painting intercooler

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:22 am

I feel that anyone disagreeing with me over this are morons, its just that Im lazy to find the scientific data to prove my point.

Painting the interooler, radiator, rotors or calipers just doesnt make any sense unless its a SHOW ONLY car.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:47 am

Yukonart wrote:
$J-MoNeY-$ wrote:
ciper wrote:I still say it will insulate it and prevent heat transfer.
Insulate in a good way? I'm confused.
No

With an intercooler, you WANT a good heat exchange. That's what the thing's for. Hot air travels THROUGH the IC piping and is cooled by the outside air travelling OVER it.

If it's insulated, cold air will be kept out, and the hot air will continue through to the intake. . . . BAD.

I think of it this way. The paint acts as a buffer for the heat so that it cannot be absorbed by the cool air comming in from the hood scoop. I could see black being a problem but not heat absorbing colors.

Yukonart · Post by **Yukonart** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:52 am

Well, unless sunlight's going to hit the IC, color should make no difference for the paint's ability to conduct heat.

Only when an external energy source (ie: sunlight) hits something dark in color does that color aid the absorbtion of said energy.

In the case of an IC under the hood, only the insulating properties of the paint's molecules will come into play.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 7:08 am

The last thing I gotta say, you guys should know that exaust paint exists that is supposed to be used in place of ceramic coatings or wraps.

Meaning a can of specialized spray paint has enough effect to keep heat inside the exhaust for faster turbo spooling.
Im not saying standard paint will be this way but it is NOT designed to transfer heat.

LaureltheQueen · Post by **LaureltheQueen** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 7:10 am

more or less, painting an intercooler is like putting a glove on. Except the motive is the opposite. With a glove, you dont want the cold air to hit your warm hand, ihibiting heat exchange. when you have an intercooler, you WANT the cool air ouside to make the cool air going through the device to cool off the intercooler. the paint would act as a glove for your intercooler, keeping it warm.

scottzg · Post by **scottzg** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:33 am

this thread is just hilarious.

intercooler- you're discussing putting paint on an intercooler that is VERY POORLY VENTILATED. It's gonna insulate, a little, but the whole intercooler is in an ineffective location. If you are using a saab tmic, budget is such a concern that you are surely not tuned to the degree that you need to worry about the tiny bit that the paint is harming performance.

As for paintiing the brakes, 1/32nd of an inch of paint on half an inch of caliper isn't gonna make much of a difference either. I doubt anyone is using race pads and getting them to fade. Most people i know couldn't get my oem brakes with uprated pads to fade if they wanted to.
Besides, this is the caliper, not the rotor. it has crappy cooling anyway.

paint is rice though.

THAWA · Post by **THAWA** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:59 am

I'm sorry but painting an intercooler in the hopes that it will x-fer heat better just doesn't work. It simply adds another layer of crap for the heat to go through. You are doing nothing but putting a "glove" on the intercooler. It's just going to keep the heat in the intercooler and the cooler air out.You might as well wrap it in a black plastic bag If you want the differnt color intercooler, either pay for one yourself or get one anodized or something.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:14 am

www.speco.com.au has paint for radiators. It supposed to be thinner so as not to block cooling as much.

Steve

boostjunkie · Post by **boostjunkie** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 4:27 pm

Black body emitter? I could've sworn this was mentioned in one of the "performance" magazines. It was a ceramic coating that actually increased the efficiency of the aluminum comprising the intercooler core. The result was a blackish finish, IIRC. For some reason, I think swaintech was the manufacturer.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:19 pm

swaintech, that would make sense. They make CPU coolers right?

THAWA · Post by **THAWA** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:25 pm

I know swifttech does, maybe that's who ou're thinking of

boostjunkie · Post by **boostjunkie** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:11 pm

"I'm planning on giving it a good clean up and then sending the core to swain tech to get it coated in this black body emitter finish (it actually helps the efficiency of the intercooler while coloring it black at the same time)."

Taken from some nasioc post. Accidently lost the page while hooking up to this board.

"The bottom of the pistons were coated with Swain's heat-emitter coating. This should help the oil from the piston coolers carry away heat."

Taken from here: look at the piston pics to the right.

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/proje ... proj300zx/

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:48 pm

We're talking about a coat of paint that is like a micron thick. I could see this being a potential problem, if you had enough paint on there to do anything. The fact is that with a small amount of paint on the intercooler it is going to do very little to nothing at all. The Saab intercooler is already inefficent. What's it going to hurt to take off a percent or two from the already low efficentcy? The point is that you have something on your car that is better then just that black tube.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:03 pm

"The fact is that with a small amount of paint on the intercooler it is going to do very little to nothing at all"

You are wrong though. Why does a layer of air and a plastic sheet increase the efficiency of windows so much? That is the same misconception that everyone always has.
Its not the thickness that matters, its the number of transfers. Instead of going from air to metal back to air you go:
Air to metal
Metal to paint
Paint to air

If you have ever broken a heat exchanger apart, you would know that many small slits exist in the metal "comb" running between the passages. These ALWAYS fill with paint.

Why do you think ceramic coating works so damn well, yet its so thin? Have you seen that people coat turbo housings and even valves? The coating is very thin.

boostjunkie · Post by **boostjunkie** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:51 pm

Is the Saab intercooler really that inefficent? From the ones I saw, their cores were pretty damn good for a stock intercooler core.

And yes, the little paint on the intercooler will make a BIG difference in cooling capacity.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:02 am

I'll paint it anyways and then tell you the difference between a painted one and a non painted one. That ought to clear things up.

JasonGrahn · Post by **JasonGrahn** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:45 am

$J-MoNeY-$ wrote:I'll paint it anyways and then tell you the difference between a painted one and a non painted one. That ought to clear things up.

how are you going to produce your findings? You will need intercooler out temp and a few track times at least. A dyno slip, a/f readings, egts....

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:22 am

JasonGrahn wrote:
$J-MoNeY-$ wrote:I'll paint it anyways and then tell you the difference between a painted one and a non painted one. That ought to clear things up.
how are you going to produce your findings? You will need intercooler out temp and a few track times at least. A dyno slip, a/f readings, egts....

I don't plan on doing all that. Seeing that I have access to nothing forementioned. I will try both and tell you what feels better, and what makes the car run best. Simple as that.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 3:01 am

He only has access to a butt dyno,

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 3:15 am

ciper wrote:He only has access to a butt dyno,

. If it made sense it would be mildly funny.

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:13 am

What, you don't get it?

I tune with my butt dyno all the time. Actually, I probably have one of the most sensitive butt dynos around.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:29 am

Would you rent your butt dyno out if we needed?

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:55 am

I think that's illegal in 49 states.

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:02 am

ciper wrote:Would you rent your butt dyno out if we needed?

Hmm...I don't know. My butt dyno is a very high end model, I'm not sure you could afford it.

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:03 am

vrg3 wrote:I think that's illegal in 49 states.

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painting intercooler