One for all you derv lovers.

[Grant]

Or anyone running a perv with +'ve inlet pressure to that fact...





For those who cannot be arsed to watch it: Painting the intercooler black reduced the inlet temperatures by a further 40 degrees. Mind boggling.


Radiation of heat or some witchcraft like that.

[r3k1355]

I'm not entirely sure I believe that to be honest.

40 degree's just from painting it black??

[Toms306]

Cant watch it with this crappy internet atm but I always thought black absorbed heat? You want something reflective/white/silver surely.

[bashbarnard]

Painting intercooler black. Dont even have to watch the vid thats mighty car mods. I already know it genuinely works. This is why MOST car companys paint there readiators black. The onpy reason aftermarket bits are usually never black is because they are already uprated and shiny things sell. I always get the black out on most stuff.

[Lwilliams]

Only reduced it stationary though when airflow was going through it I was worse by 3 degrees and if you upped the airflow I imagin there to be a even bigger difference

I don't think it would be beneficial because when are you ever stopped while trying to produce power

[Poodle]

This is what annoys me about mighty car mods, a lot of what they "prove" is actually bullshit, but they do something that looks like science therefore 99% of people watching will believe it wholeheartedly.

"With airflow the difference is negligible". This is the sentence, taken directly from their mouths, which anyone genuinely interested in the science and/or potential application for their own projects should be looking at. What is an intercooler, is it an item that uses radiation alone to conduct heat out of the intake charge? No, it relies on airflow to work as designed, so why the f*ck are they testing the radiative capabilities without airflow at all?? The results speak for themselves - when tested with airflow the intercooler's efficiency decreased marginally when painted.

You want some real science, here's some nice basic facts that should explain everything you need to know about this:
Aluminium = good conductor
Paint = poor conductor
The purpose of an intercooler is to conduct heat out of the intake charge into the ambient air passing through the intercooler. You should be able to work the rest out for yourselves.

[Grant]

This is what annoys me about mighty car mods, a lot of what they "prove" is actually bullshit, but they do something that looks like science therefore 99% of people watching will believe it wholeheartedly.

"With airflow the difference is negligible". This is the sentence, taken directly from their mouths, which anyone genuinely interested in the science and/or potential application for their own projects should be looking at. What is an intercooler, is it an item that uses radiation alone to conduct heat out of the intake charge? No, it relies on airflow to work as designed, so why the f*ck are they testing the radiative capabilities without airflow at all?? The results speak for themselves - when tested with airflow the intercooler's efficiency decreased marginally when painted.

You want some real science, here's some nice basic facts that should explain everything you need to know about this:
Aluminium = good conductor
Paint = poor conductor
The purpose of an intercooler is to conduct heat out of the intake charge into the ambient air passing through the intercooler. You should be able to work the rest out for yourselves.

Well...

Somebody clearly needs more to worry about in life

[Poodle]

Eh? Got plenty to worry about, just annoyed muppets like this are able to build a career on mis-educating people, which i guess is what you're alluding to as a petty concern..?

[Grant]

Eh? Got plenty to worry about, just annoyed muppets like this are able to build a career on mis-educating people, which i guess is what you're alluding to as a petty concern..?

Now; I've not conducted the above experiment, nor do I have any intention to do so. I have more important things to do such as read this forum and look at boobs on the internet. However:

On the surface of it; heat is radiated in the form of infrared radiation. Yes, an unpainted surface would be better for conducting heat from one surface, to another, however, a fully heat-soaked, painted intercooler, radiating heat (where the paint is already at a said temperature), in my opinion, would disperse the infrared radiation at a quicker rate due to the greater absorptive properties of a darker surface.

Ofcourse, i have no proof to support the above, so shy of us going down the pub to battle it out, I guess we will never know :p

[Piggy]

In science that temperatue is nothing over averages.

I think if you were concerned about the 3degrees, if it was even that, get a slightly bigger intercooler ans paint ir black.

Where we all lose efficiency and power from our charged engines is from heatsoak.
And basically that makes a huge difference.

I would be curious about a special paint perhaps ?

[Grant]

I would be curious about a special paint perhaps ?

What kind of special paint?

I was thinking along the lines of anodising, then there is no additional layer on the cooler, removing the element of doubt.

[Jonny81191]

F*cking LOL at the whole experiment TBH.. Are MCM running out of stuff to try?

As Alex has said, it's commonly known that an intercooler is designed to have airflow to it, much the same as a radiator. Yes, it's going to run slightly cooler when lining up to a drag race or something, but I bet a water spray system would be more effective and would make a difference with airflow as well.

[bashbarnard]

It is true what they say sometimes must be taken with a pinch of salt but also the guys that told me were from the manufacturers mouth on training courses. Thats with rads anyway not intercoolers I would assume the same applies

[Lwilliams]

I know the set up was a shitty 8 inch fan about 2 meters from the intercooler... I doubt that simulates like 70 mph airflow, so I think the difference would be way more than 3 degrees as you build up speed

[Jonny81191]

I know the set up was a shitty 8 inch fan about 2 meters from the intercooler... I doubt that simulates like 70 mph airflow, so I think the difference would be way more than 3 degrees as you build up speed

So you're saying it'd be cooler as you went faster?

[Lwilliams]

No I'm saying with one without paint would perform better at higher speeds as it has less material for the air to cool and with out paint allows direct contact to ali

[Jonny81191]

No I'm saying with one without paint would perform better at higher speeds as it has less material for the air to cool and with out paint allows direct contact to metal

Yeah, most likely.

[toseland]

Yeah that makes sense.. Black is better at radiating heat, as well as absorbing heat than any other colour..


matt black would be best.

[Poodle]

Ofcourse, i have no proof to support the above, so shy of us going down the pub to battle it out, I guess we will never know :p

Not sure if serious or just troll...

You know they tested the airflow scenario with the paint in that video right? You know, the one you just watched? The one where they blew air over it with paint and without and without paint it did better by 3 degrees, thereby proving that painting your intercooler does NOT benefit it in normal operation, remember that?

Put it like this: manufacturers are usually fairly desperate to save space and weight for packaging purposes. If painting your intercooler and/or radiator black meant you could reduce the size by the 40% or whatever the hell mcm are claiming, don't you think they'd be doing it?

*facepalm*

[Grant]

.....*facepalm*

Not a morning person alex?

[Dave]

Also not forgetting the difference between how much energy is actually going through the intercooler per cfm compared to that of a hair dryer. You have so much more heat to dissipate, that I think through means of just radiation the difference will be so small, I think the slight decrease in the performance through convection would actually also have an amplified effect due to the paint.

[Poodle]

.....*facepalm*

Not a morning person alex?

Mornings are alright, its idiots I struggle with.

[Toms306]

How hot does the air from the turbo get btw? I know its gonna be warmer than ambient, but can't be anywhere near as hot as a hairdryer?? Considering HDi's don't even have an IC I was just interested...

[Dum-Dum]

The other thing (besides what poodle pointed out) is that it may be a 40 degree drop but being americans that'll be in fahrenheit, so its only a 20*C drop stationary.

I think that considering the cold side of my intercooler is only at a degree or 2 above ambient after a blast (or evern on track) I'm gonna leave it plain ally.

[Niall]

Mornings are alright, its idiots I struggle with.

How do you live with your self?!

[Atterz]

Yea buddy.

[Poodle]

How do you live with your self?!

Why do you think i'm so grumpy all the time??

[Niall]

Touche sir. Touche!

[Kezzieboy]

I think their point is that when you have airflow, you're fine anyway, as Dumdum pointed out, the coldside stays very cold when you're travelling at speed because of the cooling capacity of the huge volume of air passing through the fins. So painting it black stops it from getting chronic heatsoak if you stop/slow right down, without effecting efficiency while moving.

It's not exactly peer reviewed science, but it's still a cool example of the emmissive properties of black bodies compared to something reflective.

[Dum-Dum]

Would be interesting to see which cooled down faster when it started getting airflow.