[SupergasDil]

Here's the next million dollar invention.

"The Ice Pack Engine Vest"

You're welcome. Dil

[Ron Landis]

I told ta that "Smokey" guy didn't know jack! He was just partial to black...even painting some windows in his garage that color. Probably just so folks wouldn't laugh at the silly things he did in there if they were to see him. And that Grumpy...what a kidder!

[Northern Goat]

Originally Posted by jegstek

White Warrior figured it out, or should I say "reasoned" it out. I was chided for years for painting my engines black, as not many of my hot rodding buddies liked to read much. I was convinced by Smokey Yunick and Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins, who insisted a 10 hp gain was to be had. But what did they know? You probably read it in Car Craft as a HP tip, or a Grumpy Jenkins article they did years ago. I have Smokey Yunick's "Power Secrets", I'll see if it isn't listed in there. BTW...what color are GM's engines today? And it isn't so you can see oil leaks better. 'Nuff said.

Thanks for coming to the rescue. After reading most of the responses to my post I thought I was losing my mind. Still doesn't make a lot of sense to me because I associate Black with attracting heat. But its nice to know I'm not going nuts.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Conduction
Convection
Radiation (got to ratio the emission/absorbtion)

Bill Grumpy Jenkins advized a hotter thermostat, (not black paint) because a hotter engine makes more power. He only addressed Conductive heat.

Conduction: could run the iron parts hotter...no fun there.
Convection: could run a warm air boost...no fun there.
Radiation: yea, that's the ticket. This means we desire the combustion chamber to REFLECT all combustion IR heat back into itself.

Aluminum Slugs will reflect the IR (InfraRed) or long wavelength heat emission prefectly back into the mixture for higher combustion pressures. There should be benefit from Aluminum Heads to provide an increased IR reflection for more power. Aluminum Heads ought to show more power due to being a far better IR reflection than Iron.

Since aluminum has a faster Conduction of phonon heat flux, we gotta have the same or slightly higher temperatures as the Iron Head to get into the power improvement catagory. Oh, uhm if you run the Iron Head engine at that NEW heat level then the ante has been upped eh, and any Power gains from the aluminum are hard to find. Yet ping reductionmigth be the avenue to allow a different timing advance for more power.
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Exterior paint not gonna do a ting. Combustion interior has competing issues (PING, kernel flame control, flamefront, and Head/block/slug Materials, reliable lube film temperatures, secondary electron emission during the flame travel.
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I suggest the Thread title is a boondoggle. Yet there is a real deal is inside the combustion process to carefully consider. Controlling the Ping being a primary mover. HIS

[J.C.you]

ok, ok, my black block can run faster and jump higher, too....

[pro-tour79]

northen goat, I don't want to bust your Bs here but it sounds to me as though you posted this question just to here someone tell you what you wanted to hear/believe, regardless of facts, so I would say paint your engine black and you'll have more power than those that paint theirs a different color.

[Mo]

Harley-Davidson motor from factory is......Black.

Jet-Hot 2000 degree coating is.....Black.

AC/DC Back in.....Black

Does this answer questions or create new ones....Hmmmmmmmmmm

[Rob]

I second the motion, everyone email this thread to Adam and Jamie at MYTHBUSTERS!

http://www.adamsavage.com/contact.html

Black -20 degrees....BUSTED!!!

Pontiac Blue +Torque...THE REAL DEAL!!!

-Rob

[hal101]

4. "Black body" radiation does not depend upon the color of the body. If you
heat a white bar or a black bar to sufficiently high temperature that it
"glows" red, you get the same "glow" because that depends only on the
temperature. At room temperature a "black body" is still "glowing" but it is
"glowing" in the infrared, not the visible region of the electromagnetic
spectrum so we cannot see the "glow" with our eyes.

[rattus]

"Heat" and "light" are perceptual classifications of radiated energy, and they don't really give one the correct intuition for scientific physical understanding of radiated energy. "Heat" and "light" (visible) are bands of radiated energy (or wavelengths) in the electro-magnetic (EM) spectrum. The only difference between light and heat is energy level / wave length.



All materials reflect and absorb different sections of the EM spectra, i.e. they have different absorption properties. Black paint obviously absorbs in the visible band but it also absorbs down into infrared (IR) or "heat" wavelengths. In the case of an engine block/heads energy is absorbed (into the steel) from combustion and emitted as IR EM. Lighter colored or metallic paints (that don't absorb down into the IR wavelengths) reflect this energy back into the engine, where as black paint will absorb the infrared EM radiation and emit it into the air, i.e. it will reflect much less of it back into the engine material. The black paint will emit the energy into the air and back into the engine, but the engine (steel) will reflect most of it back into the paint, so the net effect is that more IR radiation (heat) will be pulled from the engine by the black paint. It's pretty simple freshmen physics.

[RoyalPurpleOil]

Originally Posted by SupergasDil

Here's the next million dollar invention.

"The Ice Pack Engine Vest"

You're welcome. Dil

Now that's "cool"!

[pro-tour79]

first of the engine is cast iron not steel and if the engine block being dark in color would reflect the heat back into the water jacket than, right so the question is would the heat that is reflected from the paint to the block be canceld out by the heat reflected by the nearly black color of the blocks's cast iron!!??....ouch! my head hurts.

[rattus]

My mistake (iron not steel). But iron will still reflect much more IR than black paint. Iron is actually pretty shiny, its the oxidation that makes it look dark (if you buff off the oxidation it'll look fairly shiny). Dark oxidation will act like like black paint if it has similar absorption properties.

Also the black paint doesn't reflect the energy back to the engine it absorbes it, then emits it. There is a difference... if the IR energy is mostly reflected (as is the case w/ light, shiny or metalic paints) there is little energy transfer into the paint's atomic/molecular structure, the energy goes right back to the iron and thus less of the energy is transfered to the air. When the black paint absorbs the IR energy, its absorbed into the paint's atomic structure (electrons are bounced up into higher energy states) and then emitted equally in all directions, i.e. air and iron.

[Steven S]

This subject was in one of the car mags years ago, but I don't think it was a horsepower issue, I think it had to do with emmisions. Dark color, higher temp thermastat, made cleaner exaust.

[johnta1]

It's pretty simple freshmen physics.

Exactly!
Really, I think I learned this in 8th grade.

You guys need to get out more.

Whether it will pick up 20 HP is debatable, but not the basic premise of the painted black block of this topic.

[hal101]

Only when one takes additional physics classes does one learn that the
absorption and emission depend on the wavelength of the light. In the
visible spectrum, black objects absorb light well, but white objects do not
absorb light well. That is not true at other wavelengths.

The wavelength corresponding to hot (but not glowing) radiators is far into
the infrared, with a wavelength of perhaps 5 micrometers. At this
wavelength, all paint colors, including white, are "black" and emit and
absorb heat well.

[Dragncar]

Just change the color of an engine after a dyno pull to black and try it out.And end this.

[Drago3000]

Just getting into the whole race scene, but I did ask my Advance Placement Physics Teacher, he says that in infrared wavelengths all chromatic colors (visible colors) radiate that spectrum of light evenly. Although he did say that it will re-radiate visible light wavelengths faster... if that matters.

[Motor Daddy]

Mass, distance, and time! Everything else is some form of the three and it's calculated form!

If we could just figure out what causes gravity!

[Jack Ferris]

This is as funny as the car wax salesman that stopped by my shop and told me if I used the wax he was selling the car would "cut" through the air better and increase my mph and lower ET's.
I've also been told to paint the bottom of my intake manifolds white.