coatings

[zpwn06]

I have a pretty hard time understanding how a coating can be "Thermally Dispersant" when it seems like its the nature of coatings to hold in heat, or at the very least, keep it the same as before, but apparently modern technology is more amazing than I thought. Several people report that the coatings help. I was looking at Clear Image's website. They got some cool stuff on there, mostly not for our cars, but...
anyway.
http://www.clearimageautomotive.com/...20Coatings.htm

so you coat your manifolds and loses heat faster? seems good.
Anyone ever had this done?

[Smoke Panther]

Re: coatings

The way heat flows is from a hot object to a cool object, and how quickly it does it is determined by the object's themal conductivity. Thermal conductivity is determined by the material property of the object...think about if you sit on metal bleachers on a cold/hot day, as opposed to sitting on wooden bleachers on the same day; you're going to feel a much greater transfer of heat to/from your *** with the metal bleachers because most metals typically have a high thermal conductivity quotient. So if the coating you linked to has a high metal content, it would increase the thermal conductivity of w/e it's put on, allowing it to disperse the heat.

[zpwn06]

Re: coatings

thanks captain obvious. haha.

but the nature of coatings is to reduce surface area and remove active sites (a great reason to paint metal- prevent corrosion) and that seems like it would acually interfere with your conductivity, well, with convection anyway. I guess its somewhat of a heatsinking phenomenon, drawing heat away from the surface? to what smoke was saying about conductivity then, it would make sense to use a metal like aluminum, copper, or ideally silver to coat with.But for any of that to be effective the ambient temperature would have to be significantly lower, for any heat "dispersal".

Makes me curious to try it- but not enough to pay some $2000. Maybe if I could find some and do it myself? I don't suppose its anything complicated like a powdercoat or anodization? I would probably screw up something like that.

[Smoke Panther]

Re: coatings

but the nature of coatings is to reduce surface area

how does spraying something ontop of another object, reducing it's surface area?

and that seems like it would acually interfere with your conductivity, well, with convection anyway.

1) the effect on conduction would depend on the chemical composition of the coating; not all coating is the same.
2) Convection doesn't apply when talking about coating a hot object. The material that is transferring the heat, in the case of a car intake or block, is the physical material, not the air around it; there's no fluid involved.

to what smoke was saying about conductivity then, it would make sense to use a metal like aluminum, copper, or ideally silver to coat with.

From the ad you posted, I can't tell what the chemical composition of the coating is...so the best I can say is what I did earlier in the thread

So if the coating you linked to has a high metal content, it would increase the thermal conductivity of w/e it's put on, allowing it to disperse the heat.

But for any of that to be effective the ambient temperature would have to be significantly lower, for any heat "dispersal".

again, that all depends on the specific make-up of the coating, which cannot be determined from a cheap ad

Makes me curious to try it- but not enough to pay some $2000. Maybe if I could find some and do it myself?

Unless you have a ton of heat extractors all over your hood, I wouldn't be too concerned about dispersing the heat directly into the engine bay and would just let the car's regular cooling system deal with the heat, the way the car was designed to