Will painting an intercooler affect how well it dicipates heat. I have an AVO and it is painted silver, should I sand the paint off and polish it or just leave it? Thanks

 

it wont affect it all that much, know that u will be loosing cooling properties by painting it. espically black because black will absorb the heat from the light energy. dont bother to sand it because u might ruin it.

 

It depends on what kind of paint is on there. Some paints are supposed to be IC safe. IMO, anything coating an IC should not be done just to be safe.

 

just go get it anodized that way you don't have to worry about teh debris chipping the paint.

you would be surprised what a bee at 80mph will do to the paint.

 

It's already painted, I just am trying to figure out if I want to keep it. The paint is that hammered stuff from home depot. Thanks

 

I am assuming you are talking about the end tanks being painted? If so, it will not affect heat transfer across the core.

If you have that hammertone crap on the tubes and fins then you need to strip it off. That WILL affect cooling because that type of paint is generally very thick. I have done a lot of research to find out if painting an IC or a radiator black will help with heat transfer, and the consensus is a solid "Maybe".

When sitting still (no air flow) a black radiator will cool better than a plain metal one. There really is something about the color black that causes it to radiate (give off) heat better than any other color or no color at all. That is why when you put your hand up to a black object sitting in the sun you can feel the heat coming from it. It is actually giving off the heat, rather than absorbing it.

But when you start to factor in air flow moving across the radiator or IC, then the effects of the black paint are null and void. This is a different type of heat transfer. If the paint is too thick it will hinder heat trasfer, but if it is just a mist of paint then it really makes no difference.

I encourage you to Google this topic. There are lots of pages of info out there written by muscle car guys and also thermodynamics engineers. It is a very interesting subject.

EVOlutionary

 

How would you recommend stripping it? The whole thing was painted, and it is a bar and plate intercooler. I don't think the paint got very far into the cooling fins, but I still would like to take it all off if possible. Thanks.

 

I would think about the only way to get it off would be with -

a) hit it with a media blaster. You would have to watch closely to be sure the force was not bending the fins,

b) plug the ends and dunk the whole thing in paint stripper or paint remover.

Sorry, that's the only way I can think of to get it off. If you were to test the IC painted and unpainted I bet you will see a dramatic difference in intake temps.

EVOlutionary

 

there is a thread on this subject already (as mentioned by EVOlutionary), I think if you search under 'black out i/c' you might find some info including a saga of flames etc. Basically, it doesn't really matter UNLESS you really schlack it on THICK.

At risk of starting another drawn out one here, if you do the maths and know the conductive properties of the paint, there is a thickness up to which you can apply the paint and it will help. What that thickness is I don't know, but if you're interested I'm sure you'll find it in heat transfer books. Over that it will insulate the i/c. Assuming that you can apply it pretty even.

 

In SCC magazine, they had an article about sleeper cars, and they said to paint the intercooler black. If i remember correctly they said Garrett did a study that showed no loss in cooling effects

 

I still have that issue.... Its actually XS Engineering. Of course, keep it light and you should be fine.

 

Also note that if you paint your IC, the paint only goes on the front surface. It never penatrates into the fins in the core. So, I'd bet that you could never measure measure or feel a difference from having the first few fins painted out of the entire core. Maybe if you dipped the whole IC in a paint bath where all fins are covered with paint...

 

If I am thinking of the right paint, that hammertone stuff is a pretty thick/heavy paint. I guess it all depends on how far into the fins the paint goes. I would think this paint would actually clog up some of the fins and restrict airflow though the IC.

EVOlutionary

 

This might help:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ed+intercooler

 

I was thinking about painting mine black too. But it seems that everyone(or most) thinks that your going to paint the whole thing, front, back, every fin, everything so that nomatter where you looked you saw black.

I was just going to paint the end tanks with maybe 2 coats and enough on the core area to make it mostly black. Only light coat on the core area. And I dont see it being a problem.