Painting The Intercooler?

[imported_camelian]

Hey, I don't have turbo yet, but I was just wondering if it would affect the turbo's performance if you painted the intercooler black? I want to go for a sleeper, and a massive silver intercooler kinda gives it away. Would it keep it from cooling the air more?

[dubcac]

It will slightly, but not enough to affect performance. Flat black IC owns...

[Calesta]

Anodizing would be the best way to go, since you're adding more metal through an electronic bonding process and not painting it over with something that doesn't conduct heat too well. Check prices for anodizing your intercooler black- that's your best bet for maintaining your original performance (maybe even making it better) and still retaining that stealth look.

[imported_Crimson490]

paint it Chr-IZ-ome! heheh

excellent suggestion, Calesta. Not only will it give you a nice uniform finish, it also protects your aluminum (untill you hit a rock ). And the coating will get everywhere on every little nook and cranny - with painting, you'd miss inbetween all those fins.

Go to any machine shop and ask them where they send their stuff out for anodizing, then ask if you can include your intercooler in their next batch of parts for a discount.

Since the fins are what do the heat sinking, you could easily get away with just painting your endtanks and pipes flat black. Depending on what intercooler you end up getting, that may be enough...

[imported_DOHCturbohatch]

wouldnt that be quite expensive? I mean sure it would look really nice and work well also but for the money is it worth it? Wouldnt an intercooler cost like $200+ to get anodized?

I'm sure mine would cost a pretty penny due to the size

[imported_Laosfu]

powder coat it...

[imported_scienceguy]

http://www.aavidthermalloy.com/products/ex...n/anodize.shtml

In summary anodizing will increase the efficiency of heat transfer in your intercooler.

Try the batch approach, it will be way cheaper.

Or, be brave and do it yourself

http://www.turborick.com/anodize2.html

Either way it will look sweet.

[imported_camelian]

Ah, thanks for the help! Being summer, that article on the site just flew over my head. I will check out the anodizing when I get my intercooler though. That may, however, be a while since I have no cash whatsoever. Eitherway, I'm gonna find someway to make it black, especially since the cops are cracking down on modded cars. thanks again

Originally posted by Calesta@Jul 17 2003, 02:37 AM
Anodizing would be the best way to go, since you're adding more metal through an electronic bonding process and not painting it over with something that doesn't conduct heat too well. Check prices for anodizing your intercooler black- that's your best bet for maintaining your original performance (maybe even making it better) and still retaining that stealth look.

Im with stupid...

[imported_PornstaR]

I painted mine just on the front side for my DA drag car and it seems to be fine. I use infrared thermometers to check the heat on engine parts between runs and the diffrences with and without paint are unnoticeable.