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Any one try to ceramic coat the lower inter cooler? I was looking to give it a try and have Swain Coatings coat it in thermal barrier coating with the hopes of reflecting lower engine valley from soaking the cooler.Any thoughts?
I did it on my SRT-6. It takes longer for the IAT's to heat up but they end up being the same as without it. What you won't like about it is once it heats up, the time it takes to cool off is much longer. So it keeps the heat in as well as out, if you get my drift.
Insulating Intake and Inter Cooler Pipes with Ceramic Coating
Originally Posted by SICAMG
Any one try to ceramic coat the lower inter cooler? I was looking to give it a try and have Swain Coatings coat it in thermal barrier coating with the hopes of reflecting lower engine valley from soaking the cooler.Any thoughts?
I see what you're trying to accomplish, unfortunately the execution is a bit flawed. Obviously you want any inter cooler component to dissipate as much heat as possible and not retain it. Using a Plasma spray such as Swaintechs would accomplish the opposite. Swaintechs Plasma spray functions as a thermal insulator and more importantly has has zero reflectivity, therefore instead of reflecting away radiated heat from surrounding components you would be absorbing them.
Just as your sensitive electrical components are wrapped in reflective foil you want a reflective silver or gold surface. Look at any NASA component wrapped in silver or gold, metal worker, firefighter, etc, etc. Now if you wrapped the insulated components with a reflective top coat you'd likely see a more significant gain. At that point you're wasting time and money though.
You're much better off coating any components exposed to radiant heat with a traditional Bright Ceramic Coating as it would accomplish both an insulating function and a reflective function. Additionally, unlike a plasma sprayed part, a Ceramic Coated part will also shed heat from its surface VERY quickly. For example, in a normally aspirated application you can actually touch the header within minutes of shutting off the engine..... As for components like the Inter Cooler itself which are generally away from direct sources of heat, they would benefit from a Heat Dissipating Coating. These coatings will allow the component to shed heat faster than the raw substrate......
Last edited by CCPcoatings; Oct 4, 2015 at 02:48 PM.
There is just no airflow in that hot valley where the intercooler sits. You need to move air that would help. Coating won't do much good. The only thing I can think of that could work a little is reposition your windshield wiper jets to spray the bottom of intercooler at will. Water dissipates heat the best. The water droplets will suck heat out of the intercooler lower part of the intercooler. Not sure how much hp its worth. But, It looks like a no win situation overall.
Put water injection with a little meth. Problem solved. Your IAT's will drop dramatically. The answer has been around for years.
You could try using some heat shields in the valley to keep the heat away from the intercooler. The room is limited but I believe it could be done and beneficial.
I know how effective heat shielding is with enough air between the shield and part being shielded so I thought ...... perhaps ......
I've used water/meth and it works depending on where the nozzle is located. I no longer use it because my controller malfunctioned and emptied the contents of my washer bottle into my intercooler ... twice. I was fortunate both times and decided it wasn't worth the risk anymore.
Les, if there was enough space then yes but unfortunately there's no space. Everything is sandwhiched in together in that valley no space for any type of duct either
There's a small space in the front where air enters under the supercharger pulley. Your guess is as good as mine whether or not air flows from front to back, vice versa or at all. The outlet under the Y pipe is ample.
Here's a look at what's under the intercooler. I wanted to try some shielding, just to find out for myself. Lay it over the wires and against the ridges on the cylinders. What stopped me was fear of bottling up the heat and melting wires or who knows what. Not to mention setting off the knock sensors if the shielding came loose.
Les
Last edited by Velociabstract; Oct 9, 2015 at 05:09 PM.
Reason: Knock sensors
I put a DEI heat shield in my valley and I if I had to do it over again I would have bought the longer one. I think the one I have is 8"w X 12"L and if I remember correctly they had a 8x24. It's suppose to reflect something like 1200-1500 degrees. I also put the same shield over my 3/4 hoes that run over the top of my exhaust back to my rear tank. I also removed ALL LOWER shields, ALL engine bay weatherstripping and of course the rain shield and I also cut the hood heat shield so that with the rain shield out of the way heat can escape from the hood vent as well as underneath the car and at the base of the windshield.
I know that it seems like this is a problem but it really is not. There is some heat exchange from sitting or slow traffic where the water is not being cooled very much but from a pure performance standpoint the temperature of the intercooler is affected by 2 things. The water temperature and how hot the air going through it is. If you want your intercooler to be cooler cool the water with the heat exchanger or with a device like a killer chiller.
Air flow through the valley will not do anything. The external surface area to cool the water or heat the water is near zero. If you would like to see this in action take a piece of aluminum and make it into a bowl. Fill the bowl with water and then put 180 degree air around the backside of the bowl and see how long it takes to warm the water up.
Now imagine you were constantly exchanging the water with cooler water from the heat exchanger in the bumper.
Here's a look at what's under the intercooler. I wanted to try some shielding, just to find out for myself. Lay it over the wires and against the ridges on the cylinders. What stopped me was fear of bottling up the heat and melting wires or who knows what. Not to mention setting off the knock sensors if the shielding came loose.
Les
I lined mine with some Pyrogel insulation. It's great at keeping the temps down for about 15 minutes. Once the insulation gets heat soaked, it's like a blanket, though. The only thing that will help is airflow.
There has been the idea of a set of spacers that would lift the supercharger up a bit and make a little more room in the valley, but I don't think anyone has gone through with it. Some fancy duct work could help direct some fresh air down there, but who knows how much it would actually do.
I want to thank everyone that posted up their experiences and most importantly, pictures! It's easy to be skeptical without them. This thread is a great reference for new comers to supercharged AMG's.
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