Amp modification

[MONMIX]

My US Acoustics amp is just too dang big. The thought of putting it behind the qutr. trim is seeming less and less thrilling. So , I disasembeled the amp to remove the too big heat sink. With a little trim on the ears I can fit the amp circuit board under my passenger seat with zero fuss. Add some support feet ( wood or plastic , yet to be determined ) a little fan for cooling.


So am I begging for trouble or what ?

If I am begging for trouble who makes a decent
small size four channel amp.

 

[jimbo74]

i dont know what amp is good... but taking off the heatsink is not good..... its kinda like what i saw today on a coworkers honda.... he took of his air filter and had a straight open pipe to his throttle body!!! i told him especially with his fenderwell ram air setup that was a good way to destroy the engine!!!!.... he said "but it revs up higher and louder now!" i said that is becuase it is about to blow up and told him he was an idiot and told him to put the filter back on.....

 

[88vert]

taking off the heatsink is not good your amp will not cool very good

 

[aldive]

I would leave the heat simk alone.

 

[MONMIX]

I am losing the heat sink yet gaining a fan though.
Moving air will cool more efficiantly that standard dissapation.

 

[jimbo74]

yeah... and my friends honda gained higher revs and a louder exhuast note...... i remember that the instructions on my mosfet controlled ESC for my r/c truck said something that even if there is enough cooling that the heatsink needs to be connected or some circuit wouldnt function properly....... an amp uses these same mosfets... i know they are the same principle though...so i would assume your amp may not function properly without the sink

 

[jimbo74]

another thing i just remembered.... a fan is pushing ambient air..if it is humid than it may short out an electronic component... where as with the sink it is enclosed in the amp and more resistant to moisture as the sink is solid and only transmit the temperature not the humidy in the air

 

[MONMIX]

Yeah , humidity , that is a good point I did not consider.
There obviously was contacts ( six to be exact ) from the circuit board to the sink but all it was was a thin weak glue. four of the contacts came off of their own free will , two just popped of with a little finger shove.

 

[jimbo74]

the contact points i bet were metal? and i bet that the sink was metal? although not the best conductor, aluminum is still conductive

 

[MONMIX]

Nah , sink was alumnium but yeah the conatcts are metal.

 

[jimbo74]

that isnt what i meant...... aluminum is metal also....... it is a poor electrical conductor, but nonetheless still conducts electricity

 

[Stephen S]

Originally posted by MONMIX
Yeah , humidity , that is a good point I did not consider.
There obviously was contacts ( six to be exact ) from the circuit board to the sink but all it was was a thin weak glue. four of the contacts came off of their own free will , two just popped of with a little finger shove.

Nah, it wasn't just glue. The heat sink is much more effective at cooling your amp then having it open. The metal is much more efficient at dissipating heat than the air surrounding the heat source. Also, in order for the heat sink to work, it must be in direct contact with the heat source. That "glue" was more than just glue. That was probably a sort of heat conducting adhesive, because as I said before...direct contact with the heat source, and air is not efficient at tranferring heat.

Another thing, with the amp open, all kinds of crap can get on the circuitry...dust, coins, paperclips...whatever. I wouldn't want a small piece of metal falling in my amp and shorting it out.

 

[Explorer94GV]

rockford fosgate makes small 4-channel amps so does alpine. they are both good quality too. im postive you could put these where the stock subwoofer was.

 

[MONMIX]

Yeah I am booting the striped amp idea. Desprate mesures I guess.
I'll look into that rockford amp and the alpine.

All this trouble just because I HAVE to have my graphic eq.

 

[88vert]

Orion cobalt amps are small and powerful too

 

[jz098]

Actually heatsinks are 100 percent better than using a fan..unless of course the amp isnt mounted right...upside down or something. A quality heatsink design will keep the amp waaay cooler than any fan...and most importantly...a heatsink will NEVER fail, unlike a fan that has a possiblity of breaking. One of my friends has a fan to cool is and it broke...eventually it burnt out...along with burning out the back of his trunk carpeting.

If you think of any ideas on where to mount your amp let me know..i am looking for an alternate location for my 4-channel amp. right now it is on the back of the passenger seat. i was thinkign of making some custom enclosure near the right rear cargo panel.

good luck.

 

[Yng_pnk]

i didnt real all posts but heres my 2 pennys

The heat sink provides more cooling then a fan. take a processor for example, The processor heats up the sink, the sink and and processor share the heat, the cooling fins disapate a good portion of the heat, the more air circulation, the more heat is disapated. Now if you run a processor with only a fan it will burn up real quick because it will doesnt have the heat disapation materials. no matter how much air is moved over it it wil still have an extremely high core temp. the processor sends heat acrossed the fins of the heat sink to lower core tempature. hehe this is just my babble If i were you id look for an alternative sink, maybe made for a computer system. they make really flat ones, you might need to do some modificstions depending on how large the area that needed the sink is