black or brass

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BigRichieO

BigRichieO

Colorado Mopar
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Arvada, Colorado
Many moons ago I removed all the black paint off the top of my radiator, my buddy and I desided that it was a cool and almost free upgrade. Years later I ended up having to get some work done on it and the shop I took it to repainted it black, it has been black ever since. I was in the garage the other night, bored, it was too nice of an evening to just go inside and watch hockey, so I started looking at my old radiator and thinking of days gone by and I thought, I should steel wool the black off it again. Then I started thinking, there might be a reason it is black and maybe I should leave it alone and repaint it black? So my question, stupid as it may be, is there any reason performance or other that I shouldn't strip the paint off the top of my radiator, or should I just repaint the top black? I started playing around a little and took the paint off the numbers and text. Sorry the pictures are a little blurry, I think I need to tune up my camera. Thanks.

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I see a lot of radiator top tanks that are brass. I think it looks nice myself. If you like that look, do it.
 
i heard form a so called car guy(i really do not like him lol) but he said that black attracts heat and just as fast disapates that heat???? idk it dosnet make to much sense to me but maby there is some truth to it. but even so it wouldnt help to much so i would say strip it itll look cool and different lol
 
tyler_s18: I think that so called car guy is smokin' the weed. LOL
 
lol kinda what i thought he also claims that his 383 cheby stroker thats supercharged and turbod and juiced is the fastest street car in wyoming or any state touching wyoming lol :axe: lol but i dont wanna jack the thread so back to radiators...
 
There is truth to the color's relation to dissipation of heat but that rule is not limited to only black. Paint companies have used additives in any color paint to dissipate heat. Ceramic is the most common and works well. Most brake caliper paint is ceramic.

Read this:
http://www.offroaders.com/tech/paint-it-black.htm

Black radiates heat in the infra-red spectrum better than other colors, which tend to "specialize" by radiating less efficiently in the infra-red and more in just their color portion of the spectrum.

Speakers analogy: With regard to black being able to radiate heat well, heat is like a bass note, black is a woofer, and other colors are "mere" tweeters.
 
You could paint a radiator any color, blue, green, yellow, black, or leave it brass. It really doesn't matter. The dominant mechanism of heat exchange of a car's radiator and the atmosphere is convection not radiation. It just does not get hot enough to radiate a lot of heat by radiation. That's why fans are used in cars to increase air flow which increases convection. A car's engine will rapidly overheat if the fan belt breaks, right? So whether the radiator is painted black or left in it's natural state of brass, if it functions properly it will cool effectively.
 
First of all, yes, black does help dissipate heat. That's why back in the early '70s the 'cool' thing to do was paint your aluminum intake black to help dissipate engine heat and cool the intake charge. Some people did, but I just kept mine aluminum as it just looked so much better.
I also stripped the paint from the upper tank on my old '69 340 Swinger and polished the brass. Popped the hood and it really looked good with the polished brass radiator, polished aluminum valve covers, natural-finish aluminum intake and white-painted headers (remember, it was the early '70s). I always kept everything spotless under the hood. I had more than a couple of buddies cuss me whenever they would toss a shop rag on the inner fender and they'd immediately slide down and under the headers because the inner fenders were waxed and shined just like the rest of the outside body did.
My 'new' '69 Dart is gonna be the same unless I decide to go with an aluminum radiator.
Another reason for the paint on the brass tanks is to keep the brass finish from corroding.
 
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