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  #1  
Old 03-01-2015, 09:22 AM
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Default Paint the fins, or not?

Ok, I'm sure this thread will start a debate that will go on forever and never be settled, but here goes:

I've read, I don't know how many posts on this forum of posters warning other posters doing a restoration not to paint the fins of their cylinder heads or hydro pumps claiming the paint will cause overheating. Usually you see this warning after a proud member wanting to display his work posts a progress picture and there it is, a beautiful engine or partially assembled frame with........GASP....... a painted head or hydro.

"Good Lord, I can't believe you painted the fins" are the replys. "Now you went an done it, she's gonna overheat".

What brought me to this question is, yesterday I was watching TV, picked up on an old episode of BoB Vila's "This old House". They were in a restoration that was in its final stages and this painting contactor was explaining proper wall painting to Bob Vila while his guys were doing the walls and trim. Vila noticed that the hot water radiator in the room had already been painted with the same paint as the walls and asked the contractor if it's proper to paint radiators. Contractors reply, "It's a myth, you can paint them with anything you want, doesn't affect them".

So my thinking is home radiators and fins on heads/hydros serve the same purpose, radiate heat so what's the difference? Now me personally, I have painted fins in the past and have never had a single overheating issue.

Yeah, shiny clean aluminum fins look cool, but does it really matter?
To paint, or not to paint. That is the question!
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  #2  
Old 03-01-2015, 10:22 AM
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As long as its just a single light coat of paint, I dont think it would make a huge difference in the fins ability to cool the engine.The fins serve as a method of heat transfer, for absolute 100% heat transfer bare fins would be more effecient.Just my
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:30 AM
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I was wondering about this too. I'm about to prime and paint my O and masked off the fins of the k161. I wouldn't think that they left the fins to be bare metal when they made them. Bare aluminum on the hydro, ok I get it as aluminum won't rust. But the debate of paint insulating the fins seems to not make sense. Id like to see a real world temperature difference with heat gun measurements painted or not painted to see if it really does matter
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:33 AM
finsruskw finsruskw is offline
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Whose gonna see the fins on the head anyway with all the engine tins in place?
I would think having all those pieces properly in place would affect the cooling more that anything! Leav 'em bare and CLEAN
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:36 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by finsruskw View Post
Whose gonna see the fins on the head anyway with all the engine tins in place?
I would think having all those pieces properly in place would affect the cooling more that anything! Leav 'em bare and CLEAN
That's not the question though. The question is, does paint, probably one or two coats, really affect the heat dissipation to make a difference or not
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:37 AM
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when i restore a tractor or rebuild an engine i paint with all the tins on which gets very little paint on any of the cooling fins. i dont know how much temp difference painting the fins would make but with an air cooled engine you want it to run as cool as possible.
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:55 AM
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Paint is an insulator and depending on how thick you put it on will act just like all the grass and dirt clogging the fins. Radiators are a bad comparison because they are supposed to get hot and rarely get past 200 degrees which is why the contractor said you can paint with anything on hand. Your trying to keep your engine cool not see how hot you can get it before it fails...
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:59 AM
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Technically neither home "radiators" nor cylinder heads and hydros use heat radiation as the main method of heat transfer. There may be some heat radiation but it's negligible. The two mechanisms of heat transfer are conduction and convection. Since the conductivity of paint is lower than that of bare metal and surface area of bare metal will be greater than the smooth surface of paint, a bare metal surface will transfer heat more efficiently than a painted surface. By how much, I don't know.

Some may provide anecdotal evidence to support their position on the matter but to really get any kind of meaningful information you would need to do a serious study and measure the transfer rates in both situations. Should such a study reveal a large difference, say 20% , you could begin to talk about possible significant effects such as overheating. If it were to reveal a 2% difference, it would be hard to attribute engine overheating to that 2% , there would have to be another major underlying factor.

In the absence of exact data, and knowing that bare metal will transfer heat more efficiently (how much more I don't know), I would suggest leaving the surface unpainted.

Should the data become available and indicate a negligible difference, I would then suggest painting since it would provide protection from corrosion.
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Old 03-01-2015, 11:11 AM
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j4c11, Perfect answer...
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Old 03-01-2015, 11:24 AM
R Bedell R Bedell is offline
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Quote:
Contractors reply, "It's a myth, you can paint them with anything you want, doesn't affect them".
\

He is a painter and NOT a mechanical engineer. I would not hold his endorse with any weight.

Being a HVAC/R tech, I have run across heat transfer once or twice in my 40+ yr work experience.

I agree with j4c11. In the purest form, no paint will give you the greatest transfer and coolest engine operation. However, a single coat of paint may only effect the transfer minimally.

My personal ............No Paint.
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