Well one day i was sitting and :rolljerk: and i was wondering…
no really, I was thinking of polishing a lot of my engine parts (visable parts) over the winter. Intercooler piping and valve cover was what i was planning on doing. However I am unsure if it is possible to do. Are the pieces heatcoated, thus by polishing it it would defeat the integrity of the pieces?
Would I need to polish and then have them thermal coated?
rofl, I read the title as “pole-ish pipes” and was instantly thinking, “what the hell is this doing in tech?”
not sure on the piping, but the valve covers aren’t usually heat-treated. however, you might want to spray the reverse side with a barbecue-style high temp paint as your “pallish” job could rainbow depending on how close it is to the hot parts. the temps on it shouldn’t be over 200 degrees anyway.
u sure can polish all of the alum parts… most valve covers though are metal with a plastic top
so parts such as IC piping that get very hot are kosher to polish? Why do people then get heat treated coatings done? too lazy to polish?
I think the heat treated keeps the heat where it should be. But I think I’m thinking of something else, i’ve only had 2 sips of coffee so far
you should be ok man :tup: I did the same when I had the Lincolns engine apart… I either hit parts with some new paint or took them and hand polished them with a dremmel. Turned out great and when I sold it, it still looked awesome
just dont neglect it and keep it clean 
good luck man, post pics when you finish
I have been polishing alot of crap in my engine bay recently. I have a polished battery tie down, all my t-bolt stainless hose clamps are polished to a mirror, my intake is fully polished, and my upper intercooler piping is fully polished. I am thinking of one of these days to pull the front intercooler and polish the end tanks for alittle bling factor. I will be getting a lower polished intercooler / turbo outlet pipe soon as well.
The only problem with all of the polishing is the maintenance.
:word: i wanna see how it turned out! i bet with your intake and uicp its pretty reflective 
i doubt any of the stock parts are heat coated, and therefore can be polished without hurting the integrity. only prob i see is the alum. it aint easy to polish and then be satisfied long term. bare alum usually will tarnish (i am not sure if thats the right word). basically you can polish it, and pretty soon it will develop a black residue. everytime. the best thing to do imo is get it blasted, with a low abrasive medium, and then afterwards all you have to do is take a soft cloth to wipe it down. i wouldnt dremel it just cux it is too hard to try and keep the lines uniform and organized, and then it just looks like you had a ciesure while doing it. thats just an opinion of course.
as far as the heat…whether or not you would hurting the efficiency of the ic piping…i dont think it is a concern because you really dont see that much heat. afaik the only thing better than bare matel for getting rid of heat, is flat black. and where you want to keep heat in, well you need a wrap or a coating, so i dont think that applies to parts you are talking about polishing. if so then you have a decision to make. form or function.
you can always get stuff powder coated we have a nice irredecent blue that would go great with your lifesty…um it would look nice
Actually, aluminum tarnishes white when it oxidizes.
Aluminum, once it is polished, you can either hit it with some mothers cream polish
and a soft rag, like I do, or go the low maintenance route and buy some zoop seal after it has been polished, and never worry about it again.
Heat wouldn’t be affected. I can’t see how a fully polished pipe will make any appreciable differrence in heat/efficiency etc…
I have some more polishing to do this weekend, and I might get bored enough to polish the actual intercooler end tanks. I dunno, we will see…
also, I’ve had good luck with high temp clears over the bare metal. if you lay them (and cure them!) properly, you won’t “fog” the aluminum and they won’t milk over.
polished parts are the worst (noncoated) at exchanging heat either in or out.polishing removes surface area, even if its just on a microscopic level
less surface area = less heat exchanged
polishing an intercooler pipe that passes near a heat source will keep heat out
polishing an exhaust pipe will tend to keep heat in. even if its not on a level that can be detected by the human hand
if your trying to excellerate heat exchange heat exchange, flat black works great. just enough black paint to cover the part completely w/o any extra paint thickness is the best way to go. And if you want to go one step further, rough the surface with like 80 grit sandpaper to increase the over all surface area
if you want to slow heat exchange either in OR out, heat wrap or thermal coatings
with headers, thremal coating the INSIDE of the pipe is the way to go, this keeps the heat out of the steel itself, retaining its structural integrity, where as header wrap tends to cook the steel to hell and back, excelerating the aging of the pipe
oh, ok, then i did use the wrong term, i wasnt talking about oxidation, just when you polish it, after you do so…black powder is always there. like the counter top in my kitchen which i think you have see…before i clear laquered that, over time, or anything that touched it, left black powder/ residue
hotrodkid: you said exactly what i meant to say. i forgot that surface area is important to heat exchange (even between polished and cast). but what i meant when i mentioned the efficiency of ic piping, i wasnt talking in general…just in chinos case. he doesnt run more than 12 psi and i doubt he gets the ic piping really that hot. so in HIS case i dont think polishing would hurt.
:word:
yea im pretty familiar with polishing different mediums, i did my alum. wheels and they came out the best of anything i’ve done yet… mothers cream is the shite :tup:
word, i actually can’t wait till winter to start working on all this :tup: :tup:
yea just make sure u clear over them
eastwood co makes a nice diomond clear for bare alum
I actually got some cheapo clear from urban paint… used it on my wheels, they’ve held up for about 2 years now no problem. I haven’t even cleaned them in over a year now too, sitting in a damp basement, still oxidation free as when they were done initially
yup, i was just giving a general run down on the way it all works
i see no problem in polishing IC piping , its the intercoolers job to xtract the heat anyways, not the pipes. so polishing the pipes is no problem, and in some applications will have a positive effect on charge temp, such as on toms boosted eclipse ( downpipe passes by the charge pipe) or in cases where the charge pipe wraps around the engine in some stupid way