Ok, I recently bought myself an amplifier. Its a coustic ( ya ya i know, but i got a good deal) it can be found at this link http://www.coustic.com/products/amplifiers/401SE.cfm . I know these things get hot, and this one gets hot enough to burn the shyt outta ya hand....at which point it usually shuts down. So im thinkin, so big deal, i know its like 180f in my trunk buts thats no excuse to shutdown repeatedly. So do any of you think its possible to watercool this steaming pile of crap? and if so could i maybe run the pump from my cigarette lighter thingy?


lemme know,

Thanks

I've seen liquid cooled amps before, but they were designed that way...

Well i was thinkin, maybe something like a this http://www.xoxide.com/hardrivcool.html plus the pump, rad....

This is gonna work out real nice, or thats how it looks for now, i need a good pump, and a good rad that can handle massive amounts of heat. Also, you dont think that extreme amounts of bass, shaking rattling and vibrating the pump would have much or any of an effect do ya?

Do you seriously thin that a kit or cooler designed to cool something small like a hard drive or CPU could help you cool down an amp. Its worth a shot but I would not watse your moey on it. Think of something else ask some car audio professionals for solutions.

Hmm thats kinda overkill. Besides those HDD coolers are....well as small as an HDD, so you'd need a few of them and they wont have much surface contact with a curved amp like that. If you knew what you were doing you could use the car's built-in cooling, ,but you'd have to be an autmotive engineer to mod like that.

More reasonable suggestions:

1.) Get a large fan to plug into the cig lighter and blow over the amp.

2.) Make your own ducting mod from an airconditioning outlet to the amp.

3.) Buy one of those portable electric coolers that you can plug into the cig lighter and put it in there, however, you will need to find a way to prevent condensation. Maybe you could get one of those vacuum sealers from the shopping network and do it like that.....wait this one seems kinda overkill too.

Any one of these would most likely work better and be much cheaper than your suggestion. Good luck.

Thanks, I appreciate the advice...but any old fan blowin' just isnt pimp enough for me... Im gonna check out the other options you listed though, and some others...thanks again to all of ya

that ugly crappy lookin' 'carbon fiber' piece at the top comes right off after removing those three little screws, exposing a large heatsink'ish area...I was thinking of maybe getting 3-4 of these http://www.xoxide.com/vantorfan.html and right above those three little screws, i think its flat enough to get them mounted purdy flat. if i got 3 of 'em, i could have 1 centered, as an intake (sucking air down into the heatsink) and 1 directly to the left of the center fan, and one directly to the right of it exhausting ( blowing air out and away from the heatsink) what ya' think?

Once again, a picture of the victim, er amp... whatever here it is http://www.coustic.com/products/ampl...401SELarge.cfm

But then how would i power those fans, could i maybe get a fan controller, which i have never used before...and wire all 3 fans into it and then have the fan controller unit wired into my cigaretter lighter thingamajigger, or would i need a power convertor for the lighter power output?

Hey Frekk it's an interesting idea and actually it's one that has come up on a couple of other boards. As has already been stated one of the biggest hurtles would be getting a large enough water block. I know you said plain fan's weren't pimp enuf' for ya but there are a couple of after market fans designed for just for cooling car audio amps in case you change your mind . Here is one, http://www.electronixwarehouse.com/c...ories/fans.htm

Another site for aftermarket fans, http://www.sounddomain.com/shoplist~...t~12+Volt+Fans

Here is a primer for installing fans yourself in case you like that diy pimpage, http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/coolfans.htm

Hope it helps.

I have an amp that gets hot as hell too! I would never WC it tho... it is a JL Pro 500W... I ran a home made ducting mod from the a/c line to the amp, and it works great!

WHY DON'T YOU JUST USE A WATER BLOCK AND ATTACH IT TO THE HEATSINK ON THE POWER MOSFET? COOLING THE OUTSIDE IS NOT GOING TO HELP.

great advice, thanks Computersmith. Im checkin those fans out right now

bushh's idea would be the on I'd go with since it is soooo ingenious

I would go with bushh's idea, but this amp/system is in a 1991 cavalier...I have trouble feeling air while im sitting up front when it is on high, let alone trying to rout it, and keep it cool enough to have any effect whatsoever, 17 feet to my trunk.....(buzzer noise) aint gon' happen...lol

Just helped a guy at work hook up fans to cool his amp. All we did was get some curved metal bars and mounted the 120mm fans to those and then cut off the three pin connector ends and hooked the wires into the positive and negative power cables to the amp. He's working on creating an enclosure around the fans so it's airtight until the bottom near the amp where the air goes out
_______________________ fans ( intake)
|................................................. ...| enclosure
|................................................. .. |

|----------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------| amp

That seems way to hot for a amp to be running did you install it yourself? I am betting you did if you are thinking of water cooling it so I would try adjusting the amp I think you might have it tuned wrong (like making it do more than it can) or check all your wireing make sure it is the correct gauge, and that you have a good ground. Or maybe it just runs hot who knows if thats the case water cool it and post some pictures

Quote: Originally posted by Frekk great advice, thanks Computersmith. Im checkin those fans out right now

Not a problem Frekk. Glad I could help... BTW my thought was the same as yours on the whole running ducting from the a/c which in a newer or smaller car sounds like a great idea but if you didn't have a/c in your car or didn't have that much output from your a/c that it would stay cool as it traveled down the ducting.

here ya go BAZOOKA They also water cool the voice coils (the actual thing that moves the woofer)