Is it okay to paint an oil cooler?

[Scott S]

Hi All -
I am doing some cleaning on the car. My "Carrera style" oil cooler has probably 25 years of road wear. It works great, but looks pretty rough. I am a bit worried about corrosion on the areas where the paint is gone. Can I simply spray it black without affecting it's ability to cool?

Thanks!
Scott S

[Jerome74911S]

If it was originally painted I don't see harm to repaint, as long as you don't build up paint thickness on the parts that do the actual cooling.

Another thought: Paint it blue - it's a cooler color.

[canamfan]

Like Jerome74911s says "don't build up paint thickness on the parts that do the actual cooling" especially if it's a later carrera style cooler with aluminum tube & fin design, you don't want to clog or block up the space between those fins, it would (in theory) reduce the efficiency of the air flowing through them otherwise if you have the "trombone" style I think it wouldn't make any difference what you do as long as it has good air/space around it.On my "trombone" style, I cleaned all the lines up & polished them for that contrast/clean look, doesn't do anything for performance, I just like this look (BTW this is work in progress, so ignore the gloss blk. & splatter on the Bilstien & rotor ugliness) I'm working on it

[HawgRyder]

Check out the cylinder paint used on Harley's.
It's thin...and needs to be put on in several coats to get proper coverage...with baking in between coats recommended.
The whole idea is to apply a heat transferable paint.
Normal paint (Tremclad) will lock in the heat no matter what color you use.
Bob

[Jerome74911S]

I agree with the above. I used to ride a Harley, and oil temps were no different between bikes with painted cylinders, or not painted cylinders.

Forgot about that. I rode bikes during my misspent youth.

[Jdub]

Bob is correct there are paints that will transfer heat from the solid object. You just need to be careful to observe some basic "Don't paint heavy here" (fins) to effect the greatest heat transfer.

[schumicat]

I think radiator shops use paint designed for radiators which is thin and handles high temps.

[Reiver]

Eastwood makes a radiator paint, the HD paint sounds good too.

[manbridge 74]

My rad guy uses the thin high heat stuff. I'd follow suit.