I think the factory pieces are heat treated. I used to haul a lot of automotive production goods for GM. Some of which were aluminum castings that were going from the casting facility to another company that did the heat treating. They used to let us truck drivers wander all around some of the coolest and most historic automotive plants in North America. It was very interesting to a gearhead like me. <BTW> What alloy is going into these units? Are you doing the casting "in-house" , or contracting it out?

A liquid cooled IC still needs some kind of radiator doesn't it? How big would that be? And can I have A/C if I go that route? -- Matt