# Upside Down Tru Tech Heat sink



## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

Hi all 

New to the forums, but been around car audio for quite a few years. Hopefully this is in the right forum Section.I have brought 2 2nd hand Tru Technology Billet B2110 amps, from different people. 1 of which has the heat sinks on upside down and has the the little screw on panels on the top compared to the bottom.

does any one have any thoughs as to why one is upside down? is that a normal occurance, or coudl one of them been modified/repaired maybe?
Normal Heatsink









Upside down Heatsink









Thanks
Grant


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## Ge0 (Jul 23, 2007)

It's looking like someone had the 2nd amp pulled apart and then put it back together wrong. Is it functional?


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

I am thinking this might be the case. i have not put it on the test bench properly yet. I brought it a while ago, and only noticed the heatsink issue when i brought the other one recently. From memory i tested power to the old one, but didn't do a full test. will connect it up tonight and see what i find.


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## Mad Scientist (Feb 12, 2017)

As an owner of about 8 Tru billet amps, I can confirm these are 100% incorrectly assembled. Tru never would have shipped these to a customer in this fashion. This amp was pulled apart and reassembled by someone other than Tru. Who sold you this amp?


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

I got the old one off ebay from a member of an Australian car audio forum i used to talk to reguarly. he didn't mention anything about them being pulled apart or repaired, so maybe he was pulling the wool over my eyes. will see what the bnch test comes up with. Anyone know how i can tell if the internals are genuine or not?


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## seafish (Aug 1, 2012)

Rettkeg said:


> Anyone know how i can tell if the internals are genuine or not?


I would imagine you will be able to tell once pup compare the two of them on the inside.
Tat siad, take pica of both and pst them back here for comparison.


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## ANS (Sep 23, 2011)

You should reach out to John at Tru, he would be able to help you.


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

Here are some internal pictures of the amps. all the serial numbers match up with the box, the back panel and on the internal boards. so it seems genuine. only difference i can see is the fan/wires look like they may have been replaced as the one with upside down heat sinks has joins in the wires and are 3 wire fans not like 2 wire ones the one with the heat sinks the right way up.

normal heat sink









upside down one


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

ANS said:


> You should reach out to John at Tru, he would be able to help you.


Do you have a contact or user name for John? sorry i do not know him. and am new on this forum. Thanks.


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

Hmm this is getting a bit more interesting. with the bottom plate off it doesn't seem like it is possible to mount the heat sinks upside down (just from observation though so may be wrong) just down to the way they are built. but also if you look in the pictrues you can see the mounting holes are in the correct orientation. as in the bigger holes are on the top of the amp to fit the mounting screws and probably a screw driver through and the smaller holes on the bottom. to hold and stop the screw going all the way through.

just seems strange they are different between amps for the mounting hole and cover for the fan.


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## Mad Scientist (Feb 12, 2017)

Technically, you _can_ assemble them in either configuration. All of the major components can be removed and "flipped" if you wanted to. The stainless steel heat sink fins have a groove where the aluminum mounting plate sits, and the amp board attaches to this aluminum place. The stainless steel top plate (the plate where the Tru Tech logo is engraved) is just a cover piece and can also be removed. The polycarbonate transistor covers slide out, and the amp end plates just have a few screws holding them in, etc. 

None of my Tru's are flipped like yours. Perhaps the flipped configuration might have been a special request by the original owner since Tru can customize to a large degree, but I've never seen this layout. 

Talk to John over at Tru and see if he has more details on this build. He should be able to trace the serial number back to the original purchaser and see of there were any non-standard build requests.


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

Just reporting back I bench tested the Tru tech amps and they both run. 1 seemed to not have output for one channel with the preamp on but fine with it off. But my other amp I tested (Tru tech b-475) at that time had the same issue. So may have been the old passive crossover/speaker I was using. Or I could have just been doing it wrong. 🙄🤔 I did try a few things like swapping over the speakers and RCA channels. But got a few mixed results between the amps so will test them again at some point with a known good hu and speakers. But from initial testing the amps are working and internals looking ok for me. I will reach out to Tru tech aswell to see if he knows anything about the amps.

Thanks


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## Ge0 (Jul 23, 2007)

Mad Scientist,

I'm curious. What's the purpose for these little dinkuses.


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

Ge0 said:


> Mad Scientist,
> 
> I'm curious. What's the purpose for these little dinkuses.
> View attachment 299528


They appear to be a cover for where to remove the fans.


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Seems like the original owner has replaced the fans, and then put it back together with the heat sinks backwards...


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## DBlevel (Oct 6, 2006)

I would think the pre drilled holes in the heatsink for the board wouldn’t line up correctly if it wasn’t correctly reinstalled.


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## Rettkeg (Apr 21, 2021)

Jimmydee I originally thought that too but the mounting holes are the correct way. Even with the fan cover on the top. And these would have been drilled as part of making the amp and would make mounting the amp very difficult if they were upside down.


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## Ge0 (Jul 23, 2007)

Rettkeg said:


> They appear to be a cover for where to remove the fans.


OK. That makes sense to me now. I didn't see the side profile of the amp to know there were fans mounted in the heat sink. Those are just access covers allowing you to slide the fan in and out.


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## Mad Scientist (Feb 12, 2017)

These amps may not have 'reversed' heat sinks despite appearing as though they do. Note: I've adjusted the size of the pics to better represent the mounting holes.

In the pics below, you'll notice on the typical Tru layout, the bores for the mounting screws on the heat sink are larger on the top side than they are on the bottom to account for a screwdriver shaft or ratchet / socket to tighten the fastener for the amp (see 1st pic).

On the 'reversed' amp, you'll notice that these same bores are larger on the side that has access to the fans (which is normally the bottom). If you were to flip the heat sinks for these reversed amps, the larger bores would now be on the bottom, and the smaller holes would be on the top (see 2nd pic). This doesn't make logical sense for mounting purposes unless you bottom mounted them to showcase the amp board through an acrylic window or something similar. However, most people wouldn't bottom mount these amps. 

The learning lesson here may be that:

 The original owner requested this
Tru changed their layout over time
Fill in the blank








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