The intercooler in a turbocharged engine helps with cooling the air before it reaches into the engine as it heats up in the compression phase. Basically, the cooler the air enters the cylinder, the more you can pack inside and the bigger the bang gets. There are some videos out there on the Internet claiming that you can increase the efficiency of an intercooler by painting it black. But is it so?
Well, it all has to do with emissivity, which is the rate of radiation that is emitted by a surface or object and people not completely understanding the process.
Usually, blackbodies (emissivity=1 on a scale from 0 to 1) gives off the greatest amount of radiation. This can make some people think that painting your intercooler black it will aid it emit more heat and cool the air inside much faster.
It sounds good in theory, but the intercooler was not made to get rid of heat through radiation. It actually uses convection.
As you'll understand from the video bellow, an intercooler takes advantage of the air molecules passing through its inlets as you drive at speed. The intercooler's heat will be passed to them and cool it down along with the compressed air inside.
Painting the intercooler black actually does the opposite. Instead of boosting the rate at which heat is transmitted to the airflow, you harden the process because the intercooler is covered in a “protective” coat.
Google News