Paint it Black!

Black is Back (For Engines)

Many car owners have acquired the habit of painting their engines black because black is supposed to help dissipate the heat generated by their engines. But does it really work? Actually, yes, it does. Here’s why.

If you took up light and colors in high school physics, you probably know that black is a very special color. It being the presence of all color pigments, it is very good at absorbing energy from light, consequently making it a very good absorbent of heat.

Another special fact about black is that it is the most dissipative color for light wavelengths that fall into the infrared part of the spectrum. Thus it is able to dissipate a lot of the energy. Since a lot of the energy that your car gets as heat in many cases – like if you parked it in a warm, sunny street, for example – is in the form of infrared energy, black is an excellent choice of color if you want to help your engine in heat dissipation.

Black is also better than other colors for a similar reason. All of the colors are actually able to absorb and dissipate heat, but at different rates. However, all of them – black included – absorb much better than they dissipate because they are only able to dissipate the color of their pigment. For example, green paint only reflects the amount of energy that corresponds to green light, while yellow paint only reflects the amount of energy that corresponds to yellow light. This results in a total gain in the amount of energy.

Since black is the presence of all pigments, it is able to dissipate more colors. This makes black the best in terms of dissipation, and thus becomes the most obvious choice if you want to help keep your engine cool.

To wrap it up, painting your engine black instead of any other color is the best choice if you want to lower the temperature of your engine. Compared to all the rest of them, black is the best in terms of heat dissipation because of its special properties as a color.

Black is definitely in.