900 Tunnel Rear Cooler Paint Options!

[MacDawg productions]

If it were me, it comes down to time and money to get a project done. It's pretty easy and cheap to mask it off and use a good quality high temp paint, and you would have close to the same visual effect. Or you can curse and swear and drill the rivets out, and then pay the money to get it powder coated. Is it going to operate any better doing it the powdercoat way? Probably not. The tunnel looks deadly. So deadly, I would consider doing it myself. You could have powder coated it, but you didn't. Because of the hassle of stripping it further, and maybe it would have even costed more to do so. It's all about the look with some things. Spray bombing might be more of a renegade way, your going to accomplish the same thing. Might even make you go faster!! Sorry for the rant.
Cheers!!

 

[guidoxpress]

LOL..

thanks nolan, and Mac..

it wouldnt cost me anything to have SMALL things powder coated..i can do them myslef..i have the craftsman "do it yourself" powder coating gun..i have done a few things here and there on my streetbikes, quad, dirtbike..always turned out great..this would be a cake walk..but he rivots make it not worth it..lol..

will have to see...i might be set back a little farther back then i thought..some things came up today during assembly..weird

 

[milk man]

just got done swaping out a bent bulk head. On both my bulk head and my heat exchanger i got solid carbide bits and drilled them out from the dimple side it took a 1/4 bit got the bits from grainger wasnt that bad as it anly took 2 bits for both

 

[guidoxpress]

Milk Man..

thanks for the info..i will give this another shot..i tried from the Top first..stupid idea, lol..

do they come out the TOP after its drilled?

what are you installing afterwards...standard rivots?

thanks again

 

[donbrown]

This is all about heat tranfer coefficient of materials.

I think the polymer coating of the tunnel will restrict heat transfer and attenuate vibrations.

The sled will vibrate less and retain heat longer.

I you want better heat transfer you have to have the added material transfer better than aluminum.

Gold, copper, and silver conduct and transfer heat better than aluminum.

So .... if you really have to coat the cooler look at these materials.

The polymer coating will insulate the heat exchanger.

Also ... powder coating may/will create a layer of air on the surface which has poor heat transfer characteristics relative to Al


http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-d_429.html

The thermal resistance of Cu is 0.101 C/W-inch. The thermal resistance of Al is 0.164C/W-inch, about 63% worse. Some alloys of Al are worse like say, 6061 Al which is 0.23C/W.

aluminum really holds heat though: 407Joules/lb/C compared to copper: 172J/lb/C.

copper is about twice as good as aluminum at conducting heat, remember that copper is more than twice as dense as aluminum - in other words, a pound of aluminum is a lot larger volume than a pound of copper.

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-198975.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze

 

[guidoxpress]

info!

thanks for the info don..

as you can tell in the pics, i have not coated any of the coolant tubing, or the rear cooler..

i do not want to use the stock shovel rack, and i didnt have anything to cover it, like a tunnel bag..

i knew the coating would not transfer heat and that is where i stand now..i know that powder coat will not hold the heat in as well as paint would not..

i dont care to polish it, even know i know that is by far the safest and most affective...

 

[POLZIN]

I think powder coat is the way to go I worked on my cooler for long enough that I was getting concerned about sanding a hole in it well before it was good enough to polish. I wonder how well it would polish anyhow its definetly a different grade of aluminum that the tunnel. The powder hides a lot of evils. I dont really think paint would be any worse as far as heat transfer . Its the bottom that is designed for cooling efficency anyhow.

 

[guidoxpress]

word up Kreg..

Thats the "plan" at least

Gonna finsih the motor and front end and then i will give this a shot again..i have to powder coat a few things anyways..

 

[donbrown]

thanks for the info don..

as you can tell in the pics, i have not coated any of the coolant tubing, or the rear cooler..

i do not want to use the stock shovel rack, and i didnt have anything to cover it, like a tunnel bag..

i knew the coating would not transfer heat and that is where i stand now..i know that powder coat will not hold the heat in as well as paint would not..

i dont care to polish it, even know i know that is by far the safest and most affective...

I think the "top" of the cooler is coated with black material proven to transfer less heat than a period of time than aluminum.

Typically heat rises given the same medium in a gravity environment.

Personally I would want t put on coolant fin ontop of the cooler (like on a computer CPU) but it would cost lots of money and add weight.

Even to go as far as to have a raised rear rack with a copper coating to dissipate heat.

Actually a rough surface on the cooler would be better cause it would be more surface area and more turbulant to remove the heat, and less material from the air to the coolant.
I really like the heat foil on the chaincase.

 

[vj_m]

nice buddy! came out good!

 

[Dogmeat]

Damn that is gonna be a nice looking sled when you get it put back together ...

 

[guidoxpress]

Thanks Dog..

I am slowly getting it back together..had the seat covered all black too

should be nice..a few things need to be done (ordered) yet..but i am broke now and still need to stick the compfusion mounts in the wifes sled..

 

[MacDawg productions]

Thanks Dog..

I am slowly getting it back together..had the seat covered all black too

should be nice..a few things need to be done (ordered) yet..but i am broke now and still need to stick the compfusion mounts in the wifes sled..

It's a full time job, but somebodys gotta do it!!

 

[milk man]

i put stainless rivits back in. cooler goes out the botom with a little twist to clear where lines attach

 

[ss_badaz]

Sean, the tunnel looks wicked! Just when I thought I had spent enough on my 9 I see a pic like that….. Thanks man!

 

[guidoxpress]

HAHA...thanks Dave..

just wait about 2 weeks, i should have it all back together and pretty much ready to roll..fired it up today..2 pull..what a relief, lol..

installing the 09 front end and IQR mod hood...just waiting for some A-Arms..

i pretty much just gave up on removing the cooler..black heat paint it is.. sorry kreg..lol..

dave...get that billet chaincase cover, and do something to your 9 now..shoot already..haha..

 

[guidoxpress]

here is what i ended up doing with mine..

i really wanted to powder coat it, but i dont want to go buy a carbide drill bit and mess around with it and chance breaking something...cause i ALWAYS do, lol..

just used super high heat resistive paint (for BBQs)...up to 1200 degrees..i used it before on my zx9r motor and it looks great still and never a problem..

pretty good match to the bedliner color

 

[nmmiles]

Very nice Sean,

Turned out Great!

 

[BIGGDAWG]

looking good sean

to bad it won't make you go any faster

i will run at half throttle so you can keep up. lol