Painting Intercooler Black - Better heat dissipation?

[af300e]

As mentioned earlier, black absorbes heat better than nice shiny silver, and since most intercoolers sit either infront of the radiator or on top of the engine, the very small theoretical advantages are negated by 10^a billion (approx figure ).

And, if the intercooler is mounted in sick uleh fashion, ie. a foot in front of the VL bumper, the extra heat generated simply by light absorption it would outweigh the dissipation increase.

So, although black may dissipate heat better, have to call BS on the black intercooler theory due to practical limitations.

[af300e]

OOOH, OOOH!! Just came up with another nugget.

What about painting the inside of the intercooler black so that it better absorbs heat from the air passing through it??

[rob]

As mentioned earlier, black absorbes heat better than nice shiny silver, and since most intercoolers sit either infront of the radiator or on top of the engine, the very small theoretical advantages are negated by 10^a billion (approx figure ).

And, if the intercooler is mounted in sick uleh fashion, ie. a foot in front of the VL bumper, the extra heat generated simply by light absorption it would outweigh the dissipation increase.

So, although black may dissipate heat better, have to call BS on the black intercooler theory due to practical limitations.

[oldcorollas]

As mentioned earlier, black absorbes heat better than nice shiny silver,

even polished aluminium quickly forms oxide on the surface......

[Stefan]

On a related note:

Would wrapping my engine bay intercooler piping (which is painted black ) in reflective heat shielding tape in an attempt to minimise heat soak be A Good Idea?

[o_man_ra23]

Heat shielding it with an air gap and then ducting cool air from the front of the car past it would be more helpful... if you just wrap it tight it will still heatsoak.

[ed]

And, if the intercooler is mounted in sick uleh fashion, ie. a foot in front of the VL bumper, the extra heat generated simply by light absorption it would outweigh the dissipation increase.

lol @ lack of thermodynamics appreciation

[af300e]

lol @ lack of thermodynamics appreciation

more info on where the prob is Ed?

Dark colour absorbs more light, heats up.
Light colour reflects light.
No??

[ed]

no

it works both ways, the reason a black object would get hot in the sun is the same reason it works better as a radiator/heat sink

[oldcorollas]

there is black and then there is black

but, light has little effect on temperature of object.
not everything that is reflective in visible spectrum, is reflective in infrared specturm.

and vice versa, not everything that absorbs visible light (black paint) will absorb infrared radiation.

a great way to check, is to use an infrared thermometer thingy...

i know with my experiments that some shiny metals have lower than real temp readings, and some don't... i should try with polished/oxidised aluminium...


but even so.. radiated heat at 20-50deg above ambient is not much at all

[Hydra]

I painted my IC matte black... but only to hide it!

Seriously, does it really matter THAT much?

[af300e]

Ok, thanks for the info.

[stradlater]

If I paint my Expensive PWR water to air intercooler black, would that improve my intahcoolers performance? ;-)

[TERRA Operative]

Yes, but only if you paint it with tar.

Don't forget to lay it on thick.....

[GasedT18]

I came across this and there's some good info about ICs in general but nothing about colour and radiation. http://www.are.com.au/feat/techtalk/techtalk.htm

As has been said gains in efficiency through appropriate selection of IC and piping would outweigh issues to do with thermal coatings or surface treatments. If black or some other thermally more effective coloured coating was significantly better on ICs don't you think commercial manufacturers would utilise it (probably as an exorbitantly priced option)?

(...sealing the IC to the radiator (by means of a non-thermally conductive foam tape or similar) will give better gains than any coatings or colour changes)

It has always perturbed me that many mount FMICs close to the radiator. Radiation diminishes as a function of the reciprocal of the square of the distance (1/d^2) so it would make sense to separate the two as much as possible through spacers/custom mounts and vertical offset.

D