Should you paint your intercooler?

[old-git]

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

NO

 

[SLEEPER]

I tend to agree .
if black was better manufacturers would sell them black

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

Richard at ARE and has spent heaps of time on R&D and if he says no then that's good enough 4 me

 

[old-git]

Some are black. Sierra Cosworths, for example.

 

[Teo]

If it AIN'T broke-------Don't Fix It! I have enough troubles with a Gloss Black vehicle over heating, I don't need any more with my intercooler!

 

[SLEEPER]

Why do cricketers (etc) wear white because you keep cooler because black absorbs more heat

And if I remember correctly that claim was based with the engine when the vehicle was still -when moving the results were different.

 

[claymore]

Why do cricketers (etc) wear white because you keep cooler because black absorbs more heat

And if I remember correctly that claim was based with the engine when the vehicle was still -when moving the results were different.

So for quarter mile, where there is a lot of sitting around with engine heat soak, surely black would be better, I've always painted mine black.

 

[old-git]

Black absorbs radiated heat so will suck it in from the engine bay. Shiny aluminium will reflect it. I will stick with shiny aluminium I think as it is also lighter

 

[claymore]

When the car is back up and running, I'll paint half the fmic and leave half unpainted and monitor it and I'll report back with the results. Also, if why are radiators usually painted Black?
Around six minuts into that video he said an intercooler needs air going through it to work, whilst in the que for a quarter mile run there is no air going through it,

 

[SLEEPER]

as I said earlier the test only showed an improvent when standing still so possibly for an out and out drag car id the only time it might be useful
I still dont think it will help bwcause theintercooler can be externally cooled at standstill.

 

[T9 man]

Well I know my intercooler is silver in colour and my radiator is black, never gave it a thought to if there was a reason for the difference in colours other than just the manufacturers choice.

 

[old-git]

Radiators look better painted black and the small difference in performance isn't a problem on standard cars.

 

[turbonutter69]

Seeing this post confused me. I was sure this had been bought up before.

http://www.torquecars.com/forums/threads/is-painting-your-intercooler-black-worth-it.32859/

Knew I wasn't going loony.

 

[T9 man]

Brought forward for our newer members maybe

 

[PDDesign]

If you want to change the colour but not add a layer of insulating stuff to the surface (daft thing to do) then why not anodize?

 

[old-git]

If you want to change the colour but not add a layer of insulating stuff to the surface (daft thing to do) then why not anodize?

This has the added advantage of not having to constantly polish the aluminium

 

[obi_waynne]

It looks neater in black, silver tends to shout out LOOK AT ME I'VE GOT A BIG SHINY INTERCOOLER!

 

[Teo]

It looks neater in black, silver tends to shout out LOOK AT ME I'VE GOT A BIG SHINY INTERCOOLER!

Mine is BIG, but it ain't SHINY!!!

 

[old-git]

For 99.99999% (9,999,999 in 10 million) of cars, it makes damn all difference, and that includes most tuned cars.

 

[jarrus]

I painted mine black on the 306 mainly for aesthetic reasons since I didn't want a big shiny intercooler making itself known in the front grill, I'm a fan of sleeper cars, (I surprised a Honda Type R and an Audi A4 V6 on the way home from the strip after our meet)

I've seen both videos mentioned here (the mcm one and the guys who mythbusted it and both have credibility)

I should at this point reference this:
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Diesel-Intercooling&A=112608

If you can't be bothered reading all of it I would like to direct you to the paragraph that has the title "Heat Sinking"
Kind of goes with what Colin (Claymore) has already said, intercoolers tend to be more of a heat sink at first and then convects the heat into the surrounding air,
My opinion on this is that on a car like mine was and like a car I'm building now, I think that the layer of black paint on my intercooler will make a negligible difference to the cars performance, I will also be running water/methanol which is considered to be somewhat better than an intercooler anyways

 

[SLEEPER]

As far as i know the world isnt ditching intercoolers far from it
It sounds like you are saying you can lose the intercooler and run water methanol - perhaps you could explain why and on what set up this is possible

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

Just thinking out loud . All the new cars I have seen both the radiator and AC cores are not painted so my IC is left au natural.

 

[jarrus]

As far as i know the world isnt ditching intercoolers far from it
It sounds like you are saying you can lose the intercooler and run water methanol - perhaps you could explain why and on what set up this is possible

WRC cars were using it before it got banded.... they could run leaner air fuel ratios since the methanol increased the knock resistance of the air/fuel charge, also water injected into the inlet has been proven to be more effective than just water spraying an intercooler, the first saab turbos used water injection before intercoolers became more convinient...

 

[jarrus]

WRC cars were using it before it got banded.... they could run leaner air fuel ratios since the methanol increased the knock resistance of the air/fuel charge, also water injected into the inlet has been proven to be more effective than just water spraying an intercooler, the first saab turbos used water injection before intercoolers became more convinient...
I never said that the automotive world be ditching intercoolers, by the way