Afternoon!

I have a silver oil cooler that I want to make black.

What's the best way to go about it? Powder-coating or painting?

Anyone know what Setrab use to colour there's?

Cheers!

I would leave it alone - powder coating is epoxy which is quite a good insulator. A black matt surface radiates head better than a silver shiny one though so paint would be the way ahead. I seem to remember BMW doing a blackened chrome finish but don't know how they did that.

good clean and a rattle can of black matt or gloss, your choice. Dont think youll have much joy with powdercoat as most would want to blast to remove the existing coat before coating.....which would end badly :-)

Cheers guys!

I've just been looking at fuel filters, and you can get black anodised aluminium filters, so it looks like you could do it properly if you wanted to spend the cash.

M

I'd personally not coat/paint it, you're not only adding a thermal resistance but also potentially filling small features that aid heat transfer. If its nowhere near it's limit you'll be fine but it's bad practice. Function over form!

matt black is best colour for radiating heat, or else a matt surface..... but the oil cooler is transferring the majority of its heat by convection to air, so you want metal to air interface - hence powercoating is definitely out.

so leave as is else spray on just enough matt black paint for an even colour.