intercooler painting?

[berniec]

hey guys ive a v-mount setup and ive been thinking of doing something a little different under the bonnet. thinking of spraying the intercooler and intake pipes either black or a gun metal grey colour. inspired by the intercooler in this pic


however, ive been doing some reading and research. ive heard stories that it will make intake temps much higher and ive heard it will do so little to the intake temps that you wont notice.

so anyone got any first hand experience in this? any problems with actually doing the painting? what paint did you use (normal paint, heat resistant paint etc)?

any info would be appreciated

thanks

[FDAsh]

I\'m afraid I have no personal experience of painting an intercooler, I\'m just laughing at the pic :rollin

[Swanny_UK]

Erm, awesome choice of picture there mate, as much for comedy value as for example!

I\'ve seen companies which offer coatings for intercoolers, boost pipes etc, they do ceramic coatings for downpipes and exhausts, and another coating which is supposed to be a fantastic thermal conductor, and happens to be black.  I\'ll try and find where I saw/read about it.

[SiH]

PMSL at the pic

Yeah, you can do it no probs - just do a few very light coats on the IC in order to not muck up the heat transfer

[Nik da Greek]

I\'ve seen companies which offer coatings for intercoolers, boost pipes etc, they do ceramic coatings for downpipes and exhausts, and another coating which is supposed to be a fantastic thermal conductor, and happens to be black.  I\'ll try and find where I saw/read about it.

http://www.zircotec.com/  are currently ceramic coating my downpipe, turbo housing etc. Not sure if that\'s the same as what you mean, though, cos the idea of ceramic coating is to stop heat getting out, so would be counter-productive on an intercooler, surely? Dunno what the second coating you mention would be? I\'d just use very thin layers of VHT paint like SiH suggested if I were doing it. Sorry, when I do it :Thumbs-up

Good pic, by the way Took me a while to spot the intercooler!

[SiH]

Nik - have you had the turbo housing done yet? I was warned off this by quite a few people because of the heat that is retained can dramatically shorten the life of the turbo core. This was by Owen Developments and a well known UK rotary tuner.

I\'m going to send my manifold off to Zircotek fo sho though They\'re some of the best in the business.

I really should paint my cooler - it sticks out like a sore thumb in the bay

[Nik da Greek]

Yeah. Turbo Dynamics seemed to think it was a good idea. Since Owen Developements told me they couldn\'t even source a new turbine wheel for a T04s and they\'re allegedly the Garrett Performance centre for the whole of Europe, I\'m not sure whose opinion of the two I\'d trust most. It\'s a plain bearing turbo, don\'t see why the heat should make massive difference like on a roller bearing?

Fduk it, I\'m sure it won\'t be the last disastrous mistake I make, it certainly isn\'t the first hahaha

[Nik da Greek]

WTF! Double post

[Nik da Greek]

Errrrrr....treble post :o

[Nik da Greek]

WTF! it\'s like they spliced the Matrix again :3Confused

Dunno what happened there, move along, nuthin to see here :confused:

[SiH]

You broke internets, ZOMG!

Ahhh, I\'m probably trash talking as this was all for a BB tub, not a journal, feel free to ignore me, I basically know nothing about turbos anyways :o S\'all voodoo inside.

[jackaleks]

i guess the IC is aluminium? get it anodised in black, that\'d look awesome.

[berniec]

PMSL at the pic

Yeah, you can do it no probs - just do a few very light coats on the IC in order to not muck up the heat transfer

i was thinking that myself.

the reason im thinking paint it is because my wheels are a gunmetal colour and ive a few exterior carbon bits coming soon, so as to keep the same colour in the engine bay id have to go with a gunmetal colour not black.

[dthebuk]

in theory black is bad, don\'t know how it would work on an intercooler but

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan–Boltzmann_law

[shaunwil]

There are quite a few coatings, I\'ve had the GT3574 in the FD with a Tripple coat of Black Satin inside and out and the setup is running sweet.

Info on coatings :

http://www.camcoat.u-net.com/Coatings.htm

Shaun