Heatsink grease

[Andrew W. Macfadyen]

Don't try strip the intercooler andoizing it will only make it look unsightly
you problem is air flow --- inter coolers won't work unless they have
something to transfer the heat too, this means a decent mass flow of cool air
at a reasonable velocity.

Chris Conlon wrote:

> Tom Matthews wrote:
>
> > I believe that this discussion was the inquiry of the existance of
> > coatings that increase component to air heat transfer..
>
> Yeah, that was my original question. I have to admit I was being a
> wee bit tricky; I had *heard* that such coatings existed but had no
> leads on finding one. My actual application is an intercooler, not
> a transistor heatsink, but the physics should be similar.
>
> Fans don't help much because I don't have enough room to put in a
> fan big enough to make a difference compared to airflow at speed.
> (Til I move the battery up front, which will give me more room.)
>
> The intercooler is actually painted (anodized??) black now, but I
> may strip it clean - once the engine bay warms up it's pretty
> damn hot in there. I suspect the engine bay is usually *hotter*
> than the IC, someday I'll get around to measuring it.
>
> > Ray Bohatz of BAT coatings advertises a coating that increases
> > heat loss of aluminum (specifically advertised for TPI runners/plenums).
>
> This is what I'm looking for. Do you have any contact information?
> I'm searching the net now... no luck so far.
>
> Another possibility: Would putting "dimples" on the surface, as
> mentioned a while back, help surface-to-air heat transfer by
> preventing the formation of a slow-moving, hot laminar layer? For
> sure this is way beyond *my* limited fluid dynamics knowledge to
> say for certain one way or the other.
>
> > Didn't make sense to me, as I thought that increased heat
> > conductance would actually make the problem worse by acting as a
> > heat sink... This make any sense?
>
> Yeah, I think so. For air intake components that are going to heat
> up to engine block temperature, my plan is to use *insulating*
> coatings on the inside if possible. (As well as trying to insulate
> the component itself from the engine block, not usually doable.)
>
>    Thank you for all the suggestions & info,
>    Chris C.
>
> p.s. I just found a web page with some info from Ray Bohacz... maybe
> it'll have what I need.