Just wondering if any of you guys have tried polishing your side mount or front mont intercoolers? I was thinking of chucking the intercooler on the workbench and polishing it up. Im just wondering if the aluminium will come up well, or if it will still be very dull. I know it wont shine like crome or even as good as the plenum, but just wonering if its worth the effort. PS. Im only thinking about the end tanks, not the cores Cheers Hound
They should come up Exceptionally well, alloy responds really well to polishing, although years of neglect might mean that simple metal polish compound might not do such a good job, you might have to do some sanding as well. I wonder if there is a solution that you can put the centre part in to clean it, perhaps some form of acid?
Intercoolers should really be painted black to aid with the heat dissipation and cooling down the charge. But a bit of "BLING" would probably do more for your ego than a cooler cooler regards John
Polishing intercoolers is a wank If they are installed properly all you should see anyway is the fins in the front. You cant polish them.
Think you will find that it is the courseness of the surface that aids in the heat transfer. Painting the surface with a gloss finish would not work as well as a matt finish. Similarly any polishing will only reduce the ability to transfer heat to the air. Sure the bulk of the work is done by the fins but I reckon every little bit counts.
a slightly rough surface has greater surface area to dissipate heat compared to a smooth polished surface. Painting radiators (in the generic sense) black did stuff all when I was working on power transformers - we couldn't even measure the difference with 2 decimal places. Only reason painting things black was done on radiators was to stop corrosion and to improve the look.
If any of the bits that need to be polished are actually seen Then the installation isnt efficent. The air has to go through the cooler. The only bits that should be open to the incoming air are the fins. Not the alloy tank sides as the air will not pool up in front of the cooler and go through the fins. There should be air guides to stop any air from going around the sides. Therefore none of the cooler should need to be polished.
but it has to look good with the front bar off as well plus a polished bit of alloy will weight less than unpolished (by a bees dick)
yeah I've got issues I polish things that can't even be seen like starter motor, brake knuckles, sump, engine mounts, bellhousing Warning: don't even start polishing the bellhousing and gearbox like I did as it has taken months of weekends to polish since it's such bloody hard rough alloy. Next VG30 engine I rebuild will have externally polished heads
