I have been slaving in my garage over the past 3 days preparing my car for my PE TT kit arriving tomorrow. The engine is only about 1-2 horus away from being ready to COMPLETLEY PULL OUT OF THE CAR, yes i am so frickin excited.

Anyway, being that i live in So Cal most of the year, and Nor cal a small part of the year i have to deal with the police, so im going stealth stealth stealth.

I want to Paint my piping and intercooler black so the Po-Po won't know what's really going down. What paint would you guys recommend?

Also is it ok to directly apply paint to an intercooler?

 

You don't just want to use any paint - it will kill the thermal transfer qualities of the aluminum intercooler fins. From what I understand, someone makes a coating (powder coat?) that will actually assist in heat transfer. Might want to do a search to see where you can get this done.

 

I was wondering on this also as I may go TN single turbo real soon.

 

You might want to check with local powder coating shops if they coat TDC (Thermal Dispersant Coating).

 

That is correct Craig. Regular paint will DETROY the thermal transfer properties of the intercooler. Swain Tech makes a flat black coating for intercoolers that according to them actually IMPROVES thermal transfer. Worst case its no worse then it is now. I would give them a call.

 

My boss has the swain stealth coating on his greddy intercooler on his supra( no clue why, cuz its a darn supra!!!) not sure if the technology works, but it does look stealth and holds up pretty well.

 

check the supra and evo forums for suggestions too....

 

Heres an article Sport Compact Car did on coatings: http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...00zx_part_vii/

 

Just a tip if you want stealth stay away from a exhaust keep it simple! My car now sounds like stock except for the BOV.
Congrats on the pull. Told ya it wasnt that bad!

 

Yeah im keeping the stock exhaust for now, i sold my HUGE HKS carbon/Ti custom true dual set up mostly for the reason that it screamed at cops plus i needed cash for the turbo.

Ill have the BOV and im throwing on stillen test pipes. If the test pipes smell funky even with the turbos it only took me and my buddy 20 minutes to remove the cats last night.

 

Here is where I had mine done:

http://www.clearimageautomotive.com/...%20project.htm

that's a pic of my engine bay at the bottom of the page.

 

You can use this black radiator paint, it works fine and it's cheap.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...emType=PRODUCT

Just dust the front viewable areas , leave the rest alone.

 

I woudln't use any of that cheap stuff on a $1000~ intercooler. Go with the real profesesional coating.

 

Heres my PE TT kit powder coated in black

 

lookin clean bro. Ill have to do that someday.

 

Go to Gem Enterprises in Escondido and get it anodized. You do not want to use a powder coat because powder coat is to thick.

Gem Enterprises
300 N Andreasen Dr
Escondido, CA 92029

(760) 746-6616


Here is a pic of my old VW when I had them anodize the pipes and intercooler.

 

Correct, youd want to use a thermal dispersant which helps the intercooler shed heat quicker. Powder will gum up the fins and lower efficiency....like someone else said you can get it anodized too (unless it has casted end tanks). The intercooler piping etc is all safe for powder coating though.

 

I agree being more stealthy is always a good idea in Cali. Plus you will also have an edge on unsuspecting street racers

 

so how about the piping? I'm not worried about the intercooler because it's pretty stealth already on the aps kit but the silver piping worrieng me.

 

You can try powder coating it flat black if you want. Or you can get it thermal barrier coated to make it more resistant to asorbing heat.