can you paint the intercooler?

[j13smiley]

ok - intercooler is normally black right? a smalll part of mine has the black flaking off... can i touch that up or paint the whole thing? would high temp paint be ok or do i need to do anything special?

 

[Lee_Burough]

Touching up the black paint should be no problem....The thing you don't want to do is powder coat an intercooler.

You'll prolly want to pressure test the intercooler while you have it off....A radiator shop can do that for you. Black paint that matches the OEM black under the hood is available, but I don't remember the name and source I've seen posted a couple years ago on TB.com. Maybe someone will chime in....

lee

 

[mark b]

If you do, I'd suggest using that Eastwood radiator paint. It won't clog the fins.

 

[89ICBM]

ok - intercooler is normally black right? a smalll part of mine has the black flaking off... can i touch that up or paint the whole thing? would high temp paint be ok or do i need to do anything special?


Howdy!

You can paint it if you want, I had mine polished.

 

[mark b]

The advantage of painting it black is like the radiator - releasing heat, no? In physics, isn't this called the coefficient of emmisivity or something like that? Heck if I remember! Basically in my layman's terms, black aborbs heat while white repels it.

Tony DeQuick had some study from Lockheed years ago. Ironically at that time, the best black paint to use was Krylon!

I doubt it makes much of a difference in a stock location IC but I'm usually wrong

 

[87GNcospg]

black absorbs light, but where the stock intercooler is located it does not matter. front mounts shouldnt be painted black

 

[mark b]

It's about radiating heat to the atmosphere, not absorbing light...

 

[87GNcospg]

Originally posted by mark b
It's about radiating heat to the atmosphere, not absorbing light...

the more you know...........

well front mounts are not painted black because then they would absorb too much heat correct?

 

[mark b]

I can't answer without going well beyond my limited tech knowledge, but my understanding is black would absorb the heat from the unit (be it a radiator or I/C) and radiate to the air better.

Definitely the black would gain heat from sunlight, right? But I think in units like radiators and I/C's , sunlight is less of an issue and air running through them to take away the heat is the key point. FWIW, my DeQuick front mount was painted black.

I also think some people don't paint the front mount I/C's for looks...


Not arguing or provoking...just can't technically explain what was explained to me years ago