Do black intercoolers cool better?

[Danny]

Black Intercoolers Mythbusted - YouTube

Mind blown.

[Hardcore]

Won't make any performance differences once you're driving though and there's air flowing through it.

[Danny]

Well, no. But it's still interesting.

[Tim]

Won't make any performance differences once you're driving though and there's air flowing through it.

Not so sure, evos have a water spray to cool the inter cooler. I can't see them adding extra weight if it doesn't make a difference.

[Hardcore]

I'm not talking about water spray though, i'm talking about painting it black.
The results of the test in the video showed there was no real difference in temps from painting it black once it had airflow going through it. They mentioned as it'll absorb more radiation being black as well from sunlight that it maylose power in real life applications.

[Tim]

I didn't really watch the video

[cgawelko]

Well also as stated in the video, it will make a difference if your IC isnt mounted in the sunlight. Its mounted away from the sun rays (as we all know, shade is cooler than sunlight, unless you live in Seattle which has no sunlight. Almost like some parts of england from what I hear ;] ) then it will dissipate heat more efficiently.

[Hardcore]

It's not just sunlight. It's heat radiation.
A black intercooler will absorb more heat from the car's radiator and engine bay as well directly behind it

[cgawelko]

Correct. But the IC is going to be mounted infront of the radiator, as well as the condenser, and it shouldnt get much heat. My car doesnt have very much heat near the front bumper after long drives, but the fender wells in the front and that area is hot.

[Hardcore]

In the video, once airflow is going past the black and silver intercoolers there is no real difference in temps.

The black one only was proven to cool better, when there was no airflow going past it.
This was on a bench however. In real life, when there is no airflow going past it, it's when the car is stopped.
When the car is stopped, then the black one will absorb much more heat from the engine bay (it's in front of a really hot radiator, and a really hot engine bay and if it's a hot day, heat from outside as well. So no performance gains there either.

The conclusion was with the car either moving, or not moving there's no real gains from painting it black