Painting underside of intake?

[95BlueStallion]

Saw on horsepower tv that there is a myth about painting the underside of your intake white to reflect heat? Anyone heard of this or tried it? They were saying they could see truth in it, because duplicolor's high temp paint has a ceramic additive that may reflect heat... I might try it just for giggles since I have a new intake to install yet. I wonder if I coated the underside of the upper plenum if it would help keep its temp down a bit? What do you guys think?

 

[95BlueStallion]

Nobody has any insight on this highly scientific subject? One of yall could at least tell me im a moron...

 

[Pokageek]

I think that is a gimmick and came from "home staging." I dont think yer a moron, its good to look into stuff..but I doubt you would gain any rwhp. Sorry.

 

[final5-0]

Well

I can see some logic in all that
I can see it might be nothing but smoke and mirrors
I can see the paint peeling off and clogging up the oil pick up

Of course ... all the above is just a bunch of speculations
but
As for that TV show

I see things there as being pretty cut and dry a lot of the time.

I have seen them boys bolt on every after market hot rod part known to man
on a sbf on more than one occasion and make no more power than what some
junior high school kid could with the typical amount of knowledge and budget
he most likely would possess.

I mean really ... I've seen em spend well over a grand on stuff along the
lines of exhaust, roller rockers, tb's, etc and then get all excited about
how they picked up less than 10 rwhp.

Grady

 

[AP1995V6]

I'm with Grady on this one.

While white does reflect more electromagnetic waves than it aborbs, I think the proximity of the intake to the source of heat would negate any possible heat reduction.

The white would reduce heat transferred through convection, but you must also remember that the intake is in direct contact with the block so heat transferred through conduction will still lead to the intake being close to the same temperature as the block.

 

[5spd GT]

Horsepower TV has been watched recently I see

I enjoy the show, but not some of their parts selection. But hey, they get it for free

I believe it would have to be a "non-flake" type of paint as stated above. Good quality stuff.

For a daily driver or true street car, I see it as being useless and potentially harmful if done incorrectly. I am not sure if it would measureable.

 

[final5-0]

While I did poke a bit of fun at that TV show

I'd like to say I'm not critical of peeps thinking outside the box
or
Its good to have an open mind about new things :Word:
cause
Thats how improvements are discovered

I guess one thing I have found out about getting older is

I seem to always want to know how practical things are
or maybe
Does the application give gains that justify the efforts and expense

Like David said ... the amount of good might be very small if any

I know all different kinds of ... little tricks ... are out there

Yes ... they will yield a gain
but
Is a little trick that is used by Nascar or a 1/4 mile only Racer always
practical for our typical Street Car combo

I mean ... what some of us do with our weekend only toys are not
always practical for those of us who use our Stangs for dd's

It never hurts to explore the possibilities
and
I didn't wanna seem too critical

Grady

 

[go-stang5.0]

Maybe it helps on a drag car motor that is run for 30 sec. at a time. I mean every little bit counts to them. But as mentioned before about conduction, there will be no benifit to you once the car warms up.

 

[BlackPearl955.0]

Yea I can see how that would be somthing you would consider when running sprints and nothing else.(does it work or not? I say no)
Ice packs are great though
The only thing that would probably work you be maybe a heat absorbin cover on the intake. And still gains would only be in the 25% of a hp at the fw...
maybe
So just make the intake look nice not some panda

 

[mo_dingo]

Our intakes are aluminum from the factory. It conducts heat so much better than any ferrous metal. Adding paint will only make the intake harder to dissipate the heat, making it more of a semi-conductor. It would only hurt IMO.

The metallic paint is ferrous based, which is the last thing you would want.

Now anything colored white will refract light/UV/EMF waves much more than black, for instance. If your hood was missing and you painted the top of the intake white, I can see how it might limit the sun's effect on the intake, but that is purely conjecture.

Painting your hood white would more likely have a real effect, rather than the intake, but how much, is anyone's guess.
Scott

 

[95BlueStallion]

Haha, thanks guys. I was thinking more so the underside of the upper plenum to reflect heat from the topside of the motor, but yeah, I dont think I would risk painting the underside of the lower intake... Just curious if there was any truth to it.

 

[gcomfx.com]

I painted mine! ..............................................












Black. Didn't notice the car running any hotter than usual.

I will say I now have a black powder coated Trickflow setup. And the SILVER painted C&L pipe before my T/B gets hotter than my upper intake. :o We checked this with an infared thermometer.

 

[BlackVert]

if you are talking about the underside of the lower intake, i'd never do it because i'd be worried about the paint flaking off and getting into the oil