I'm building a sleeper car and wany everything under the hood to look stock. I bought a weiand stealth aluminum intake and want to paint it black so it will look stock at first glance.

This shouldn't cause any adverse conditions should it? I don't think that it would, but hey, I'm no expert. Thats why I'm here.

 

I did that with my RPM Air Gap for exactly the same reason. Its great! High rise intakes also look really badass when they match the rest of the motor (black, orange, whatever).

I say go for it... my Air Gap looks so much cooler painted black like the rest of the motor (except for bead blasted aluminum valve covers) than it did when it was bare aluminum. It does give it a sleeper look too, especially since my air cleaner hangs low enough to hide most of my Holley carb. And it is difficult to make a motor with an air gap look "stock" but black paint did it

 

Do you have any pics? Sounds really cool.

 

Clean it really well first. Brake kleen, acetone, whatever. Don't use wipes, they'll leave dust behind.
paint, and bake it if you can. That way it'll last. Perhaps clearcoat as well.

The tech article on the main page about souping up a 305, by Daniel Burk I think, showed how he painted his intake gold. Might have some info there.

 

Yeah, I was going to lightly sandblast it at work and then just rattle can it with black and a clear coat. If it flakes.....all the better. It'll look all the more like the crappy original thats on there now. I'm going to try to convince prople that its the crappy little 305 that came in the car with a "little" cam work and an exhaust on it.

I was actually looking for some original V6 badges to go along with my RS badges because some of the idiots around here are just dumb enough to believe it if I don't pop the hood before I unleash the beast on their crappy little r!cer.

 

dont go crazy with the paint, and make sure its high heat paint. The reason is, aluminum is awesome for heat flow and stays relatively cool, painting your engine will "insulate" so the less paint is on there the better. But for sure i know what you are going for. Im doing the same thing with my 85 berlinetta, im gonna paint it grandpa grey with mudguards and 14 inch tires but under the hood its a corvette L-82 and overdrive trans to boot. Berlinetta badges and all. Howver, my take on it is, once you pop the hood you cant hide much, so i do have a bit of chrome going on. Good luck.

 

Mudguards and 14" tires......I love it man. Sounds awesome.

 

If you really want it to look stock, wipe grease/oil all over it.

 

Not dirty........just stock

 

I should have cleaned it up a little bit first, but its too cold outside

 

One more... really nasty engine compartment!

Can see my pretty, custom made fuel line though!

 

Just FYI. There is a thermal coating that is black and when sprayed on the intake manifold will help disapate heat. The idea is to help keep the air cool at it enters the engine. I have thought about it but I wan't to keep my intake the aluminum color.

 

Get it anodized black.

 

Na, if you really want to do it right, dont waste your time with paint or anodizing. Those chip, scratch, discolor, and lose their shine. Get it powdercoated. Its cheap and an absolutely bullet proof. Looks great too!

 

I dont think there is a insulating problem with powder coating either, ie, you will keep the cool air effects of the aluminum. Good luck

 

Hrrm, i have heard the exact opposite. I heard it traps heat in, but its not like it would matter anyways. Its not like its going to harm anything on a watercooled engine.

 

Luke! You are my son. Exactly the same thing that I'm going to do when I get my RPM non-air-gap manifold. Don't believe the "clean & gleam team". Black disipates heat the best.
When you get done is should look like this:

And sound like THIS.

 

IROC-YOU, you are right, powder coating IS an insulator (just researched it) . Bad knowledge on my part. You are also correct that it wouldnt damage anything on a watercooled engine, however, it kind of defeats the purpose of an air-gap/aluminum intake. The only performance gain you are getting if you insulate it, is light weight.

 

How so? If you "insulate" the intake, it will keep the cool air/fuel inside cool, and the heat on the out side OUT! Thats how insulation works... its a barrier, so to speak. The manifold may feel hotter on the outside, but that heat is only on the outside.. it won't go through an insulator. Just like how ceramic coated headers keep the heat inside the tubes, powdercoating an intake will keep the 'cool' inside the runners and plenum.

 

yea, but an air gap intake is meant to get nice cooling air from the engine bay (coming from the fan) to go over the intake and cool it down, so it cools it down.
The air convection from the fan is trying to keep it cooler, while the conducted heat coming up from the engine block is trying to warm it up.

With headers, yea, you want to hold the heat in.
Intake manifold, it's heated, but you want to cool it.

That's right, I just learned that recently too. Stay in school kids You wear black on a hot day, and get hot right? It's because black, transmits heat through it faster, where white acts more like a thermal barrier. This is mostly as far as heat radiation. The paint/coating will still act like a blanket, to prevent convection heat transfer (to a degree). In the thickness of paint i'd think it's minimal, powder coating is thicker though I think. I wonder which one has more of an effect in this application, the radiated heat, or convection eh? hmmm.

Black anodizing (it's an aluminum manifold afterall) would be perfect, in my opinion. Anodizing can't flake off, or dissolve in gasoline, or get scratched off.

 

Thats right Adam, Sonix beat me to it, your mixing up convection with conducted heat. The intake manifold is attached to the heads, which heats up, and in turn will heat up the manifold. so yes you are keeping the "hot air" outside, if any, from heating up the "cool air" inside the plenum, BUT air changes temp quicker than alloy or aluminum. so insulating it would keep it from dissapating heat(conduction) and heat up the cold air coming in(convection), faster than the cold air can cool down the aluminum.
You are correct in what you said mind you, but the conducted heat would overthrow the insulated effects of the convection "cool".

Like sonix mentioned, the air gap functions on the theory (and probably proven fact) that the air inside the engine compartment (although hot air at times), is still cooler than the alloy components of the engine itself, so heat transfer can occur between the block and the air through convection to keep it cool.

 

so.....a coat or two of spraypaint shouldn.t hurt right? I really don't care if it flakes a little.

Where would one look to get one of these things anodized? That idea also sounds cool, but is it expensive?

Thanks for all the replies guys!.... And for the pics adam and supervisor.

 

Try in the phonebook under industrial coatings or something. It's not really common actually.
There is a few places here in calgary that do it I think.

Phone around and price it out, it'd sure be unique!
Or, just clean it up really well, and paint it, and bake it on.

 

I used black engine paint on mine, and it worked just fine. I would just go that route. All the coatings and treatments are nice and good, but if its only for looks, use engine enamel. It works just fine.

 

getting it anodized sounds cool, but no use spending a whole bunch of dough trying to get the engine to look stock when a can of engine paint will do.

 

me too me too... Im actually planning on painting everything on the 400 im building black...even the aluminum heads

 

Same plan here... now I just gotta find some aluminum heads!

 

I just contacted a local anodizing shop, who told me ~$130 to anodize my intake. I paid about $210 for it. I don't think that's worth it, so i'd really only do it if I did it myself.
Just an FYI.

 

Its painted already, but thanks anyway dude!