bridge after I pumped too much air into it. Even at 0.5 bar, it would leak (the residual fluid was creating bubbles). Anyone have experience rebuilding the gasket or o-rings inside an EK GPU waterblock? I'm looking for some guidance since my current plan is to take it apart, measure the o-ring thickness and order some replacement online. Also, any tips of cleaning the blocks, pumps, and rads once they are outside of the case? I left the fluid in too long and the dye degraded and stained the tubes.

 

[JD]

I'd probably start with a couple spoonfuls of Pinesol in the reservoir with distilled water and let it run for a bit. All the foamy bubbles should help loosen things up. Rinse it all out and then take everything apart. Soap, toothbrush and microfiber should be enough to clean up the blocks. Put the loop together, rinse and drain again, then fill with your coolant.

O-Rings are probably tricky, and with EK having questionable support right now, might be hard to find a proper replacement. Are you sure it's damaged though? Maybe just a bit of vaseline to hold it in place? Or perhaps a screw just wasn't tight enough or too tight?

Stained tubing is basically garbage, not much you can do about that.

 

[moocow]

I haven't taken it apart to look at it yet. So hopefully it's the screw that came lose and not a cracked block.

 

[sswilson]

Is it just a standard o-ring on the fitting, or is it a not-round gasket?

 

[Jokester]

I don't think I'd recommend putting anything like pinesol in a loop. It has some stuff in it that could harm acrylic and who knows what else. I usually use dawn when cleaning parts and then rinse with distilled.

Worry about the oring once you confirm that is actually the issue and not something else. Make sure it's not coming from a fitting higher up.

 

[Izerous]

When I rebuilt gpu waterblocks in the past I visited a local oil field supply warehouse and was able to get orings in the correct size. Was just a round one bent to shape, not preformed to match. Side note orings are made from a bunch of different types of rubber and only some of them are OK with the additive people put into their loops. EPDM is what I want to say is what I chose but talking too long ago to be sure.