11-09-2005, 10:25 AM
I had a wild hair, and was going to polish the head on one of my 'scratched to death' VSPEC engines. Then I got to wondering; will the heat radiate better from an anodized head or from a (un-anodized) polished head. Then I found this: Anodized aluminum from a conductive standpoint is pretty much the same as unfinished aluminum. However, its radiative properties are 30-50% higher. Eg unfinished aluminum has an emissivity of 0.3-0.5 anodized aluminum is around 0.8-0.95. That would mean an ano'ed head will allow more heat to radiate into space. So, if I was going to polish it, I would definately re-ano it, but keep the natural shine. Can you chrome aluminum, if so I'm off to FPS. 