I, for one, think its cool what this guy did. I could care less if he did it to an Evo. Its his car, let him do what he wants. I don't think he did this because he's ashamed of the car, he just doesn't like the stock look. So what did he do?? He changed it. Cool with me. I wasn't too fond of the look of the tail lights on my Talon, so I tinted them. I didn't like the large ammount of orange on them, so I tinted the orange part to red, so now my car has all red tail lights. Who cares, its my car, and now I like it. I don't hate the look of the stock lights, or laugh at people with stock lights, I just like mine better. Just let the guy be. I mean, he didnt say everyone else sucks because their cars looked a certain way. He just didn't like the look, and took it upon himself to change it to his liking. Rock on brotha!!!!

Hilg

 

wow the black IC and the mesh grill does look good...

 

Exactly. Swain Tech formulates coatings that are meant to act as thermal barriers in engine applications. Most paints already insulate to a certain, albeit less effective, degree as the stuff Swain sells.

I can certainly understand how painted ic fins would show little to no effect in a drag racing environment. If the ic has any excess cooling capacity before it was painted, then the paint only decreases that excess capacity slightly.

Think of paint on an intercooler being similar to a clog in flow within a radiator. The first bit of clogging in a radiator will only decrease the effectiveness of the cooling system a little. But the radiator has excess cooling capacity above what is needed to keep the car cool and running normally. It is only once the clogging within the radiator is so severe that the cooling capacity is below what is needed to cool the car that you notice that there is a problem...ie overheating.

So same goes the intercooler. Some paint on the surface will only decrease the excess capacity of the system. But you will only notice the problem when the ic is compromised enough that it's cooling capacity is below what the engine needs to perform at a given level.

Could you decrease the cooling capacity of the ic enough by painting that it will cause a problem? Probably not. Could the decrease in efficiency be measured? Probably. But how could you measure it in an uncontrolled car repair/performance shop/track? Afterall, the benefit of the intercooler on an otherwise stock car is fairly small to start off with.

SC~

 

Now the last thing to make it the perfect sleeper is to get an Evo VII bumper and GTA hood!

G-d, that' thing is beautiful. It's my dream car. Laugh at me if you like. If you reroute the cooling and make a fan exhaust you could probably do without the hood vents. I'd wish for a carbon fibre (painted to match car color of course so nobody would know) GT-A style hold that still has the air intake on the far left. Then with a regular or upgraded transmission (not the crappy GT-A transmission) and some mods and a reflash, that thing would be a deadly sleeper. Maybe get one of those pipe Y-splitters so you could switch it to an open pipe on highways (although Turbo could use some back-pressure). You could blow everything away. ^_^

 

Hey Xtnct you know your stuff, and quite frankly knows more about the lancer roots than most of us on this board! I for one applaud the time and effort that was put into your car. No one has shown evidence to support the fact that painting the intercooler affects the performance. Even the Mazda Rx 7 turbo 2, and the Toyota starlet turbo (not available in the US market) came with a black (yes painted) intercooler. It is possible that allot of the guys are younger and are still very much into the image thing…big wing and flashy looks