The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop painting brake drums............

Yea or nay ? I've heard people say no,that it helps retain heat. I'd like to paint them .Whats your opinion ?........dave

I think the heat that a thin coat of paint will retain would be negligible. The benefit of protection from the elements outweighs the down side...plus it looks good! What are you thinking: black? Body color? "Cast iron" color?
Make sure the drums are CLEAN...sand blasting is good. There are some really good coatings available nowadays...I like VHT products.

cm

If you paint them at all, use radiator paint. It's got some heat-conducting properties so the brake can do its intended job of dissipating the heat. Use a very light coat. Drums are pretty ineffective at shedding heat anyway, so further handicapping them with a coat of paint that acts as a barrier to thermal conduction doesn't make a lot of sense. It's possible to reach a point called "brake fade" where the shoes input more heat than the drum or disc can dissipate. Lots of pedal, but no stop! A panic stop from 50 MPH with a normal-sized vehicle generates enough heat to melt a cast iron skillet!
Jerry

Boy, the is really hot. Cast Iron melts at 2100-2200 degrees F.

they make brake paint. POR15 even has some. Paint will conduct more heat than a layer of rust scale.

This has been covered before.

That's why it's important to get as much heat dissipation as possible. Take a look at a wheel well camera on a NASCAR racer sometime. As soon as the driver hits the brake, the rotor turns red and starts throwing sparks. Of course, that's at 200 MPH, but even on the street, the heat has to be blown away as quickly and efficiently as it can be.
Jerry

Jerry, having done my senior design project on vehicle brakes, you have to remember that the energy dissipated exponentially increases as speed increases. the energy dissipated from one car at daytona during one lap would light the average house for a week.

The stop from 65 to 0 would do it for a few minutes.

BTW, FWIW, radiator paint is flat and black (and cheap a$$ lacquer). When I was designing gensets to send to [censored], we had the radiators Copon coated which is a shiney epoxy based coating to prevent corrosion. It had less than 1% affect on the heat transfer numbers.

Like Scott says, use a brake drum/caliper paint. It is for high temp. I have been painting drums for many years.

I used Eastwoods Brake Drum paint it is performing very well on the back of the 52.
Tim

I remember from my 2 cycle racing days that flat black got rid of heat. aluminum paint or polished parts retained it.

I have always used Rustolem High Heat Flat Black Stove Paint, and it stands up great with no problems.

I went with Disc brakes all the way around...so I cant make a call on that one
BUT I did paint my calipers if that counts ? I used VHT brake caliper,drum & rotor paint. It's held up pretty good so far

Any color paint is more efficient at radiating heat than bare metal. The paint surface has much more surface area than bare metal (but you have too look at it on a microscopic level to see the hills and valleys in the paint). I found a 10 degree C difference on a light fixture that I designed once just by painting it with rattle can enamel.

If you look at a lot of imports they came with painted drums from the factory. I think domestics didn't paint drums as a way to save money. The average customer isn't going to notice, so why bother with paint.

John