1999 Chevrolet Blazer - Stereo Integrity, Ground Zero, Soundstream

[jcarter1885]

Bummer about the amps because I was considering them, back to the drawing board.

[gckless]

since your heat sink is on the top of the amp like youve mentioned, but you want the fans below the amps, id go with one of your original ideas and remove the bottom covers, and 1 side cover form each, then have each fan pushing air into the amps from the bottom, that way it forces cooler air to the top of the amp, which in turn will help the fins of the heat sink see circulated air and hopefully stay cooler since the air isnt stagnant. just my .02 cents

Yeah that's pretty much what I'm going with I think.

Bummer about the amps because I was considering them, back to the drawing board.

To clarify, it's only the 2400XII that's overheating. And I'm running it to it's edge, bridged to a 2ohm load. The 4200XII is running fine. Gets hot, but not terribly so. Not near protect temps.

[aculous]

it gets hot here in utah, but, nothing like what you TX and AZ guys put up with.

bummer......

but the build looks on par as hell..... nice work

Thanks man. Yeah, it's pretty rough down here around now for a couple months. I mean I have pretty dark tinted windows in the rear, around like 8% or so, but even with that, if the sun is on the amps they get too hot to touch even when they're off. Not to mention, the truck is like an oven whenever I'm not in it. Running a 1500W Class A/B amp all out at minimum rated impedance doesn't help either.

Maybe I am getting your suggestion wrong but what I would do,

Airflow across the amp and space the amps so you have air going under them too. Cut out openings under them too. May be a good idea to make a square passage-way over the amps so the push pull fan config is a little more efficient then in complete free air.

I hope that made sense.

I get what you're saying, and that would work pretty well, with the cover creating a slipstream over the amps. I'm trying to keep the look of this intact though, so no noticeable changes. There's absolutely no reason I need to raise the amps. There are no vent holes, no components attached to, no cooling being offered by that bottom cover whatsoever, so does nothing to raise it. Don't mean to rude, I've just explained this and fought this battle with too many people....lol.

So what I was going to do was cut holes underneath the amps for the fans, remove the bottom covers so the guts are exposed, and mount the fans horizontally to the board the amps are mounted to, blowing (or pulling) directly at the bottom of the amps. Maybe that makes more sense with my options above? That way no one would know they are there, everything still looks the same from the outside.

No worries, you weren't being rude and no battles to be fought. I work with engineers everyday and I have to back up everything I say and its exhausting, if you have had the conversation once its a pain to have it another 100 times.

And thinking about it harder I am guessing it would be since the heatsink is transferring the heat from the mosfets which are on the outside edge of the board. So the board itself has barely any heat.

Sorry didn't mean to derail the thread at all.

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

What about maybe building some end cap type things next to the amps removing all the side covers and using a pair of these for the cooling?

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_16879_Stinger-SGJ78.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLA&scid=scplp3599983&gclid=CJDm6PHl3cYCFQ2OaQod0YgH6Q

They are a little noisy but really low profile and they did they job well for me when my amps were somewhere they shouldn't have been with virtually no space for cooling.

[gckless]

it gets hot here in utah, but, nothing like what you TX and AZ guys put up with.

bummer......

but the build looks on par as hell..... nice work

Thanks man. Yeah, it's pretty rough down here around now for a couple months. I mean I have pretty dark tinted windows in the rear, around like 8% or so, but even with that, if the sun is on the amps they get too hot to touch even when they're off. Not to mention, the truck is like an oven whenever I'm not in it. Running a 1500W Class A/B amp all out at minimum rated impedance doesn't help either.

Maybe I am getting your suggestion wrong but what I would do,

Airflow across the amp and space the amps so you have air going under them too. Cut out openings under them too. May be a good idea to make a square passage-way over the amps so the push pull fan config is a little more efficient then in complete free air.

I hope that made sense.

I get what you're saying, and that would work pretty well, with the cover creating a slipstream over the amps. I'm trying to keep the look of this intact though, so no noticeable changes. There's absolutely no reason I need to raise the amps. There are no vent holes, no components attached to, no cooling being offered by that bottom cover whatsoever, so does nothing to raise it. Don't mean to rude, I've just explained this and fought this battle with too many people....lol.

So what I was going to do was cut holes underneath the amps for the fans, remove the bottom covers so the guts are exposed, and mount the fans horizontally to the board the amps are mounted to, blowing (or pulling) directly at the bottom of the amps. Maybe that makes more sense with my options above? That way no one would know they are there, everything still looks the same from the outside.

No worries, you weren't being rude and no battles to be fought. I work with engineers everyday and I have to back up everything I say and its exhausting, if you have had the conversation once its a pain to have it another 100 times.

And thinking about it harder I am guessing it would be since the heatsink is transferring the heat from the mosfets which are on the outside edge of the board. So the board itself has barely any heat.

Sorry didn't mean to derail the thread at all.

Well I was talking about with the bottom cover on specifically. With it off, there might be use in raising them, but not if I'm adding additional fans in there. But yes, the board itself doesn't transfer much heat. All the heat-producing components (basically the MOSFETs) are mounted to the case. Now, on the 2400XII, there are some heatsinks inside the case, just mounted to components and being cooled by the air. You can see those in the photos, and that's the reason the amp has internal fans. So there is some benefit to having active cooling for that amp. But getting air circulating inside should cool everything down a little, and should have at least a little effect on the case, which is where all the heat is concentrated.

Not derailing it at all man, I like to talk about electronics and hardware and cooling and this stuff.

What about maybe building some end cap type things next to the amps removing all the side covers and using a pair of these for the cooling?

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_16879_Stinger-SGJ78.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLA&scid=scplp3599983&gclid=CJDm6PHl3cYCFQ2OaQod0YgH6Q

They are a little noisy but really low profile and they did they job well for me when my amps were somewhere they shouldn't have been with virtually no space for cooling.

That would work, and those are good, I've used them in the past. But again, I'm trying to keep this same look if at all possible. I know I have better options if I would just rebuild that amp mounting board, but I would like to keep it this way if possible.

[gckless]

Finally got some time and was able to pull it out and do some work.

First pulled the whole board out and took the bottom covers and inside side panels off. Here's what I was talking about before if any of you couldn't visualize it (probably because of my terrible explanation):

Then cut out holes for the 140mm fans and routed the edges. These are very sloppy but I was just trying to get it done fast and no one is going to see them:

Then I threw the amps back on there. This actually worked out really well because the way the amps are designed the side panels are raised a little bit. I'm getting good airflow out the fan holes and out of the bottom of the side panels:

Wired the fans to a switch, then to the relay for everything. This way, I can either leave the switch on all the time and the amps will only come on when the amps are on, or I can turn them completely off:

And can't notice anything was done from the outside:

I have high hopes for this. I haven't went and pushed the amps and tried to get 'em to heat up, but I'm going to assume all is well now.

Now that I have some logistics out of the way, I can move forward with final tuning and reviews. It's been beautiful here lately (just hot as hell), so I've been riding my bike almost every day, so not sure when I'm going to get around to it.

[RossGo]

Nice mod!

[Do-LowHrzHurts]

For my subs, I have a pair of custom built 3HP 15” subs, built by Zeuslicious. Modded 3hp tall top plate and 3-1" magnet slugs instead the regular .75", dual 1 ohms big ww and 8 layer fw aluminum coil, dual spaced TC spiders and DD 8" Carbon Fiber cap. Rated at 1800W RMS. I polished the magnets. Will be mounting these inverted.

Thread found here: http://mobileaudioforum.com/forum/showthread.php?1558-My-new-custom-3HP-s

Here is a before/after comparison:

They turned out well. Just need to clear coat them now, and I'll be done with them.

Been looking for a pair of 15" like these for my build any recommendations or point the right forum sponsored vendor who deal in custom subs like these?

[gckless]

Been looking for a pair of 15" like these for my build any recommendations or point the right forum sponsored vendor who deal in custom subs like these?

A guy with a username of Zeuslicious built these. He's on CA.com and CACO. I don't know who does custom subs here.

[gckless]

And this marks the conclusion of the Blazer saga:

Buying a new car, so had to rip everything out. Sooooo much easier coming out than it is going in (you know what I'm talkin' about ). Took about 5 hours total.

I never tuned this, never really brought the TM65s, the GZ amps, or the Daytons to the edge, never compared the TM65s to the Anarchies, few things I didn't get around to. But, this thing is becoming a hassle. Buying a 2011 Impala. This stuff will be going in there sooner or later.

....Until then!