Intercooler piping material Options

[KOU In3]

Lately it seems as if a lot of the major manufacturers are switching to aluminum intercooler piping. They tend to site two reasons.

1: Weight reduction- That one I'll grant but it seems to come with a possible materials strength issue too IMO (more likely to get dings and dents in the piping I'd think)

2: Heat transfer- This is the one I'm not following. The claim is that the aluminum piping transfers heat better than stainless or mild steel. I'd always thought that the cooling took place in the intercooler and that you'd want your IC pipes (upper especially) to be insulated from the heat of the engine bay if anything.

If I was trying to transfer heat out of my piping I wouldn't be short-routing it either. Is there something I'm missing here? Obviously the decision of the manufacturers to switch is being driven by those far more knowledgable than I am on the subject. So someone fill me in.. what am I missing?

[Temp_Me96]

Hmmm I used aluminum on my custom kit. Ive always been told to use aluminum mostly for heat transfer. Like valve covers on my Cuda Id never use steel it will always be aluminum because of the heat transfer. Although I do see what you mean about the under hood temp. But the under hood temp would be higher if steel was used on more things. So the more you use Alum. the easier it is to keep the under hood temps down. LOL thats my theory.