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RE: Caliper heat/paint

To: "Robert M. Lang" <lang@isis.mit.edu>
Subject: RE: Caliper heat/paint
From: William Whitmoyer <wwhitmoyer@samsonite.net>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 11:08:00 -0500
Bob:

I was responding to this portion of the thread, in which Mike seems more 
concerned with heat transfer more than the fashion image of a certain color 
of the paint.  Maybe I'm reading that wrong, but as different colors of 
paint do not make a noticeable difference in caliper heat transfer, I was 
comparing what I perceived to be Mike's issue/concern (heat transfer 
affected by paint color) to something that would make a noticeable 
difference (hence, my mention of aluminum calipers).

Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 12:47:35 -0500
From: "Mike Munson" <fasttrs@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Caliper Color
Is there one color that would give off more heat like a thin coat of flat
black? To help dissipate heat?
Mike Munson
Atlanta


At 10:08 AM 2/22/02 -0500, you wrote:
>On Fri, 22 Feb 2002, William Whitmoyer wrote:
>
> > I'm guessing here, as I'm not near any of my brake system books, but
> > unpainted calipers would seem to bleed off heat faster than painted
> > calipers (as long as they don't rust), but I'm not sure that is going to
> > make a difference in any fashion....big difference would be going from 
> cast
> > iron to aluminum calipers, especially if you are able to use larger rotors
> > and calipers.
>
>This may all be true, but a bit off track from the initial question...
>
>The initial question was: what color should I paint the calipers?
>
>Aluminium was not being discussed.
>


I'm on the digest version, so I cut and paste emails rather than reply the 
whole digest to everyone.  Obviously, I cut a lot out of your message that 
I thought did not pertain to my question, sorry if that offended you and I 
should have been more clear.  But, here, I'm really asking a question about 
street car caliper temps (not race conditions) as I don't know the answer 
to this one, just curious, say you are driving down a mountain or doing a 
little minor sporty driving?

I do, however, understand your excellent point about under the harshest 
conditions, I have to run 580-590 degree dry boiling point Motul 600 in my 
track car (and ducting on a brake-intensive tracks like Mid-Ohio) with race 
pads...I tried the Castrol LMA with Porterfield Street/Track pads early on 
in my track exploits...boiled the fluid, the pads disintegrated into chunks 
and trashed the rotors...so I can assume that my track car calipers attain 
temperatures in excess of  311 degrees..that being established, that's why 
I'm curious about street car caliper temperatures.


> > Doesn't 200 degrees seem low for estimated caliper temps?
>
>I would certainly hope not. If your dry boiling point for your DOT Castrol
>LMA is 311F (at least I think that's what it is), and I've _never_ had
>brake fade owing to brake fluid problems, it's safe to say the calipers
>never get that hot. I do represent the extremes when it comes to brake
>usage, owing to my racing activities.
>
>But my statement was:
>
> > But regarding temps. on the claipers themselves, they shouldn't get too
> > hot (unless there's a problem with the pistons sticking). I'm guessing
> > they stay under 200F except under the most harsh conditions.
>
>The keywords are "except under the most harsh conditions".
>
>Bottom line - don't go around testing your caliper temps. with your finger
>- you'll get burned. But the brakes run fairly cool except when you ride
>'em hard or you have a problem (like a sticky caliper).
>
>regards,
>rml
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William Whitmoyer
69 TR6
90 BMW iX
91 CRX Si

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