Hey guys, I have a front mount and I'm planning on running it without the front plate or foglights so I can get the most air. I have an idea but i'd like to get some opinions on it before I consider doing it. My car right now has a silver bird on the plate between the fogs. I want to paint just the area that is exposed through the hole where the plate would be so that it's black, but paint over a stencil of the bird so that the part that isn't painted still gives me the silver bird in the front. I read before that it's not a good idea to paint the whole intercooler because it could interfere with the cooling, I just want to paint the area behind where the front plate used to be. Does anyone see any problems to this?
Thanks

 

yah all the intercooler would be a horrible idea... laws of thermodynamics and the properties of metals.. :p

As long as you're under like 1/6th of the surface it'd probably be fine...

 

I would not paint it.

If you want it blacked out with a stencil have it anodized. You can mask the design off and still have the same effect with an imeasurable effect on efficiency.

 

As long as area is small fraction you may be fine. But remember paint is an insulator which will effectively reduce heat transfer in effected area.

I’d personally not do it because flow area you are opening up may be negated by painting.

Mike

 

I would never do it.

 

No problem, on the actual fins, use Eastwood Black Radiator paint - a couple light coats from different angles. On the tanks any self-etching primer and chassis black or silver will work. Eastwood's stuff works well there, too. VHT and Rustoleum have some good combos, too, but no one else has a special radiator fin paint.

It is a high carbon, high heat transfer paint but you still want a couple light coats - maybe 3 if it has to be very black.

Jim

 

I would not worry about it. You'd be painting such a small fraction of the intercooler, I'd just go with 1 or 2 very light coats of some flat black.

A tiny spritz on a tiny part of the core is hardly the same as soaking the unit in a thick insulative layer. I'd be very surprised if you'd notice a measurable difference in intake temps, I highly doubt it.

 

If you do paint the end tanks dont matter so much... I would also mask off all of the fins and only paint the leading edge of the IC bars.

Considering the cost of an good intercooler core and the economical price of anodizing in my honest and turbocharging experienced opinon just it anodized.

 

who can adonize it and how much something like that cost? GL


John

 

You could DIY... http://www.focuser.com/atm/anodize/anodize99.html

But if its just one part one time have someone else do it.

http://www.thomasnet.com/products/an...1790179-1.html

Search around somebody in your area can do it...

Here you go in CT even

http://www.lightmetalscoloring.com/services.html