Group Buy: Anodized Blower/Aluminum Parts

Recently, after reading the valve cover paint thread, I began researching ways to add paint, powder coating, or some other type of color to the supercharger housing or other aluminum parts. Some of the options I found was color, clear, and hard anodizing.

Here are some examples of what anodized aluminum parts look like:











I found a shop online that provides anodizing for single parts, or for discounted group runs of 10 or more.

Link: www.anodizingservice.com

Sent them some pictures of an M90 blower and asked the following questions, received the following answers:

1) Does the process subject the part to high heat?

No process in our line exceeds 185ºF. The end product will have much better ability to dissipate heat.

2) Can portions of the part be masked off to resist the process?

Yes.

3) How will the finished coating stand up to 200ºF+ heat?

The anodizing itself can withstand 1250ºF but an anodized part will get rid of heat 50% better than a non-anodized aluminum part.

4) What can I expect to pay for anodizing a single part?

If you only have one part it will cost about $125. If you have 10 or more parts the price will come down quite a bit.

I am thinking of having my blower housing anodized either in clear, graphite, or black. Anyone else interested? If we can get 10 parts together (can be any random parts) I bet it would be close to $100 ea. Of course, we'd all need to agree on the same color, I think.

Can they anodize parts that already have paint on them or does the part need to be stripped first?

It would need to be media blasted first to remove all dirt and paint. I'm sure they can do this for a fee (maybe $20).

LOL HPI Nitro engine mounts. Are we going Nitro RC now? I went through so much of the heat transfer stuff when I was heavy into RC's. I had a Savage (among many others) that was almost entirely Carbon Fibre with a titanium drivetrain, and an RB Innovations NOS kit. It weighed in at 17.5lbs, and put out just over 7hp. I had it all aluminum before that but it was to heavy tipped the scales at over 22lbs. I would say how much I pissed away on that thing but to be honest its kind of embarrassing. Lets just say I could have bought a used 2000+ Cadillac STS of my choice for the same price.

About 80% of the aluminum parts on most Nitro cars/trucks are annodized for the heat purposes (well and cosmetic) shocking to see it just trickling into automotive apps now, this is old tech. Almost every single Nitro engine you will ever see now or in the last 10+ years, for an on road/ off road car/truck the engines aluminum cooling head is annodized

I like the way that Whipple came out, very nice.

I would love to have mine Anodized, but I just can't live with the downtime. Sorry.

I can actually afford it too. The price is reasonable, even the quote for a single item and it's better than powder coating as far as heat goes.

I have too much going on right now that requires i have my car and I do not have any alternate transportation.

Neither of my motorcycles are registered or insured right now and i can't rely on them for the traveling I have to do, I need the car. Any suggestions will be welcome.

Thats why I just said screw it, and bought a second blower to Mod. No down time... its the only way to go.

I had a new GenV and L32 LIM that I just sold.

AA, I'm in on the blower Anodizing. I got this GenV sittin on the shelf. I think it'd be sweet to have the whole thing done, including the snout. We might fight over color choice though

Abaddon wrote:

AA, I'm in on the blower Anodizing. I got this GenV sittin on the shelf. I think it'd be sweet to have the whole thing done, including the snout. We might fight over color choice though

You'll just have to strip it down completely of all bearings, even the Snout, before you ship it for anodizing.
But, you probably already knew that.

Guys, the whipple I showed above was actually powder coated, so I took it down. Sorry

Quote :

About 80% of the aluminum parts on most Nitro cars/trucks are annodized for the heat purposes (well and cosmetic) shocking to see it just trickling into automotive apps now, this is old tech.

I've seen some of the RC cars with anodized parts - this is mainly what gave me the idea. You also see it with AN (red/blue) fittings and on aluminum fuel rails - small stuff that can be done in huge quantities. I think the reason you don't see it on larger pieces is the cost, and that most OEM parts on cars are not made of aluminum. On pricey aftermarket parts, I've seen the process used on brake calipers and rotor hats.

I've also seen it on wheels. Oh, the Gen III Roller rocker I bought in 2004 are anodized aluminum. They are still coated after about 150k miles of use.



I'm thinking maybe it's a good idea to dip the entire housing (stripped down), coating it inside and out. The anodizing is very thin from what I can tell.

Also, anyone thinking of this, see if you can have the exterior Soda Blasted. It is actually a bicarbonate soda.
Much less abrasive, yet will clean up the Aluminum perfectly and the Soda washes away without leaving any abrasives that might get caught in the blower housing.
It is also generally less expensive or at least the same as say glass beading or plastic beading.
Both of which work very good at cleaning the Aluminum but if a piece, just one small non-visible bit gets left in the nooks and crannies of the interior of the blower, well it won't be pretty.
I have done some Soda Blast on Aluminum carburetors and worked out great. Cleaned the exterior and interior very good and washed out very easy.

Good tip, Rick. Thanks.

AA, I would look into the anodizing of the interior of the blower very carefully.
The aluminum is supposed to be sacrificial to some degree and anodizing it will put a different temper on it.
Not sure I'm using the correct terminology, but I think you know what I mean.
For the rotors to seal properly inside the blower, I believe the type of aluminum and it's current heat treat and surface finish is very important.

Its super thin, we actually blacked out all the purple annodizing on my buddies Baja buggy with a chemical solution. I can't remember what it was this was 2 years ago. Very easy to remove it that way, but I did notice in my RC apps that anything succeptable to alot of vibration or any sort of rubbing of surfaces will wear off the finish pretty fast. so you would have to be pickey,choosey about what you want to annodize for sure, cuz it definately has its limits.

I guess thats probably why PC is more popular in automotives, because of its durability. I don't think it would cost a great deal more to annodize an SC than to PC it.

Hometown Hero wrote:

Its super thin, we actually blacked out all the purple annodizing on my buddies Baja buggy with a chemical solution. I can't remember what it was this was 2 years ago. Very easy to remove it that way, but I did notice in my RC apps that anything succeptable to alot of vibration or any sort of rubbing of surfaces will wear off the finish pretty fast. so you would have to be pickey,choosey about what you want to annodize for sure, cuz it definately has its limits.

I guess thats probably why PC is more popular in automotives, because of its durability. I don't think it would cost a great deal more to annodize an SC than to PC it.

Your probably correct about the price, but you have a lot of heat entrapment with PC and you have to seek out a powder coater that knows exactly what he's doing or he can ruin your part in a heartbeat.
For the blower, the anodizing of the exterior would be my choice for sure. Just have to have them cover and protect all internal and gasket surfaces, just as you would if painting or PC.

Agree that anodizing isn't as strong as powder coating, but it's stronger than painting, and the process doesn't require the blower bake at high temps.

I don't think vibration would be much concern. As I said, my anodized roller rockers are still in good shape. Wear is an issue with anodizing, but is it a real concern? I can't think of any parts that make contact with the blower.

What really interests me about anodizing is the claimed heat transfer properties. If my blower moves out the heat 50% faster after the process, it's almost worth the price just for performance purposes!

Oh no...I'm certainly not saying its a concern in the blower.

Example RB Innovations makes an annodized blower for RC engine 3.5cc(.21) and up. It's belt driven by the engines flywheel. I dunno if the internals are annodized but the outside definately is, and its the very same principle just on 1/8 scale.

I'm just pointing out that anytime I experience trouble with the annodized surface was due either to vibration, or friction between surfaces. Just my 2cents of experience with annodized materials.

I do think we would need to be careful wrenching near the blower with anodized coating. I can see how it would chip off, where powder coating would not.

Plus, the transparency of color anodizing has a really cool look, imo.

There is a 'hard anodizing' process that may not be as pretty, but could be the best thing for our application. From the service provider:

"Hard Coat anodizing process is used when maximum protection and durability is needed from the aluminum part being anodized. Hard anodizing also provides the following: Hardness on the Rockwell scale rating of HRC - 70, Wear Resistance, Electrical Resistance, Temperature Resistance, Low Friction Coefficient, and no thermal or physical distortion. Hard Coat applications include pistons, cylinders, cams, gears, swivel joints, hydraulic components, pneumatic parts, and any applications where metal parts touch or rub each other. Hard coating produces thicknesses as thick as 0.002” to a maximum of 0.005“ thick in special conditions. Teflon impregnation of the hard anodizing can also be done at our facility upon request."

I'm thinking if they're coating internal engine parts with this process, it's damn strong. I read at a different site saying they can actually re-coat the SC rotors by anodizing, and improving efficiency.

I like the sounds of the "teflon impregnation", that would probably solve the friction aspect of things. I don't think the vibration is as much a concern in automotive apps as in RC. My RC engines redlines ranged from 37,000rpm to 42,800rpm in my race engine.

It sounds pricey, though. From their website, on Teflon:

"Teflon impregnated anodizing is merely an additional step to the anodizing process that puts a Teflon seal in the anodizing giving the metal a very slick and naturally lubricated finish."

I am going meth on my M62 after its finish getting its PP. I wonder how that would affect the annodized surfaces?

After reading through the companies web site, it appears they are perfectly capable of performing the work that you ask of them and if you mask off the portions that you don't want anodized they will then use your template to protect those areas from being coated or plated.

It is still an electrolysis process and you need to be clear with them what is acceptable to be anodized and what isn't.

One of the processes they perform is something that we had to do on our own in the Aviation world and that is a relatively simple process called Alodine. It is what is done to every piece of aluminum skin used on an airplane before any priming and painting is done to prevent aluminum corrosion from happening.

When I had access to all the facilities at the hangar and I was restoring an old bike, I would chemical etch the aluminum crankcases and then Alodine them before priming with Zinc Chromate primer and then paint the cases black for an almost lifetime finish.

When I bought my Riviera and had the all too familiar bubbling of the paint on the leading edge of the hood, I knew right away that it was aluminum corrosion taking place under the paint.
It appeared that the GM factory didn't properly protect the aluminum hood before applying the finish coats.

So I went to the local airport and got some small quantities of aluminum etch, Alodine and a spray can of Zinc Chromate primer and proceeded to educate my body man on the proper methods of surface protection of the aluminum before applying paint.
He was actually receptive and grateful for the tutoring.

Anyway, I have gotten slightly off track here and hope i can find a way to get my blower included in this Anodizing process.
Would also like to do my fuel rail in a contrasting color.

I'm not sure what the OEM fuel rail is made of, but ZZP sells modified powder coated rails for a little over $100. I like them, but they're difficult to install - I wouldn't call them plug and play. If you can spend the big bucks on extruded fuel logs, those should already be anodized.

I think if/when we have enough parts ready (goal is ten), we will need to agree on a color. I'm thinking it will be metallic, grey, or black. I will check on prices for Teflon and hard anodizing, too.

The OEM fuel rail appears to be steel to me and can be painted or anodized.

I guess if I am somehow going to have my car down for blower anodizing, I can prime and paint the fuel rail myself while waiting.

When you further inquire with this company, maybe you can find out what an approximate turn around time is.
I will go with the majority on color to make it less difficult to accomplish this group deal.

And what about the valve covers, was it determined that it is just best to paint them also.?

Thanks,
Rick

I didn't know you could anodize steel, but I'll check. If you want a different color, you may be looking at $125 for it. I would be tempted to just paint the rails with high temp paint, or clean them up real good and leave them as-is.

Shouldn't be any trouble communicating which parts to mask. If we do this as a group, I'll make sure everyone is on the same channel.