Bling factor for the cheapskate

[Bugsmasher]

Aight, I admit it. After cracking loose with over $200 for my original WCing system I am a cheapskate.

To date I have changed from a pre-modded '86 Chevette HC + PrimoChill shroud to a '77 B-ville and did some small modifications + home built shroud. Savings + performance has made me very happy. I have also changed from the various additives for anti-corrosion and anti-growth to good old fashioned Anti Freeze OR Hyper Lube and some Iodine (anti-growth) in order to avoid the extra cost generated by using the pre-mixed coolant solutions.

Now we come to the interesting part. I admit I like a little bling in my WCing system. If its gonna run great why shouldnt it look good to IF and ONLY IF it wont hurt overall performance. This brings me to my question- I have used the UV additives suggested and offered on several WCing sites and frankly....I am extremely unimpressed with them. The effect is small when using their suggested proportions and frankly doesnt seem to get much better even when going with more additive than suggested. This extends to pure distilled water + UV as well as my standard coolant mix.

I had read something interesting where someone had used a standard non-toxic HighLighter Marker by Avery so just for giggles I went ahead and did the same thing in a glass of water I simply placed near a UV light. I simply soaked the nib end of the marker in the water for a short while and the effect is ....amazing.

This stuff glows like nothing else I have seen. Great on the appearence and it seems to completely dissolve in the water. I let it sit for a while to allow some of the water to evaporate and could see no buildup on the side of the glass.

Does anyone know if this is safe to use or has anyone used this before for any decent length of time? If so what was the effect on corrsion if any?

I know, I know, bling is secondary which I agree with...but you have to see this stuffs appearence under a UV light. It puts those $10 UV additives to shame. If this is unsafe my next stop will probably be the Dye-Lite leak detection additive but for the price ($1.00) and appearence (hubba hubba) this might just be a great match for price and performance.

Will get some pictures after I start my wire management mods. My case currently looks like a bowl of spaghetti. Fanbus coming up!

[brucoman]

tried the highlighter once
removed the core & put it in res. after couple hours noticed tiny fibers floating loose...
stained tubing as well

I use a bit of Woolite now, no regrets.

[Bugsmasher]

I hadnt actually intended to use the core, simply put the end of the marker in the water and let it sit for a while then add the water to the loop. This would simply be adding the pigment and UV reactive components to the water instead of physically adding any of the solid marker components.

To get the ultra-bright effect in approximately 1 liter of water only took about 30 seconds of having the nib of the marker in the water. It was amazingly quick. I couldnt see any other particles or residue in the water after a day so....I am now wondering if its a terribly bad idea to put into the loop. I dont mind cleaning the components, my main worry is whether it could possibly damage the pump. The rest I can take care of fairly quickly.

[Bugsmasher]

Quick update for pics.

The only modifications to this pic were for sizing. This is actually how the system looks (with the side panel off of course) after putting the Highlighter ink into the system

Its sorta messy at this point since I havent started with the wire management as of yet.


Coolant with Sanford Highlighter ink used for UV

Note it was a Sanford Non-Toxic marker used, not the Avery....my oops.

[JWFokker]

I wouldn't use highlighter. If I wanted to get yellow or green coolant I'd just put some Hydrx in. It's cheap and it protects your system. Highlighters stain your tubing and can gunk your pump and WB up if you use particulate based markers.

[Bugsmasher]

I am just guessing here but...

I dont think this is the type of marker that causes the problems you are referring to JW. I could be wrong of course. These markers unfortunately dont have the tech specs posted anywhere I can find. According to their customer support its little more than a transparent pigment (yellow) which happens to be UV reactive. This is a 'light' version highlighter. I havent been doing it very long yet but no noticable staining of the tubing as of yet by comparision to my use of HydrX which left a definite buildup on the tubing in the first week.

The main reason I wanted to try this was my dissatisfaction with HydrX as well as the UV additives currently offered. The Highlighter strangely enough seems to be much more UV reactive than the offerings I have tried so far from Cooltechnica, Voyeurmods, and Dangerden. It actually even outperforms (for bling of course) the Dye-Lite UV additive for coolants from Tracerline which rather surprised me.

My original coolant had distilled water mixed in the correct proportion to HydrX and literally left deposits inside the tubing/pump/res within a week. My second, third, and fourth iterations were a 10% Low Tox Prestone/89% Distilled Water/few drops of UV additive/2 teaspoons of Iodine. There was minimal staining/deposits but the UV reactivity was very low. My current iteration is approximately a 5% HyperLube (Water Wetter variant basically) with just a wee bit of the Highlighter ink, 2 teaspoons of Iodine, and distilled water. So far I havent seen any staining and zero deposits.

Bottom line I am looking for a low deposit, UV reactive (strongly is preferred), and inexpensive coolant hence my trial of the Sanford Highlighter ink. Understand it is a very very very minimal amount. So far corrosion hasnt seemed to be a problem for any of the mixes I have used although until a few more days pass and I break down my system to check tubing/blocks/pump once again the jury is out on the Highlighter/HyperLube/Distilled water mix.

One real big caution to anyone out there considering this- all highlighters are not the same. Some are more of a paint type base. These are the ones that you may have seen pics of where people traced circuitry on their cards/motherboards for appearence. These I believe may be the type JW is talking about. There are also others that have non-water soluble components and these can cause problems as well. The third type I know of is a water soluble, non-toxic, transparent type which is what I believe I have used this time. Time will tell soon. I plan on breaking down my system this upcoming weekend and checking out the components to see what the effects if any were. That will have given this coolant over a weeks time in which to cause deposits, stain tubing, cause corrosion, etc.

The reason I am particularly intrigued by this option is the brightness of the UV reactivity offered which has far far surpassed the additives I have tried so far. Stack on top of that it allows me to use whatever anticorrosive/anti growth additives I chose as well. Lastly at $1 in cost and the fact its readily available in 5 different colors and I think it really has promise.

The main reason for posting was my interest in seeing if others had done so themselves and what their findings were. I think it falls right in line with my target of making WCing a sub $110US pricetag with some nice visuals and good performance (submerged Aqua 1300 in homemade res, CPU block, inexpensive tubing, home-made fillport(optional for easy fill-n-bleed, '77 Bonne Core, homemade shroud, 2 Sanyo Denki 120mm fans). Add to that some interesting visuals for just a few bucks and I think it would certainly be of interest and so far outperform the current kits available for the same money and I think it would be a winner.