this weekend i am ramoving my stock intercooler from my 02 MCS and cleaning it. while it is out, is it possible to cremic coat it to increase the cooling capacity? thanks

 

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Have fun reading this one.

 

There are places near where I live that can do it faster, but the best price is from Cradin, www.cradin.com. I'm not sure what it costs now, but it was about $65 when I had mine done a couple years ago. I measured about the same temp delta as keith (k-huevo) during data logging session. If you think it's about 1% increase in air density, that's about 1-2 HP at well under $100. I do it to every IC I've run (stock and GP). It's relatively cheap, can't hurt and can help.

Matt

 

it looks great, i was just wondering if i could do it at home?

 

but you don't want to. You need to really clean the surface well, and a dip tank is the best for that. There are coatings you can do at home, but really, let the pros do it so it's done well. Some require baking, some don't. It's put on with a sprayer, just like poweder coating or paint, but I think it needs a larger nozzle. Not sure there. There's also a bit of an art to getting it all down the fins so it's not just at the top layer.... It does make a massive mess. The "coating corner" at the local shop looks like someone spraypainted all the walls flat black. As does the bench and everything around there.

Matt

 

money is tight right now, is there anything sold at a local auto parts store that would be at all effective?

 

NO

 

PATIENCE! if money's too tight just wait to do it right instead of wasting the money on something thats ineffective and end up having to do it again for it to work correctly.

 

We have a winner!

Matt

ps, if you don't have it to spend, then don't spend it. Look at the mess the bank (and lots of people) are in now cause the either forgot, or never learned, that simple pearl of wisdom.

 

www.swaintech.com can coat it with two different materials. One to block heat from the bottom solid portions and another that is used on the fins that allows a 5% heat removal increase.

 

Swain is really good, I've been using them for years. They aren't about bling, they concentrate more on function.

 

So you take yours off and ship it to them? What was the turn around time Dr O.?

 

This isn't a problem with the tight fins on our IC's?

 

I don't remember. Ask around, you may find someone with an extra stocker to keep you on the road....

I've looked at the fins on all four I've had done, and while penetration isn't perfect into the fins, I only had one that I thought could have been done better. But the coating thickness is more on the leading edges than deep into the fins.

Matt

 

 

I realize that this is an older thread, but if you believe that the coating increases "micro-turbulence" why not just use some EZ-Off oven cleaner (contains lye) and do a slow etch to roughen the surface?

Or, if you think that the color matters (it doesn't)perhaps have the IC anodized black ?

Reducing airflow by putting a few thousandths of less-conductive material on the surface is certainly not going to improve things, IMHO...

 

...wat?

DrO has shown that the coating disperses heat in numerous threads

Not sure where you got that etching the fins bit from. Are you referring to another thread?

 

and what it comes down to is that not all ceramics have low thermal conductivities. And not all of these coatings are black either, just the one I got was (well, the two I got were). Anyway, for the relative cost and no measured decrease in performance, it's still a potentially good bang for the buck when compared to some of the other performance adders out there.

Matt

 

Ahhhh,

Thanks Matt, thought I read everything there was about IC's (at least on nam) that part wasn't ringing a bell for me

 

The etching notion was just a thought of mine - there is more than one way to create "micro-turbulence", and etching aluminum to roughen the surface can be done with household chemicals.

I haven't tried it yet, and probably won't, as I have no way to measure whether it was worth the mess.

 

The thermal dispersant coating discussed here is not a ceramic. The OE IC has a “coating” to begin with that can be seen under high magnification, one of the preparation steps is to media blast the areas to be covered in order to remove this coating.

 

On the topic, no IC works well when "coated" with bug parts and plant fuzz, and it's nearly impossible to clean out the impacted natural material once it gets into the fins.

Rather than put coarse screening in the mail slot (which definitely reduces airflow) it is less restrictive to put a finer screen directly over the IC surface, laid flat under the diverter.

The external turbulator vanes and channels are on 1/12" centers, so I got a piece of 12/inch nylon-coated screen from www.mcmaster.com (coarser than a standard window screen), with about 80% open area, and cut it to fit over the IC surface.

The 12/inch spacing ensures that there are no moire-pattern effects, and still keeps out the bug parts that are large enough to otherwise get impacted in the fins. My IC now stays much cleaner, and what does get through the screen is easy to rinse out.