Ceramic coated intercooler!??

[Flateric]

Correct me if I am wrong here but this would not be a good idea at all.....

I saw one today at the gas station in someone's car and they seemed to miss my point about it not being at all helpful to the intercoolers purpose in life.

Or am I totally wrong here?

 

[IJ.]

It would keep heat in so yes quite stupid.

 

[MK3Brent]

The intercooler itself, yes...
The piping after it to the intake manifold... maybe not so stupid.

 

[IJ.]

Only on the cold side B

 

[Flateric]

Ya, it was the intercooler itself, the stock one on a 7m.

I guess this would make the car essentially be without any type of intercooling, alot like one of the lower early models of the Audi TT. My friend had one, turbosharged but not intercooled stock. Weird......

But he was convinced that not only is he protecting and beautifying the piece he also was improving upon the original......somehow, his logic was so twised off to right field I can't even really give you the resons he gave. I just couldn't comprehend what he was believing it achieved.

So, yup, weirdios, there out there, and unfortunately it appears some of them have somehow gotten ahold of our beloved supras, like a adopted child going to a bad home. Hopefully it'll live to be re-adopted to a good family! LOL.

 

[shenronzero]

but unlike the IC if your engine was painted you could actually gain from the ceramic paint correct? In one of my college science classes the teach was expalining thermo dynamics if im remembering right and said that because of all the heat that come off our motors we are only getting about 25% of the HP that the engine is capable of.

but for the topic yeah painting the IC :3d_frown: just sad. i believe i have seen some ppl paint their radiators as well. not sure if it was ceramic paint but i would think the paint would keep more heat in as well. i think they were going for the look.

 

[IJ.]

I doubt there's anything to be gained by keeping heat in the engine through coatings as you'd just need more capacity in the cooling system to cope.

 

[shenronzero]

I just thought it was interesting that we only use 25% of our engines potentail due to heat lost.

 

[IJ.]

Yep but to make it better you need a fuel that's more stable at elevated temps and can resist detonation.

Direct injection is a small step forward and modern engines run at a higher operating temp then the old days but nothing radical.

 

[GrimJack]

There are thermo transparent ceramics, I've run into them in the car audio industry. However, they are extremely rare and expensive as hell. It's literally cheaper to plate your stuff with gold.

 

[WhtMa71]

Yep but to make it better you need a fuel that's more stable at elevated temps and can resist detonation.

Direct injection is a small step forward and modern engines run at a higher operating temp then the old days but nothing radical.

Interesting. I was riding in my buddy's '08 M5 and noticed that its operating temperature is 215*F. I thought it was a little high. Im not sure if it being a v10 would have anything to do with it.

I know a light coat of flat black paint wont hurt the efficiency of an intercooler much but ceramic coating sounds a bit extreme.

 

[shenronzero]

There are thermo transparent ceramics, I've run into them in the car audio industry. However, they are extremely rare and expensive as hell. It's literally cheaper to plate your stuff with gold.

lol...Hmmm a gold plates auiod system :rofl: ....thermo ceramics in the auido biz? never heard of them (i work in the car auido industry)... who makes them and what do they do?

 

[GrimJack]

Essentially just fancy paint for amplifier heat sinks, and I've never seen it come that way from the factory, only high end custom jobs. Working in the industry yourself, I'm sure you know the deal, some big shot celeb has enough pull that they can get Rockford (for example) to send them bare heatsinks and sub baskets so they can have them customized, then send them back to Rockford for final assembly before they go to the retail outlet for installation.

 

[suprabad]

Essentially just fancy paint for amplifier heat sinks, and I've never seen it come that way from the factory, only high end custom jobs. Working in the industry yourself, I'm sure you know the deal, some big shot celeb has enough pull that they can get Rockford (for example) to send them bare heatsinks and sub baskets so they can have them customized, then send them back to Rockford for final assembly before they go to the retail outlet for installation.

I had a B&O home stereo, and the tweeters were surrounded with a "ferrite gel" that was supposed to dissipate heat very quickly. The ferrite gel kept the tweeters cool which was supposed to help keep high frequency harmonic distortion to a minimum. I've also seen similar technologies employed in other stereo components, as well as CPU's, so Grim is exactly right.

I'm a little skeptical on the "keeping the heat in the engine will somehow result in a more efficient/powerful engine" theory (at least much higher than current motor operating temps). I know that nascar motors run at about 230 degrees or so, but I think much past that you would run into fuel and ignition problems.

Engine manufacturers compound alloys to efficiently reach a certain temperature and then dissipate heat past that temperature, resulting in a metal that's "dialed in" to whatever operating temps the engineers have determined is appropriate.

My point is, if higher temps resulted in a huge gain in efficiency (as has been suggested), wouldn't we be seeing high temp engines given the demand for fuel efficient vehicles? The fact that were seeing electric/gas high-brids tells me that there probably isn't much potential in "high temp" motors.

 

[Fozbo]

I just thought it was interesting that we only use 25% of our engines potentail due to heat lost.

Yeah, don't forget friction (try hand cranking a rebuild engine ), slack in the drivetrain, and sound produced along with all the heat. If you do the math for the pure physics and thermodynamics of a gallon of gasoline's energy content acting on a light car at constant highway speeds, you'll find that it is around 70-100 MPG.

 

[mk3_supra]

My point is, if higher temps resulted in a huge gain in efficiency (as has been suggested), wouldn't we be seeing high temp engines given the demand for fuel efficient vehicles? The fact that were seeing electric/gas high-brids tells me that there probably isn't much potential in "high temp" motors.

and we wouldn't be complaining about over heating when the good old 7m BHG'd

 

[Who]

The intercooler itself, yes...
The piping after it to the intake manifold... maybe not so stupid.

Only on the cold side B

Has anyone ever tried heat shielding or insulating the upper IC pipe? The IC pipe that comes out of the fender wall and over the turbo into the 3000 pipe (cold side). If you could keep the hoses and plastic from adsorbing all that heat it would keep the temperature of the air from rising after its been cooled by the Intercooler. I have the stock setup and the plastic pipe gets very warm to the touch.

 

[Poodles]

That's why there is a heat shield on the turbo... The plastic/rubber stock hosing won't conduct as much heat into the pipe as something metal, but my hard pipes are ceramic coated... You can use an insulator over that pipe, but it's not very pretty...

 

[shenronzero]

Essentially just fancy paint for amplifier heat sinks, and I've never seen it come that way from the factory, only high end custom jobs. Working in the industry yourself, I'm sure you know the deal, some big shot celeb has enough pull that they can get Rockford (for example) to send them bare heatsinks and sub baskets so they can have them customized, then send them back to Rockford for final assembly before they go to the retail outlet for installation.

i think we did something like that when we built a car for paris hilton for the opening of her club in orlando. Everything was fucking pink:3d_frown:

 

[fool'ssupra]

You're kidding about the pink, right????