So I kind of want to paint my Injen CAI. I've painted my sparkplug cover and intake manifold cover to closely match the Cusco bar mounts, and I think my CAI would look better either blue or silver, rather than the black it is now.

However, I don't want to do this if it has negative performance ramnifications, such as causing poorer heat dissipation or something similar. I won't pretend to have the engineering brain necessary to really think this one out, so I'm hoping some of the more technically-minded individuals on the forums (JTso, moda_way?) could chime in.

Long story short: I'm a modaholic who wants to further dress up his enginebay, but not at the cost of performance. Are there any reasons not to paint a CAI's tubing?

 

probably the same effect on performance as stickers.

 

^^

 

lol.

Paint away. The right color can add up to 20whp.

 

I'd suggest getting it powder coated, not painted.

It should do absolutely nothing to effect the performance.
Injen powder coats some intakes, polishes others, sells them with the exact
same specs and model numbers. So no worries.

 

I think you all misinterpreted me... I'm well aware that painting/stickers/etc is not going to ADD performance to any part. I was making sure that it wouldn't prove at all detrimental to it, either.

Thanks for the replies.

 

Polished aluminum does an excellent job of reducing radiant heat transfer....

 

hmm couldn't it insulate a coooooler temp? if enough layers are applied?? =X just curious

 

Enough as in a few hundred?

 

LOL

 

The problem is the dyno doesn't tell you how much the added weight slows you down!

 

I don't know the thermal conductivity of the paint, but given that a couple layers would be much, much thinner than the plastic, its impact on conduction should be negligible.

A painted surface might be smoother than the raw plastic - I think this would decrease the convection coefficient, maybe? Regardless, this effect would also likely be negligible.

Radiation heat transfer... I wouldn't think the engine block would have very high emissivity to begin with, paint would probably increase the absorptivity of the icebox?

It's all negligible.

 

Well, yeah. But it was on purpose just to have a little laugh at your expense.

Just like hunter said, yes it will make a difference but no, you would never be able to tell. Ever.

 

I also recommend powdercoat over paint, but is it really worth it? Unless you do some custom color powdercoating, I seriously think its waste of money.

 

btw, where is JTso? Last time he was on AZ was back in Dec.