# Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts?



## 16V4LIFE (Sep 29, 2004)

I just installed my front mount intercooler (29x11x3 Bar and plate) in the front of my MKII VRT project. I want it to look as stealth as possible, and am considering painting the front of the IC core flat black to help hide it. A few years ago I read an article from Gene Berg (Famous air-cooled VW tuner for those of you not familiar with the name). They were painting the air cooled heads flat black with high temp paint (BarBQ paint maybe? dont remember exactly). They had found that they had dropped head temps by an average of 3 degrees.
I am not looking at this option to help increase the efficiency of the IC, I am simply trying to make the IC less noticable. I would not do this if it decresed the eficiency of the IC by any noticable amount. What are the thoughts on this?


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## PjS860ct (Dec 22, 2002)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (16V4LIFE)*

i dont remember the company but there is a spray paint intercooler paint or radiator paint out there... i have a swaintechs bbe heat emitting coating on my intercooler 




















_Modified by PjS860ct at 6:46 AM 12-2-2008_


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## bulldogger72 (Mar 16, 2008)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (16V4LIFE)*

~generally speaking~ adding a thermal barrier to something will _inhibit_ a materials heat shedding properties


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## vr6swap (Aug 17, 2001)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (16V4LIFE)*


_Quote, originally posted by *16V4LIFE* »_A few years ago I read an article from Gene Berg (Famous air-cooled VW tuner for those of you not familiar with the name). They were painting the air cooled heads flat black with high temp paint (BarBQ paint maybe? dont remember exactly). They had found that they had dropped head temps by an average of 3 degrees.


IIRC that tech writeup was in Hot VW's mag back in the mid-90's. I may have it around here somewhere. 
By the Berg's best guess, painting the heads with VHT black gave marginally more surface area (mad texture yo) to radiate heat with. 
Might seem a little too simple to be true, but if Gene Berg said it worked then that's good enough for me. 

Back on topic, I've considered having my I/C anodized.


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## Skot53 (May 15, 2005)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (vr6swap)*









Specialty Radiator Paint for me.


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## eurobred (Jun 10, 2005)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (vr6swap)*


_Quote, originally posted by *vr6swap* »_
IIRC that tech writeup was in Hot VW's mag back in the mid-90's. I may have it around here somewhere. 
By the Berg's best guess, painting the heads with VHT black gave marginally more surface area (mad texture yo) to radiate heat with. 
Might seem a little too simple to be true, but if Gene Berg said it worked then that's good enough for me. 

Back on topic, I've considered having my I/C anodized. 

anodizing would be better?
wouldnt cause more heat than just painting it with black radiator paint?
im also thinking about painting mine black for the stealth look


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## TBT-Syncro (Apr 28, 2001)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (16V4LIFE)*

use radiator paint, or a heat dispersal agent. with the dispersal agent, it'll actually work more efficient than before it was painted.


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## T_Dub (Nov 9, 2006)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (TBT-Syncro)*

If you paint it with any paint that has a higher emissivity you shouldn't have a problem. Any black paint should theoretically work. Conduction resistance is a function of thickness, I cant see paint a tenth of a millimeter thick affecting conduction enough to make a difference, and your radiation properties with black paint will be significantly improved.


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## Noobercorn (Aug 17, 2007)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (TBT-Syncro)*

i used radiator paint from home depot.


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## TBT-Syncro (Apr 28, 2001)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (T_Dub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *T_Dub* »_, I cant see paint a tenth of a millimeter thick affecting conduction enough to make a difference

then you've obviously never looked in to this before. turbo X from techline will drop header temps from 200 degrees down to 60 degrees with a single coat.
paint/coatings can have a MASSIVE impact on temperatures (good and bad)


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## eurobred (Jun 10, 2005)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (TBT-Syncro)*


_Quote, originally posted by *TBT-Syncro* »_
then you've obviously never looked in to this before. turbo X from techline will drop header temps from 200 degrees down to 60 degrees with a single coat.
paint/coatings can have a MASSIVE impact on temperatures (good and bad)









so what kind of paint do you think is best to use for painting an intercooler?
that can be purchased at a local auto store?


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## vr6swap (Aug 17, 2001)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (eurobred)*


_Quote, originally posted by *eurobred* »_
anodizing would be better?
wouldnt cause more heat than just painting it with black radiator paint?


Not sure if would be better or not, but anodizing has much less film thickness than paint. According to the guy at the anodizing shop anyway. 
A heat dispersal / emissivity (sp?) coating would be best, at least on paper. Not sure how much better in would be in real-world application, at normal intercooler operating temps.


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## PhReE (Sep 16, 2004)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (vr6swap)*

IMHO paint is better than anodizing. Why? If you paint it you only paint the front face. Not the whole thing. That consists of a very small portion of the overall surface area. Anodizing will cover essentially all of the surface area. 
Painting or anodizing, no matter what you use will inhibit the thermal capability a bit. I think painting it inhibits it more, but not that much more and if you are painting a significantly smaller area, you are probably better off. The color is pretty much a moot point.


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## TBT-Syncro (Apr 28, 2001)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (eurobred)*


_Quote, originally posted by *eurobred* »_
so what kind of paint do you think is best to use for painting an intercooler?
that can be purchased at a local auto store?

techline coatings has a heat dispersal coating (you can see it on my intercooler in the link in my sig). 
techlinecoatings.com


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## sxracer001 (Jun 27, 2005)

*FV-QR*

eastwood son


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## DubGray1.8T (Sep 24, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (sxracer001)*

the rad paint chips large chips when hit by pebbles. flat black stands up much better. ask me how i know.


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## T_Dub (Nov 9, 2006)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (TBT-Syncro)*


_Quote, originally posted by *TBT-Syncro* »_
then you've obviously never looked in to this before. turbo X from techline will drop header temps from 200 degrees down to 60 degrees with a single coat.
paint/coatings can have a MASSIVE impact on temperatures (good and bad)









Is that a paint on the outside? Or the inside? I'd say inside and its a coating which lowers the convection coefficient, not a hard thing to do. I never said the paint wouldn't have an impact on the temp, just that it wouldn't cause much insulation as far as conduction is concerned. Convection and radiation heat transfer will be impacted of course.


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## TBT-Syncro (Apr 28, 2001)

*Re: Painting Front Mount Intercooler Flat Black, Thoughts? (T_Dub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *T_Dub* »_
Is that a paint on the outside? Or the inside? I'd say inside and its a coating which lowers the convection coefficient, not a hard thing to do. I never said the paint wouldn't have an impact on the temp, just that it wouldn't cause much insulation as far as conduction is concerned. Convection and radiation heat transfer will be impacted of course.

outside


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## eurobred (Jun 10, 2005)

*Re: FV-QR (DubGray1.8T)*


_Quote, originally posted by *DubGray1.8T* »_the rad paint chips large chips when hit by pebbles. flat black stands up much better. ask me how i know.









Mo!!
dude havent talked to you in a good minute!
hows the car?? good to see one of your posts lol
so all in all, without having to special order or send your core off to some special company, what would one prefer? i was just reading up on that VHT black oxide paint... seems pretty promising, has anyone else used it? i would only be painting the front side of my intercooler leaving the rear side naked to help the heat situation.


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## DubGray1.8T (Sep 24, 2003)

*Re: FV-QR (eurobred)*

I bet you wouldn't know the difference between a high tech coating and cheap ole flat black. the nice part of the flat black is you can put it on in thin coats. Yeah I am still around man. Not doin much lately though. Just healing up after a good displaced Tibia Fibula fracture. What have you been up to??


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