Do you know what the pricing would be to have the intercooler coated?

 

i painted mine on my old car and it was chipping all the time from daily driving. it looked like **** within a month. if you do paint, i'd suggest powder coating it'll last longer.... but if it were up to me, i'd just get Perrin

 

When I had my ETS intercooler coated in thermal dispersant barrier, it was like $75. Before I installed it I used the AL window screen to ensure it stayed looking nice for a long time...

 

how about anodizing?

 

Anodizing may effect it slightly but almost non exsistant compared to paint or powdercoat. It's basicly like plastic dying for aluminum (different methods to get there but the end result is very close). When the aluminums pores expand it soaks in the color dye is sitting in. There is however a sealant which adds a very small thickness layer on top of the aluminum. NOTHING like what paint or powder would leave though.

 

Also remember that black absorbs heat so in the summer time your temps will be significantly higher, specially when the can has been sitting for a while or even when waiting in line to do a pass a the track on a hot summer day. I personally didn't do it because a friend of mine with a second gen eclipse did it and his intake temps were about 13 degrees higher at the track after he painted it black.

 

Why can't people just leave the 'go fast' parts alone. Paint something that doesn't perform an important function to making power if you want to customize.

 

You can anodize it and it won't effect the performance of the intercooler.

 

The Anodizing does not keep any more heat in since it chemically bonds to the aluminum changing the properties of the metal. Paint on the other hand can really keep heat in.

 

Anodizing deposits an oxide layer on the surface of the metal effectively passivizing it's conductance (electrical--but electrons are heat carriers in metals). There will be certainly be a difference in thermal conductance after anodizing, but how much remains to be seen.

And I agree that paint (and powdercoating) would be inferior options to anodizing.

 

Are there (or do you have) dyno plots to confirm this?

 

Lets see...I'm sure if Full Race, AMS, ETS, Mike@awdmotorsports, and many other performance places all agree that anodizing the intercooler will not affect the dissipation of heat or efficiency of the intercooler, then they must've done some testing. I am going to take their word over yours. I'm sure if there is a power-loss, it will be insignificant.

Here is a thread of ETS's about their newly anodized IC line.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ex...ercoolers.html

 

Yeah, but I was just saying how about anodizing instead of powdercoating since it's not as likely to get chips and such in an anodized finish right? I would say just polish it, but you'd have to keep it polished and that obviously wouldn't be possible.

 

And I will take their word over yours (i.e. I'd like them to speak for themselves regarding their products and any testing they've done.) And it is a fact that anodized aluminum has a reduced thermal coefficient: Wiki: Anodized Aluminum I'm just curious to see how the efficiency of an intercooler would change after being anodized which could easily be determined by a back-to-back test.

Thanks for the link; I'll see if those guys have done any testing.

 

I'd just use Eastwood radiator paint spray. I basically used this on my 240sx's fmic, fmic pipes, my koyo aluminum radiator to make it appear more subtle looking. I'd rather not have the usual undesirable attention.

I seriously haven't noticed any loss of power, or added heat soak after applying the radiator paint. well, I've only autoX'ed the car so far in socal, so maybe that isn't a stringent means of testing. The paint holds up well too. It hasn't chipped at all and still looks as good as the day it was painted. Stuff isn't too expensive either. I used about 3 cans to paint my radiator, fmic, fmic piping, bov, and maybe a few other shiny parts. Each can is around $13.

check out the link.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...iProductID=726