Painting intercoolers

[Vios-GT_07]

um, bling = $$ in their pocket

why buy an intercooler if your habibs cant see it?
thats almost like buying fake intercooler mesh and spraying it black...

hm... wonder if i just blurted out another dumb thought.. then again 297 rep > 76 rep

[PlacentaJuan]

The heat from the water in the cooler is transferred into the metal pipe walls and then into the fins on the cooler. The purpose of the fins is to provide a large surface area to volume o fmetal, which increases the rate of heat transfer. Normally, the heat is transferred from the fins to air by convection. However, if the fins are covered in a layer of paint, which is an insulator, the heat does not come into contact with air and does not transfer through the paint bwell, so it is trapped in the metal and it will just continue to build up.

thanks darling i know how a cooler works, but i don't know how well a fraction of a millimeter of paint will insulate though!

unless you give it a heap of good thick coats (which would do more to clog the fins and obstruct airflow than insulate) a few coats of matt black wont do sweet f/a

[oldcorollas]

but i don't know how well a fraction of a millimeter of paint will insulate though!
unless you give it a heap of good thick coats (which would do more to clog the fins and obstruct airflow than insulate) a few coats of matt black wont do sweet f/a

how about you calculate it for us it WILL make a difference... how much is the question.

[kingmick]

indy champ car core!

[clubagreenie]

unless you give it a heap of good thick coats (which would do more to clog the fins and obstruct airflow than insulate) a few coats of matt black wont do sweet f/a

But if the air passage is smaller then the air will travel slower and absob more heat a it passes through

/stirring shit

[haison]

Lol did i open up a can of worms here? Main reason for painting is for stealth, I don't want the world (especially the boys in blue) to notice all the extra bits on it. Especially don't want to give them reason to make me pop the bonnet . I'll see how it all fits in the car, i may be able to get away with just painting the pipes and lower area.

[Aust162]

This thread is silly. A light spray of flat black, cheap-as-you-like paint is all you need to do. I did this to my core and it made no difference what so ever. would you even be able to tell? answer is no..

the noticable performance difference from the above "light mist" should be precisely fuckall...

what he said^

[MS-75]

Will painting a core make a difference to the transfer rate? Probably.
Will said difference be easily measurable? Not likely without good test equipment.
And unless you decide on all the variables to be controlled, lock them and perform a test using a proper rig that can measure mass flow and minute temp changes you won't get an answer worth squat.

To settle this argument you need a lab, but even then I suspect the actual test parameters to use would be something to debate.

As for producing any in situ measurable difference in vehicle performance-the answer is a firm no.

Automotive intercoolers don't operate in steady state conditions. The difference is so small it doesn't matter.

Sean

[Andrew162]

Well I guess we're talking about FMIC's here right? How about heat-transfer rates on a top-mount water-air IC? Ok so the fins won't be painted or anything, actually none of the internals will be touched at all... but as a factory thing, Toyota painted the top-mount water-air IC black and had a big fat "Twin Entry 2000" sticker right on top of some of them. Now it's my belief that top-mount water-air IC's require a good heat transfer from the top of the intercooler core. There's solid metal PLUS paint (ok so I removed the stock black and put on the famous Royal Plum Pearl.. ) sitting on top of the fins. How much of a difference does a layer of paint make in this regard?

As for anodising, it works best on the purest grade (or best finish, if you prefer) of aluminium. I've seen what shit grade aluminium looks like anodised, and quite truthfully it looks horrid. I'd look more at anodising the fins of an FMIC, and yes aluminium anodising can be done in black. I've seen FMIC's anodised in all sorts of colours... WRX and Skyline drivers love 'em...

my 2c....

[EVOSTi]

i think if you did a fine coat on one side it would make stuff all difference. im sure if you did this and did a dyno run and then swapped the cooler for an identical unpainted one there would be no real difference. sure its not an accurate measurement, but if it cant be measured on the dyno you probably wont notice it in the real world either.

one vote for paint here.

[HAVABEER]

its a bit of a long shot/generalised but:

1. run the car on a dyno check kilowattage/Horse power figure.
2. paint IC and run on dyno again
3. compare figures?

[ProjectSleeper]

To make mine look stealth I just gave the end tanks a very light scuff with some wet'n'dry and then sprayed a light coat of primer and then an equally light coat of flat black..

I don't give an airbourne fornication if it's 0.357898098472934525676% better or worse... it works and it serves the purpose as intended...

[Mos]

Heat transfer (for the purposes of this discussion) happens either via radiation or conduction.

For a typical heatsink like in an amplifier the bulk of the heat transfer happens via conduction, but additional heat is lost via radiation. Black anodising, while introducing insulation to the conduction portion, hugely increases the emissivity allowing much more heat transfer via radiation. This happens to offer the best compromise of heat transfer between radiation and conduction, giving better overall thermal transfer properties than an unanodised heatsink.

Obviously black paint, while potentially increasing heat transfer through radiation, introduces a very effective insulation completely screwing up the conduction portion of the heat transfer.

An intercooler, on the other hand, primarily transfers heat through conduction, with very little radiation being possible as the major heat transfer surface areas are enclosed.
Painting the front of the cooler covers the edges of the fins and the front wall of the tube - both of these surfaces are minor in area compared to the huge surfaces through which air flows. You will lose some heat transfer capability on the painted surfaces compared to unpainted or anodised, but it's not significant - contrast the total surface area of the fins with the painted surfaces to get an idea of loss.

Getting the whole cooler anodised would reduce conduction with very little benefit available from increased radiation.

Mos.

[haison]

Hey cheers to whoever repped me!

[BigWorm]

And now that every man & his dog has had their input, & everyone pretty much agrees, can we flock this thread off or what???
Or maybe one more person wants to tell us they reckon painting an intercoolaz won't make any difference....

LOCKZOR FTW!!!