Black intercooler

[cisco]

Allright, almost ready to go off to the engineer this Friday.

Tinkered around a bit today and fixed up a few minor annoying things.

Installed a new radiator support panel, and sprayed it black like the Japanese guys do. Makes a lot of sense, because its the part that always seems to cop the most scratches, so paint it a practical colour like black and you aren't always running back to the paint shop to need it colour matched to the colour of your car etc.

Adjusted the intercooler yet again, now its deadset perfect. Bonnet opens and shuts PERFECTLY like a factory one, nothing is bent out of place, everything lines up and is nicely aligned and securely in place.

Then I lightly sprayed the intercooler, so now its truly in stealth mode.

Here's a pic with the front grille removed. Looking like a nice tidy setup thesedays. Really happy with it:

 

[Deleted User]

looks sweet,good for cops too

 

[Deleted User]

also some people say that blackcools work better because of heat transfer i didnt really think to much about it but wat colour are gtr coolers and most factory hotties

 

[CMF_evade]

that looks tough as cisco. cant wait till i get the big frontmount on

 

[CMF_Sean]

Blake, whoever told you that... Don't even ask my opinion

Think of it this way

Intercoolers need air to flow over the core to remove heat from the intake charge. If you coat it with a paint, it adds a layer on top of the heatsinking metal. Not to mention that black actually absorbs heat alot more than white/alloy piping

But in cisco's case, the paint wouldn't make overly much difference to intake temps, probably around 0.5-1 degrees

But the effect is sooo cool

Sean

 

[cisco]

I also did a clever trick and only painted those two areas you can see. The middle bit isn't painted.

There was a whole article about testing the difference on Autospeed once, they couldn't actually measure a loss from painting an intercooler lightly with black. After I read that, I decided to do it. Its all theoretical, but the coat is so light, that it does nothing in practice, except make the car lots less noticable and tidy looking.

 

[cisco]

Yeah for sure aaron. Are you going to give it a light coat aswell ?

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Whiteys black also. Just a very light coat on the outside.
THis way it does not stick out like those ones all nice and shiny.
Adds to the sleeper affect.
I am sure a very light spray on the outside will not do much to change the overall efficiency.
Nice Cisco. Yours is a more mat black than mine.

 

[CMF_evade]

i sure am cisco..

 

[CMF_Yom]

Yeh the whole paint on radiators was covered in depth by some folks a few years ago and it was found that unless you layered up the paint to block the fins the differences were negligable!

Just a little hint to prolong the life of your painted intercooler - and the life of its fin packings - get a bit of flyscreen and whack that over the gaps in your grille and front bar. It looks crappy pretty quickly (in my area I find it only lasts 2 months before it looks terrible from the bugs and dirt (live on a dirt driveway and close to the sea so lots of bugs) - on my pulsar it used to need replacing every month from all the highway driving i did - but it saved my radiator fins from some might big bugs and stones though!) but it saves your radiator/intercooler/aircon condenser from stones and BUGS!

But i'm usually more concerned with protecting things than I am with eye candy sooo... yeh

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Correct Yom. Even big bugs can bend the fins.
We have in summer down here masses of dung beetles and they are built like brick ****ehouses.( excuse the pun)
When you hit em its like running into a hail of bullets ( not that I would know)but sounds like it.
I am forever cleaning em out and gently straightening the fins back.

 

[CMF_LWC]

Just about every factory car radiator is black, so assuming the engineers did their job properly then the black colour improvement in heat transfer far outweighs the layer of paint.

 

[CMF_evade]

ive seen lots of radiators that arent black actually lol.

anyway I have cisco's old intercooler now...bit more pressure drop from it..bout 2psi. first drive it was boosting only 6psi and felt damn slow lol. got the bleed valve wound up a bit so its going 7psi max now (as opposed to 8psi with the old cooler) and it feels more like what it did.

not going to go anymore until i get afr's checked out just to be sure.

making the pipe from my turbo to cooler was a BITCH.

 

[CMF_evade]

oh btw cisco..black cooler..then you can see blue silicone hose and shiny cooler pipe

 

[CMF_evade]

here's a pic. its mig welded (no tig avail..i would have preferred but i didnt care..just wanted to get the stupid thing done)

made out of stainless, mandrel bends.

1 and 3/4 with an expansion to 2inch

only cost me $70. my exhaust guy rocks..spent a heap of time fiddling around and what not.

 

[cisco]

Looks hot aaron. Glad you got it sorted so smoothly and car boosting already.

Yeah I will spray that shiny pipe too, and also hunt for a black replacement to that blue silicon hose

 

[CMF_Brendon]

i plan topaint mine black too but maybe could even get a light powder coat on it. i heard about black not absorbing much light to. and ill glady sacrafice a o.5 degree air intake temp to get not as much attention from police