Does Painting an Intercooler Black, Decrease the Performance by attracting more heat?...This would be done to acheive the "sleeper" look on my daily driver...and does gloss or flat black make a difference....Thanx!

 

i painted it with flat black duplicolor on my ol' PWR....road race engineering did the same thing on their intercooler on one of their eclipse projects....feels safe to do so.....tape the openings off....and when you paint the face of the intercooler tilt at an angle and give it nice light coats......let it dry and see if you need to apply more...but usually a couple light coats does the trick.....

 

as long as it's not clogging the fins, you should be fine

 

Thanx guys!! I'll do that...should I get a high temp paint or it doesnt matter?!

 

might wanna go with high temp paint, since its close to your engine bay, but then again since its getting cooled by air either or i guess

 

do a search on, black body emitter or black body radiation


read this link

http://www.egglescliffe.org.uk....html

ffgeoff, this one's all you.

 

So you're saying, because it's painted black it's a black body emitter and therefore has perfect radiation emission properties? I don't think that's quite what the link was explaining

 

mine is painted black and i have no problems, see sig

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2.2Lcivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

do a search on, black body emitter or black body radiation


read this link

http://www.egglescliffe.org.uk....html

ffgeoff, this one's all you. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Can someone explain this in plain english to me? I've been out of school far too long now. I don't get the whole black and radiation effects....

 

a black object will heat and cool faster than a shiny object.

 

ok thats kinda what i gathered, I just wasn't sure. So does that mean a black intercooler will cool the air better than a polished one? or will it not work because it heats up faster due to heat off the turbo? In my way of thinking there would be a greater difference between the front and the rear temps of the intercooler?
What I had read awhile back basically said to try to paint just the front of the intercooler and keep as much paint off the fins as possible while still appearing black from the front. This is the right idea correct?

 

a black intercooler should cool better than a shinny intercooler.

 

but the question is what is the thermal coefficient of the black paint? the paint may be able to heat and cool fast, but can the paint absorb the heat from the aluminum efficient enough to work better? :-)

Many people have painted their intercooler with pretty much no noticable cooling differences.

 

from what i heard it decreases effiecency and that you should get it anodized. just my food for thought.

 

your not painting anything but the end tanks and the front row of fins...everything inside is raw aluminum.....clogging a fin is impossible unless you spray very heavily.....most cooling takes place in the back of the intercooler anyways as it passes through the front rows of fins......chill out and paint it......it'll be fine....and it'll be unnoticable which is the point of this right?

 

 

hard to see, but thats the point. its 26x8x3.5xblack

 

not trying to start a war*** if you dont agree, don't flame
IMO...
you must remember regardless of whatever color you are painting that you are still putting on layers of paint on top of your aluminum I/C/ therefore taking away from the efficency of the purpose of the I/C. but keep in mind that you are talking about a street car and you will most likely notice no difference in power or cooling.

I would consider Anodizing it over painting it

Many people will argue over the fact that we're talking about BLACK. from my knowledge i thought black attracts heat, which contradicts trying to dissapate heat.
Personally i like the look of a polished FMIC, dont see why wanting to paint it black.
sleepers are overrated

just my OPINION

 

the best color would be white, as white reflects the most. i can tell you that when i worked at a car dealership white cars were EXTREMELY cooler to touch than black ICs.

 

If you want to color your IC, and you don't want to lose ANY performance whatsover, you need to anodize it. Anodizing provides metal to metal contact between the coloring media(its metal based) and the metal surface of the intercooler.

Yes, using a non-metal based coloring media will decrease performance, but not noticeably unless you cake the paint on.

 

Sounds like a new marketing idea....black anodized intercoolers avaiable for that ultimate sleeper look!!

I'm surprised there aren't any in the market..i'm sure they would sell like hotcakes!

 

i'm painting mine!! when i get it

 

anodizing isnt necessary. there is no need to paint any part of the intercooler that exchanges heat. just the front of the tubes/fins and the endtanks.

 

dont get a front mount

 

if someone can create a coating that has better heat conductive properties than aluminum, then it would be productive to coat it, since it can take heat from the aluminum, and give it to the air more efficiently.

i belive there is a company that can do this though.

It would probably be a coating with a rough finish, to increase surface area, too.