Best way to Hide a FMIC

[kawboy]

I wouldn't worry about the paint

You wont notice the difference

 

[turboglenn]

I wouldn't worry about the paint

You wont notice the difference

True, you probably won't be able to feel or notice the difference. But there will be a difference in heat soak and dissipation of heat. I'm not trying to be an ass, so please don't take it personal. But putting paint on aluminum insulates a lot of its ability to transfer heat, which is mainly going to make the only big difference on really hot days.

Another trick for helping keep a car with a front mount and A/C cool while the ac is on, is to strip teh condensor down, but you have to have it off to do it right. This is something i actually learned back in the mustang days, as it helps N/A cars as well that have A/C.

You cna also run a honda condensor (since they are so small) but you have to swap a fitting or 2

 

[turboglenn]

Ok, so I have the hookup to get my FMIC anodized but not black. I just want it to look new again, so a little shiny. What should I do before taking it there? The pipes are pretty badly scratched along with some parts of the end tanks? Does anodizing mainly involve dipping the parts?

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DO NOT powder coat it.. That's going to be worse than painting it as far as heat soaking and it's ability to dissapate heat. If anything a light coat of flat black from a puff can at most, Or polish it. I've even been told polishing it is detrimental to it's cooling efficiency. but i'll polish mine anyways,. 5-10* air temp diff isn't gonna hurt me bad enough to worry about it... Puff canning would probably be around the same if not slightly more, but the thicker the coat, the worse the efficiency.

 

[Splitpi]

You cannot annodize steel or non-aluminum materials. The process eats non-aluminum. So if you have a 100% all aluminum IC ... great.

Otherwise, I would just paint a fine layer of paint on the front face of the IC and call it good.

 

[always_broken]

Someone just log it and shut us all up.

 

[turboglenn]

Someone just log it and shut us all up.

IF some one will volunteer to pull my FMIC and clean it afterwards i'll be more than happy to log a pull, paint it , log again..add more paint if needed and keep logging, hell i'll even gloss that bi*** up so shiny it'll look like it was straight ff the "rice rack" at autozone and log it. But i'm not going to be the one to strip t back down but i'll repolish it when it's off anyway. ANy takers??????

 

[always_broken]

I'll probably do it myself, when I learn how to upload logs gahdamit

 

[DSMunknown]

A word on paiting intercoolers. The paint acts as an insulation barrier making your FMIC less efficient thatn it should be and subtracting from it's ability to dissapate heat. An old trick from my motocross days was to strip all the paint off your radiators to help keep the motor cooler.. So what ever you put on it (preferbly flat black puff can) make sure it's as thin a coat as possible, and by no means should you ever powder coat one

Try reading through the thread I posted up before saying too much more.

 

[kawboy]

Cliffs?

 

[DSMunknown]

Cliffs?

Not from me. Just read what the Wisemen have to say, along with some of our other prestigious and well-known members. You'll get the picture.

 

[b00sted]

True, you probably won't be able to feel or notice the difference. But there will be a difference in heat soak and dissipation of heat. I'm not trying to be an ass, so please don't take it personal. But putting paint on aluminum insulates a lot of its ability to transfer heat, which is mainly going to make the only big difference on really hot days.

Another trick for helping keep a car with a front mount and A/C cool while the ac is on, is to strip teh condensor down, but you have to have it off to do it right. This is something i actually learned back in the mustang days, as it helps N/A cars as well that have A/C.

You cna also run a honda condensor (since they are so small) but you have to swap a fitting or 2

Using some regular paint has no noticable effect on intake temps. As long as it's an efficient core from the get go, it won't lose much efficiency at all by painting the front of it black. I've already seen the effects first hand with a few turbo cars(with much more power than the average street-car dsm makes)

 

[Project2G]

I'd get it anodized black. It's really not that expensive (maybe $50), you retain your full cooling capacity (aside from getting hotter in the sun than shiny silver would), and no one notices that it's there.

I would agree with what John said. I'm not a fan of grills so I would go with this suggestion.

 

[Black_Bullet]

Mines is painted.....Check avatar.