painting cooler plumbing....

borry · 22-02-2006, 11:09 AM

hey guys,

jsut wonderin, i am goign to do my turbo piping in mild steel, and then paint it, now i wanted to paint it black, however a mate said being black it will absorb more heat, sureley being under a bonnet it wouldnt hold more heat ? or it would ? is it viable to paint the turbo plumbing to make it look neat, or wouldnt worry about it, i dont plan on having a show stopping engine bay - if i did i would be using stainless.

your thoughts on this matter would be much appreciated.

Casper · 22-02-2006, 11:13 AM

given the speed and presure the air will move through the piping I think you could paint it hot pink and it would still make no significant change to the temps. Paint it any colour you like, temp increase will be minimal at worst.

EA2BA · 22-02-2006, 11:15 AM

Black does absorb more heat and hold heat for longer, haveing said that though, nearly every car manufacturer makes them out of black plastic and black air boxes.

paint it black if you think it will look better, being mild steel it will get hot anyway, the only way to make it cooler would be to get it powder coated in silver.

XR6-VCT-2000 · 22-02-2006, 02:58 PM

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justa6 · 23-02-2006, 01:20 PM

black will be fine, i wouldn't paint the inside though. you know paint peels off goes throught your motor, engines love that sort of gear

XR6-VCT-2000 · 23-02-2006, 01:34 PM

the paint color really isnt going to effect any temperatures to a point thats noticable on performance etc etc - but thats being said - any paint is going to retain a bit of heat and also trap the heat in the metal under the paint for longer - thus making it a bit hotter internally with paint than raw .

XR6-VCT-2000 · 23-02-2006, 01:36 PM

reason being i believe why most inlet manifolds are made of aluminium ( cools quicker / keeps cooler ...light too of course ) and is left raw also the help it keep cool ... of the topic but along the same lines-> have u ever heard of a heatsink for a pc processor being painted ? ...no ...why ...because of the above

EA2BA · 23-02-2006, 02:16 PM

Alot CPU heat sinks I have seen are powder coated black actually. The main reason is cost, a cast unpainted part is far cheaper, thats why Ford stopped painting AU engine blocks, save a few $$$'s

XR6-VCT-2000 · 23-02-2006, 02:29 PM

thats a totally different coating though - its not 'normal' paint - as in paint used in the automotive industry . and most cases they dont even use that stuff anymore either for the same reasons , most colored alloys nowerdays have dyes/color.additives added to them to make it a different color , like on fittings on good braded hoses etc etc . - allways seems to be where painting would like nice but the heat factor applys . lol.

I have actually seen cast alloy headers blown to pieces - and it was simply put down to because the bloke painted them - they got too hot internally and built up to much pressure . cut a long story short - everything was checked and fine , the bloke has since redone the same setup as before but no paint on the extractors - no problems now ... mind u - that was cast iron headers though - not steel - Even the pieces of old blown extractors were inspected by himself and the mob he got them from with no signs of crack or a bad cast mould that could of caused the problem.. All came down to the paint they recon - keeping to much heat inside the extractors , they felt cooler in the engine bay on the outside - but apparentlly inside they were frying.

Mark351 · 23-02-2006, 03:53 PM

Why about the black powder coating they use on extractors, etc?

XR6-VCT-2000 · 23-02-2006, 05:03 PM

im not saying dont paint your extractors or they will blow !!! - im just saying like in the example above that with that case the engine was pushing close to max specs/pressure with the extractors he had on it - so it would of been close anyways , but that bit of paint did aparentlly add a few degrees within the extractors which caused them to explode with a bang...
gee... im just on about paint colors may vary the temperature only by a degree or so at most , totally painting something can maybe make it internally hotter by about 10 to 30 degrees .... so im not on about huge figures - and wouldnt even be noticeable in most applications... anyone with a standard engine or slightlly worked aint gotta worry about it - ! . painting your extractors though u will notice the engine bay slightlly cooler (which is a good thing), and the tailpipe exhaust fumes hotter.