Intercooler pipes - what colour???????????????????????????????????????????? ?

[grandmasterb]

A radiator is a convective device, colour is irrelevant for convection. Radiation will contribute 2/10 of fark all of the total heat transfer.

can you explain/back that up please???

bit :confused: thats all.

[tedy]

can you explain/back that up please???

bit  :confused: thats all.

The diffence in colour will affect heat changes but only from radiant heat ie sun light.

For ambient heat (hot air) the construction material will have a much higher effect. Materials such as aluminium will absorb 3 times as much heat as steel. If you want to keep the air as cool as possible the best product to use is plastic and it has very little heat density.

Another few factors are contact time and surface area. Because the air is only in contact with the metal for a very short time only a tiny bit of the heat will be transfered to the air. Being round, the piping has the lowest surface area to cross-sectional area of any shape.

If you want to keep the air cool then use plastic with heat wrap as plastic doesn't corrode.

[Chase-u]

what about stainless steel as piping, any downfalls to it apart from slight weight differences? how good/bad is it for disspating heat?

[dnb]

stainless wont give up heat like aluminium will. always use aluminium except when near a heat source. ie exhaust manifold.

even then a heat shield will go a long way to reducing intake pipe temps.

i always paint my pipes matt black. i like the factory look. i even paint my bov and boost controller. you would be surprised that the cops dont see anything that is matt black.

[wishaw]

yeah steel doesn't transfre heat very well so it is good to use. Just to goive you an idea. Have you ever picked up a iron/steel frypan? Any aluminium one will cook just aswell because of it's heat distribution properties.

On the other hand non stainless can rust. So go stainless.

[browny]

Seriously, I think this is being over analysed waaay too much.

*Significant factors in the choice of material are:

Corrosion resistance (aesthetics), ease of fabrication, cost, availability

*Significant factors in the choice of colour/surface finish are:

Aesthetics

*Minor factors (IMO not worth worrying about) in the choice of material and colour/surface finish are:

Heat transfer, emissivity