Painting A FMIC Flat Black intercooler paint ic [Merged 12-6]

[NewcGadget]

Ive seen alot of posts about this in alot of different forums , honestly i dont think you would ever notice a difference weather your intercooler is colored or aluminum , A friend of mine painted his intercooler and all his intercooler piping black , he didnt notice a difference at all he said , i would think its all in your head if it was anything with that big of a difference .

 

[dsmgrimreaper]

painted sucks it just makes the air flow through the intercooler slower

 

[Rax2]

painted sucks it just makes the air flow through the intercooler slower

Maybe if you paint the inside?? A couple of layers of paint isn't going to slow down the airflow over the fins, you would see more airflow lost from a light cross wind...

I read an article about intercooler painting in Sport Compact Car magazine a year or so ago.. They took intercoolers, tested them plain out of the box on a flow bench with a thermocouple.. Then painted with intercooler paint made by either summit, or some other performance company, and the other with flat black from wal-mart.. The test showed a 2-3 degree raise in air temps with the summit stuff, and I think 5-7 degree raise with the normal black paint.. They are both very minimal, and wouldn't think that intercooler paint would be worth the extra money.. If you want to paint it, paint it.. 10* of intake air ~ 1hp.. So if you can notice 1 crank HP on your butt dyno, you have the worlds most sensitive butt...

IMO I like my intercooler, and could never bring myself to paint it, but who ever called it rice to paint an intercooler is just plain crazy.. IMO mesh would far exceed paint on the rice scale... Rice is something to stand out, painting an IC to be sleeper is just the opposite...

 

[baldbull]

I hope that those of you saying that painting the IC black will not hurt/limit it's effectiveness. Because around my way, spraying intercoolers black to give the sleeper effect is the 'in' thing right now.

QUESTION:

If everyone decides to tone down the look of their car to make it look different than those who are being flashy and slapping on bodykits, aren't they defeating the purpose?

 

[Carter97GSX]

Alright, here is a technical explanation as to why painting the intercooler is bad. How bad, and whether or not it is worth it for the looks is up to each of us.

There are three ways that heat transfer can occur. Conduction is present when there is any temperature difference and happens because of the temperature gradient. Convection is sort of like conduction that is accelerated due to fluid motion within the temperature gradient. The faster the fluid moves, the steeper the gradient and the more convection occurs. The last is radiation which is the transfer of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. The only good example of this is when your exhaust is glowing red, but it is happening all of the time outside of our visual range.

First, paint on the outside of the intercooler will actually slow down the airflow due to the "smoothness" of the surface that the air is going over. Slower moving air means less heat transfer due to convection. The same problem exists with paining the inside, although I cannot imagine why or how you would do this anyways. Because convection is the greatest source of heat transfer this is the most important fact.

Second, paint is an insulator! An insulator acts by making the temperature gradient less steep, thus reducing the speed with which convection and conduction occur. Some paints are better about not being insulators than others. Actually, if you wanted to pay about $50,000 a gallon for some of the stuff they paint the SR-71 spy plane with it actually helps to dissipate heat faster than even the raw metal could.

Finally, as stated above, some paints can be better or worse when it comes to radiation. Specifically, you could paint the inside of the intercooler black (not just any black, it has to be absorbent within the infrared spectrum) and the outside a cool color (it has to be reflective within the IR spectrum) and this combination would drastically increase the amount of heat transfer due to radiation.

The problem with this is that energy transfer due to radiation is very small compared to the other two in this case; therefore adding an insulating paint that improves the radiative qualities of the pipes would hurt your total heat transfer in the end.

I hope this has been both fun and informative for those of you who actually read all the way through.


I promise I'm not making this stuff up.

 

[NJgsx]

im painting my greddy core this weekend black, whats the best kind of paint to use on it, any one ever do this and if so how did they do it ? thanks guys

 

[Quasimondo]

Flat black. Use a light coat, keep the nozzle 6-12 inches from the paint surface. You shouldn't need to do more than 2 passes on the intercooler to paint it.

 

[DGajre777]

Instead of painting it, get it anodized.

 

[NJgsx]

im painting mine this weekend, i was just wondering if anyone had a pic of one, thanks a lot guys

 

[TargeT]

you won't find pictures of that (at least I hope not)

Painting your FMIC (I asume its an FMIC, why else would you paint it) will basicaly make it nearly useless

now if you ANODIZED IT thats a different story. but I have yet to see anyone do that.

basicaly anyone who knows anything about performance will laugh at you ( alot) but if your just goin for bling (looks) paint away my friend~!

one option (thats more sane) is seen in my picture, I have painted screens incerted into my bumper
<-----

 

[GVR4592]

you won't find pictures of that (at least I hope not)

Painting your FMIC (I asume its an FMIC, why else would you paint it) will basicaly make it nearly useless

now if you ANODIZED IT thats a different story. but I have yet to see anyone do that.

basicaly anyone who knows anything about performance will laugh at you ( alot) but if your just goin for bling (looks) paint away my friend~!

one option (thats more sane) is seen in my picture, I have painted screens incerted into my bumper
<-----

Painting the intercooler core would have a very small effect on overall efficiency and would probably not be noticeable. People have been painting and anodizing intercoolers for a long time, mostly dark colors for the sleeper effect.

 

[TargeT]

Painting the intercooler core would have a very small effect on overall efficiency and would probably not be noticeable. People have been painting and anodizing intercoolers for a long time, mostly dark colors for the sleeper effect.

Anodizing would have minimal effect.

Paint how ever vastly changes the heat transfer rate, I bet there's a big performance hit, though I haven't seen any thermal image, or data to prove it. I don't know why you'd want to decrease the efficency of your FMIC by ANY amount, colder air = better. why take a performance hit?


I'd like to see ONE person (who runs 11s or better) who's painted their FMIC. for looks, yes. any desire for performance? your nuts

 

[GVR4592]

Anodizing would have minimal effect.

Paint how ever vastly changes the heat transfer rate, I bet there's a big performance hit, though I haven't seen any thermal image, or data to prove it. I don't know why you'd want to decrease the efficency of your FMIC by ANY amount, colder air = better. why take a performance hit?

Garrett did testing on it and there was very little effect on efficiency. The test results can be found on various sites. There was a short section on it in Maximum Boost as well. I think it's discussed on the Bell Intercooler website as well.

 

[GVR4592]

Bell intercoolers faq: http://www.bellintercoolers.com/pages/techFAQ.html#FAQ_27

 

[TargeT]

Certainly. One might find a small loss of efficiency if the core is painted, but likely this would be less of a difference than the repeatability of measurement. By all means, paint the end tanks, but preference suggests the core remain exposed.

What factors affect efficiency of an Air-to-Air Intercooler?
Frontal area: This is a rapidly decreasing function. If the proper core size is used, then doubling it will definitely not double the efficiency. More likely, doubling the core would raise the efficiency about 5% and cost twice the necessary amount and add substantially to the weight.

Plate area: Plate Area (the sum of the Core-Plate Area which is exposed to the Atmosphere) is directly proportional to the frontal area and the thickness. Thickness, however, is a double-edged sword. With the greater thickness, the plate area increases but less ambient air can penetrate the thicker core to offer cooling.

Ambient air quantity: It is very important to insure that air coming in the snout of the car will actually go through the intercooler.

Directly from the site you quoted.

I think painting the center section (and even the end tanks) would decrease the efficiently greatly for two reasons

A) paint is NOT a good conductor of heat, it is an insulator

B) the chances that you will NOT clog up the fins of your IC are very small, there by not allowing air to pass through the IC

so, again, for looks go for it; if your serious about performance. this is too vital of a system to mess with, get a screen like me

 

[krnbk2]

Or you could pick up some Radiator paint which is designed to be a heat dispersant.

 

[TRBOBLU]

I have an old Turbo or SCC(have to look for it) issue lying around where they painted the whole intercooler. I remember after they were done and did testing that the paint made no noticeable difference. They measured air coming out the outlet of the IC and it was almost identical. Preference just means people prefer leaving it the aluminum color. If you read right before that it says you can paint the core and the difference in efficiency would be hard to measure. The only reason I would anodize the IC is because it doesnt peel and it resists corosion. If you dont mind touching up paint the go for it.

 

[TSIMonsteR]

I think it offsets itself, because it increases the surface area by a slight amout. Guys around here paint them black sometimes for the sleeper effect. I personally like the bling factor of an FMIC.

 

[Caithness]

Or you could pick up some Radiator paint which is designed to be a heat dispersant.

I couldn't find that stuff anywhere locally when I tried to find it.

I painted my intercooler with a very light coat of black spray paint. It has patches where you can still see the metal underneath if you look closely, but it's dark enough that it doesn't stand out. I highly doubt my thin coat of paint made any noticeable difference.

 

[GVR4592]

Directly from the site you quoted.

I think painting the center section (and even the end tanks) would decrease the efficiently greatly for two reasons

A) paint is NOT a good conductor of heat, it is an insulator

B) the chances that you will NOT clog up the fins of your IC are very small, there by not allowing air to pass through the IC

so, again, for looks go for it; if your serious about performance. this is too vital of a system to mess with, get a screen like me

It's been tested by Garrett and Spearco, it has very little effect on efficiency. I'm sure if you laid down like 6 coats of laquer on your intercooler it wouldn't be good. A few light coats of radiator paint wouldn't clog anything. Like I said it's been tested by two of the largest intercooler companies, I think spearco even used to make intercooler paint.

 

[Quasimondo]

You don't need any special radiator paint. A light coat of flat black rustoleum will work.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You don't need to go balls to the wall with the can. No more than two passes and just enough to change the color of the intercooler. If you miss a spot, then you miss a spot. Once you have it behind the bumper, nobody will notice it, and if they do they'll assume it's a radiator.

 

[12's]

Mine is painted black also. I painted it lightly a few years ago.

 

[krnbk2]

I couldn't find that stuff anywhere locally when I tried to find it.

I painted my intercooler with a very light coat of black spray paint. It has patches where you can still see the metal underneath if you look closely, but it's dark enough that it doesn't stand out. I highly doubt my thin coat of paint made any noticeable difference.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/...ODUCT&iMainCat=390&iSubCat=391&iProductID=125

 

[Caithness]

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/...ODUCT&iMainCat=390&iSubCat=391&iProductID=125

Yeah, that's actually the only link people were able to give me in the past. I just didn't feel like ordering 11 dollar paint and waiting for it to ship, so I bought 2 dollar paint and took it easy with it. Intercooler seems to work just fine.

 

[Module Unknown]

One more painted black... No problems for me.

I would have preferred it be anodized, but after months of searching for a place to do it around here (no one wanted to touch it), I gave in and painted it. Not because I didn't like the look of it, I just prefer not to draw attention to myself. Especially in this wonderful state of CA where they'll take any excuse they can get to pull you over and pop your hood.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.