okay i have a black intercooler. i only painted it a month ago . and it hasnt really seen a warm day yet. my question is this. i know that black attracts heat and lets say its 90 degrees out and i have the black intercooler, do i have to worry about detonation. or is the intercooler still doing its job? is the silver gonna be alot faster at effeciency?

 

Yes, black does attract heat, but I would be more concerned about the fact that by applying paint to it (regardless of color), that you have reduced its efficiency. Aluminum is very good at giving up its heat and the paint may act as kind of an insulator.

Reducing the efficiency is going to prevent the charge from cooling as much which *may* cause detonation...

 

I'm with that. Black attracts heat in the sun, you intercooler isn't necessarily sitting out in the sun if it's behinf your bumper.

 

I have heard that black actually transfers heat better.

-Dustin

 

Black doesn't "transfer" anything. It's a color. That reflects more colors of the light spectrum than other colors so it get's hotter.

The simple fact is, bare aluminum will transfer heat better than "coated" aluminum.

 

so i have to worry about detonation at .45 bar untuned with a black intercooler?

 

.45bar, I doubt it... but you should still go get it tuned and run it a little on the safe side to account for the fact that the i/c will be a little warmer in the summer.

 

Funny, i used a black intercooler for over a year. Even in the dead of summer where it saw 100 degree temps and not one single ping, ever. 14-15lbs daily driven on a 60-1 pump gas. If there was going to be a problem, i think i would have run into it. Think about this, your stock radiators are black so therefore they would be less inefficient by having that coating on them rather than bare metal. The stock radiators cool very nicely, you never have a problem with overheating do you? The point is that the efficient drops by like 1-2% if that, worry about other things on your car than the intercooler being black and this comes from personal experience.

 

Duh, it's behind the bumper, hows the sun gonna shine on it long enough to heat it up enough for the I/C to be ineffictive? Painting your I/C isn't gonna make a big enough difference for you to notice. You may experience a fraction of a percentage loss in cooling. If you're just looking to go for the stealth look, then by all means paint it. As long as you don't clog the fins up with paint, there won't be any real loss of intercooling. I mean stock radiators are coated black from the factory so whats that tell ya? Make a few *light* coats with something like flat black and you'll be fine.


[Modified by Speed PHreak, 12:03 PM 1/22/2003]

 

Don't paint!! Anodize.....!
Thats my vote. Will cost more $ though.....

 

- black absorbs the most energy from light, including infrared (heat)

... but if its not exposed to the sun then it cant absorb an appreciable amount of heat

- black radiates heat the best for the same reason...

"For a black object, changing heat to light is easier for the same reason.
Energy transferred to a surface atom can be held long enough for more and
more energy to build up. Soon there is enough energy in the atom to produce
light. You may not see the light because it may be infrared. A surface
molecule of the white material cannot hold the energy long enough to build a
photon of light. It may occur now and then, but not nearly as often as for
the black material. Thus, a black material can absorb and emit energy
faster than the white material.

Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Physics Instructor
Illinois Central College"


there are all sorts of sources on the web to contradict this. this is always a regularly contested subject. the truth is it doesnt matter to us that much. it doesnt hurt performance if you only paint the surface of the IC and dont paint the fins..dont insulate them basically.

paint the face of the IC black if you want. its not going to hurt anything

 

Actually it's not that simple... This has been covered before tho.

 

A thin coat of flat black paint on Aluminum has been known to improve heat shedding characteristics, like the others have said. This is debated all of the time.
I think it is more important not to heavily coat the fins of the intercooler should you decide to paint it.


[Modified by SLPR, 9:24 AM 1/22/2003]

 

My brother has a huge Greddy type 31? FMIC. Brand new we hit it with flat black paint. Light coats. I've had people 3 inches away ask, "Where's the intercooler?" Trolls love shiny bling-bling stuff. This was to protect against that. Does not affect performance in the slightest way.



[Modified by JalopySiR, 5:26 PM 1/22/2003]

 

 

Exactly why i sprayed my black. No one knows that you are FI, and that is good IMO. With the flat black, it looks as if the intercooler could possible be the radiator. The bling bling factor of intercoolers just attracts so many people to the car, which around my house is not a good thing. I'd rather lose 1% efficiency on my intercooler than have my car gone in the morning when i wake up.

 

okay guys thanks for your help. i just had a guy tell me he liked how clean my car looked with the bronze wheels and black IC.

 

yup yup. What kin of paint did you use to paint your intercooler black?


[Modified by AresB16A2Turbo, 3:00 PM 1/22/2003]

 

hmm... sounds like a good idea

 

and what was that suppose to mean?

 

yeah, use a black stocking. or maybe two of them. its black, flows air obviously, and who whats their lady to step out with her "lower beauty" looking bad

 

he wasnt talking about black people

he meant a black sock that women wear.

hahahaha it got me too.

 

Paint
Anodized

Heat Dispersant Powdercoat

 

I used three light coats of flat black spray paint. If you spend more money on swaintech coating more power to you, but IMO its a waste of money. To me something like this is a low buck mod, not a 100-150.00 special black heat coating.