[Mk2] [Turbo] painting intercooler black!!!

[Ryan S]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1QL9veQaNg

i've personally never heard of anyone doing this, i've heard of people painting the pipework but never the actual cooler, very very surprised by the results!!!

[Donato]

I had a watch of this too. Even though I don't have a turbo. I can't say I've ever heard or seen of anyone doing this to make it run cooler.
Must be an Australian thing!

[Ryan S]

I had a watch of this too. Even though I don't have a turbo. I can't say I've ever heard or seen of anyone doing this to make it run cooler.
Must be an Australian thing!

yeah, i'd heard of painting (and powdercoating) other things black, I can't believe the results

if i wasn't upgrading to a chargecooler i'd 100% be painting my intercooler right now

[shinny]

I watched that video a few days ago and was unconvinced from an SW20 perspective due to the fact that our SMICs are in direct line of sight of the engine.

From an MR2 POV, their test without airflow is flawed - it doesn't simulate the engine's heat. Had they put a single bar heater on the other side of the intercooler to simulate the radiated heat from the engine then I'd be interested. I suspect their test is more applicable to front engined cars where there's at least a coolant radiator and probably an aircon condenser blocking radiant heat.

As they clearly state at the end, black absorbs heat better as well as radiating it better. So the question about putting a black intercooler in your engine bay is this - with no airflow, will the intercooler be radiating more heat than it is absorbing back from the engine? I'd hazard a guess at 'no'.

In fact what that test showed best for us was the need for airflow. So if you're installing an intercooler in your engine bay, make it shiny and keep the fan on it always on. If for some reason your intercooler is not in direct line of sight of the engine, feel free to paint it black as you may just get an improvement

For those with charge cooler prerads, exactly the same principles apply... but given your pre-rad is probably at the front of the car, away from the engine, black is almost certainly better

[Ryan S]

i did wonder to be honest, they also say that it has no real effect unless stationary anyway, well, the difference was negligible, still a pretty shocking result in temps though

[Nic]

Thread on the Supra forum on the same subject

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread ... erformance

[Ryan S]

Thread on the Supra forum on the same subject

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread ... erformance

jesus, those guys aint happy are they???

just to note, stock intercooler on the mr2 is black

[bobhatton]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1QL9veQaNg

i've personally never heard of anyone doing this, i've heard of people painting the pipework but never the actual cooler, very very surprised by the results!!!

Every intercooler and rad I have ever had has been black, it is normal practise for better cooling.

[Ryan S]

Yeah, thinking about it now, i have seen a few stock intercoolers and they have all been black, never really gave it any more thought though

[MR2 Rich]

Painting your intercooler black does nothing to increase its performance. You could paint it pink and it would the exact same job as one painted black.

[fingers99]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1QL9veQaNg

i've personally never heard of anyone doing this, i've heard of people painting the pipework but never the actual cooler, very very surprised by the results!!!

Every intercooler and rad I have ever had has been black, it is normal practise for better cooling.

I'm pretty sure the stock ones, at least on the Rev1, are black anyway! (Or is mine just very dirty?)

Dunno about powdercoating -- wouldn't the idea be to have the very thinnest layer of the most heat conductive paint?

[Ryan S]

Painting your intercooler black does nothing to increase its performance. You could paint it pink and it would the exact same job as one painted black.

well yeah, that's pretty much the results of the video

[bobhatton]

wouldn't the idea be to have the very thinnest layer of the most heat conductive paint?

Yes, that is right.

[StevieL]

My stock Evo one is black too!



The only silver ones I've seen are aftermarket ones

[Adam86]

My Jeep has a black oem radiator.

[bobhatton]

Painting your intercooler black does nothing to increase its performance. You could paint it pink and it would the exact same job as one painted black.

Wrong.

[Ryan S]

mighty car mods will almost certainly do a follow up to this, i'll keep an eye out for it, but yeah, there's obviously some effect of painting it black as seen in the video, while not strictly performance gains there is 100% a benefit of painting it black again, as seen in the video.

[SrSilkie]

I was going to paint my Phoenix Power matt black along with the pipework purely because they looked grubby.

Ach well its in now.

Surely the type of paint and number of coats all play a part as much as the colour no?

[Draven]

If anything painting the IC black would improve heat dissapation. but only a small ammount

[fingers99]

The trick would probably be to anodise it black (essentially, aluminium alloys naturally form an oxide layer, anodising "just" does it artificially and dyes and stabilises the result). Can be a problematic process, depending on how the original part was fabricated and may be just too problematic to be practical on a used part.