Oil Change? How Often?

I

INYNN

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2004
Messages
298
Like it says, how often do I change my oil?


I'm running a vegatable oil P3 1ghz system on my desk at work. Mainly just for kicks but I use it for stuff now and again...

I'm wondering... How often should I change my oil? Does vegatable oil go rancid when being constantly warmed a little by the cpu cooler and video card?

If I change my oil could I use motor oil instead to avoid it going rancid?

anyone ever done this?

VegiOilPC1.jpg


VegiOilPC2.jpg
 
Motor oil would probably be better. I am not sure what the shelf life of Vegetable oil is, but you should never have any problem with motor oil... its made for the heat.

Grey
 
Motor oil probably isn't going to be very plastic friendly.
 
Weird choice of title... I thought at first "WTF! what to cars do with overclocking" but then I saw the pic :p

Mineral oil would be the best bet ;)
 
I spent $40 in vegi oil so im going to wait a few weeks but ill for sure be going mineral oil in good time.

My future plans are going to be to add a aquarium pump and a transmission oil cooler off a car.

Because the oil will still flow great at around -5 im going to put the radiator in a bar fridge i have by my desk and just run lines to and from the aquarium pump so my oil will be cooled to about 5c to 10c and then I will try OCing the computer.
 
Here is a VERY BAD QUAILITY VIDEO of it running.

The DELL mobo I'm using NEEDS the CPU fan hooked up and spinning or it will not boot.

Some have told me to remove the fans, some have said leave them. I removed the fans just to play it safe.

But I left the CPU fan... cut off all the blades, glued it to the bottom of the container near the CPU cooler and bent a swirril shape into a slot cover so it acts as an impeller. It moves the warmed oil away from the ram/cpu and you can see it moving the oil all around the container.

Look close in the video you can see what I'm talking about.


 
I have never attempted such a thing and probably never will, but I have to say that I am impressed.
Questions that arise:
Why veg oil?
I would think that a high temperature, low viscosity, synthetic, hydraulic oil might do the trick. I own a marine repair business aside from being a full time firefighter and work with these oils all of the time. the lower viscosity would allow for easier circulation and if you really want to go crazy you could purchase an oil cooler and cool the oil as it is being circulated.
Oils used for industrial purposes do contain cleaners and chemicals that will damage the potting material on circuit boards and other components.
As oil is heated to it’s upper limits (point at which it actually burns) it becomes acidic and it’s Ph level will rise and destroy any metal, plastics and even pit glass due to its corrosive state.
Today’s new motor/hydraulic oils have chemicals and other additives to help prevent this process that I described prior.
Also, synthetic oils even take this to another level when it comes to preventing oil breakdown.
They are my preference over all.
As a precaution when handling commercial grade oils (motor or hydraulic) wear butyl or nitryl gloves. These oils contain “Benzene” which is highly carcinogenic. The vapors from these oils and natural oils can cause long term lung damage or cancer. Use in a well ventilated area only.
Good luck with your project.
 
I've been told mineral oil is the way to go...

-100% clear
-Mice and things dont want to eat it
-Never needs changing
-Can better deal with heat
 
wow, this thread snuck up on me....hehehe :D

--------------------

With 'veggie' based oils , you'll definitly smell it when it's time to go.

Mineral oils are a good alternative , as well as the silicon oil replacements.Both last much longer than veggie oil.Silicon based oils work even better but are more toxic.
 
You are seeing/hearing right. My motherboard is SUBMERGED totally in the oil.

I am in the process of building another bigger/better setup that will look nice and go on display. High-Quaility pictures will follow of the building/setup/final product.

Check back often.
 
I've submerged two computers in mineral oil. You'll probably need some way to radiate the heat away from the oil.

Once settled in mineral oil, do not move it around. After time, the oil will have eaten into components -- leaving them very fragile. It seems that the capacitors become the worst off; they will fall off the board very easily if any bit of sloshing of the oil happens within the container.
 
#1 I have a zalman resorator a1 for cooling as well as a transmission cooler for a small car thats made for cooling oil.

#2 Im intrested in your rigs.... How long did it take until your caps were 'fragile' are you talking solid caps? or normal?

Thanks
 
They were normal capacitors. It took a few months for the caps to become noticeably loose. If the capacitor floated up away from the contacts, pressing them back in would fix.
 
Nicolaskl said:
Why?
Click to expand...

The compressors in refridgerators are not rated for continuous use. There isn't any heat load in a refridgerator so the compressor can get by with only running 25% of the time (wild ass guess figure) and keep the temp down to whatever it's supposed to be. If you're actively dumping heat into the system, though, it's going to have to run much more frequently to keep up.
 
Basicly your saying the compressors in theese things are not 100% duity cycle.

By running a heat source it will fook up the compressor and cooling equipment...


Correct?
 
icemochalatte said:
They were normal capacitors. It took a few months for the caps to become noticeably loose. If the capacitor floated up away from the contacts, pressing them back in would fix.
Click to expand...


I'll explain this .

Electrolytic capacitors have a rubber 'endplug'....oils generally dissolve rubbers.After long term exposure to the oil , the caps are ruined , as the endplug's been compromised.....just pressing them back is only a short term solution ,as once breached , these caps will fail.

The first mobo I submerged , I took great pains to seal the electrolytics with acrylic.


:D
 
Will Silicone work? I have some Clear GE Silicone 2. Will this be okay? Is it conductive?
 
INYNN said:
Will Silicone work? I have some Clear GE Silicone 2. Will this be okay? Is it conductive?
Click to expand...

It's better to use several layers of a thin coating like the conformal ones , rather than the std silicon caulk, but that will work forsure if you are patient and do everything properly,and no , it's not conductive. :)
 
Everything went very well, Very happy with the setup. Couldent ask for more. GOOD pics will follow soon as promissed for you guys. But here are my results documented with a camera phone to hold you over until then.


System:

AMD Athlon64 3200+ (stock speed 2.0ghz)
ASUS ABN-SLI Preimum
2GB OCZ Gold preimum DDR 400
ATI X850XT Video Card


Heres what we have it running at...

one.jpg


two.jpg


As you can see, its running at 4.0 ghz limited ONLY by the motherboard not being able to clock the CPU any faster. Is there any motherboard you guys can think of that i can get more than 4.0 ghz out of?

My goal.... is to get the system to 6.0 ghz. this may sound outlandish but the computer is running so stable and cool @ 4.0 ghz i really do think this is possible. Its also winter here in Ontario and I live in a basement room, I have a ground level window that I'm going to mount the Zalman Reserator outside up against the house. Its about 0c outside all the time right now so that should provide very nice cooling for my system. Basicaly the oil pump will send the hot oil outside threw a hose where it cools in the reserator and then flows back inside and dumps into the aquarium. We will have the cool flow from outside pumping directly into the slowly spinning submerged cpu fan.

As for summer..... beside my desk there is a 'heat vent' that I can park the Zalman Reserator infront of where during summer months is blowing cold AC.

I will get pics of all of this, once setup over the rest of the week.


Thanks for intrest. Fire off any questions/ideas!
 
OMG!!!
Get a e6750 and send that mofo to 5 GHZ!

I mean seriously, WOW! That is very impressive.
I had no idea submersion was so effective. Watercooling is such a waste (monetary) and a headache compared to this. And WAAAAAAY more effective.

I like this thread. Need more pics. And more current hardware :D (No doubt in my mind a e6750 could hit 5G on that. I hit 3.6G on stock cooling, my RAM just wasn't having it, so 3.44 it is.)

Good show!
 
LeviathanZERO said:
I had no idea submersion was so effective. Watercooling is such a waste (monetary) and a headache compared to this. And WAAAAAAY more effective.
Click to expand...

Actually you are quite wrong.On both counts.srry. :D

First off , submersion in oil is limited by the thermal properties in the oil.I had my submersion rig to ~zero celcius and the oil was thick enough to start having 'localized hot spots'.......The advantage submersion cooling has over other methods , is that the thermal changes are very slow , and , it cools everything.
It's actually less effective than watercooling from a 'heat removal' point of view.

Secondly , on a cost basis , I spent about 1000 hours and at least 1500$ on making an actual 'case' to do submersion.There is no way watercooling is more expensive.Trust me.

:D
 
BrainEater said:
Actually you are quite wrong.On both counts.srry. :D

First off , submersion in oil is limited by the thermal properties in the oil.I had my submersion rig to ~zero celcius and the oil was thick enough to start having 'localized hot spots'.......The advantage submersion cooling has over other methods , is that the thermal changes are very slow , and , it cools everything.
It's actually less effective than watercooling from a 'heat removal' point of view.

Secondly , on a cost basis , I spent about 1000 hours and at least 1500$ on making an actual 'case' to do submersion.There is no way watercooling is more expensive.Trust me.

:D
Click to expand...

No, I dont think so. No amount of water cooling is going to get you DOUBLE the chip clock @ 25C. It's obvoiusly way more efficient. Not that I would do either, but still, that is what I was getting at. Guess I should have explained it better. oh wells
 
BrainEater said:
Actually you are quite wrong.On both counts.srry. :D

First off , submersion in oil is limited by the thermal properties in the oil.I had my submersion rig to ~zero celcius and the oil was thick enough to start having 'localized hot spots'.......The advantage submersion cooling has over other methods , is that the thermal changes are very slow , and , it cools everything.
It's actually less effective than watercooling from a 'heat removal' point of view.

Secondly , on a cost basis , I spent about 1000 hours and at least 1500$ on making an actual 'case' to do submersion.There is no way watercooling is more expensive.Trust me.

:D
Click to expand...

I have spent about 8 hours of work and around $90 on everything so far. The rest of the stuff I had kicking around. I found that the oil has a sweetspot around 30c if its at 30c it flows great and takes all the heat outside.

Your correct about the oil not flowing good when its too cold.

I will pretty up my setup and post final costs for everyone when done.
 
LeviathanZERO said:
OMG!!!
Get a e6750 and send that mofo to 5 GHZ!

I mean seriously, WOW! That is very impressive.
I had no idea submersion was so effective. Watercooling is such a waste (monetary) and a headache compared to this. And WAAAAAAY more effective.

I like this thread. Need more pics. And more current hardware :D (No doubt in my mind a e6750 could hit 5G on that. I hit 3.6G on stock cooling, my RAM just wasn't having it, so 3.44 it is.)

Good show!
Click to expand...

Thanks for your intrest I will try and post up pics today! We have plans for the near future of doing a 775 processor of some sort. Perhapps the new e8400.
 
OK Guys here are some pics for you.

Keep in mind that this is a practical setup and not a pretty one. I will make it all look nice and clean once I'm done my testing.

The aquarium will have blue rocks in the bottom and will have a aquarium hood on top with a cool blue light. It will also be sealed.


Anyways heres pics of my current setup and outdoor cooling system.

I think this will be multiple post.

BTW: you may notis my Zalman Reserator has a dime on the top. This is sealed on with silicone to prevent the 'over pressure' hole in the top from leaking oil out. As the oil pressure is greater than that of what water pressure would be.


Here you go!

one-1.jpg


two-1.jpg


three.jpg
 
very nice. i've read quite a bit about oil cooling but this is definitely interesting.
just wondering, do u have any fish in that aquarium, i wasnt able to spot any
 
Nice setup, it would probably be a chemically hazardous environment to house fish, not to mention it would be thermally unsuitable for them too, either way I wouldn't put fish in the damn thing. That aside, I've always wanted to try this with something that can clock well. I'm thinking Athlon LE-1640...
 
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