I lost my post again, but I don't think I timed out
Oh well...
For your information, jd, I did do my own research, but only after no one would help me out. In the past, I have had pretty bad experiences searching for water cooling info on the web, so it was pretty frustrating for me. My first reaction to this thread, therefore, was not to crawl the net searching for more info. I guess times have changed... (consider this: the last round up of water cooling products here was in jan 2002 so that sorta illustrates the still sparceness of reliable water cooling info on the web).
Simply designing and building water blocks does not constitute thermal engineering. Engineering is a design process which involves the ability to accurately predict how the design will work. I'm not saying that your experience has not helped you to design and build effective water blocks, but it's not an exact science as you've made it out to be.