front mount intercoolers

[Guest]

whats your guys opion on fmic?alot of people have told me lag lag lag.and some say there is no diffrence and theyv noticed better results with the fmic.the hole thing is more air the better right?top mounts get abit of air,but a fmic is alot biiger than any top mount.also topmounts seem to get really hot in peak traffic.

just wantd to know what you guys think.also theres no point trying to run 2'5inch piping .cheers

[pl0x]

there is a thread with a large discussion about with some good info etc.

but from recently changing from tmic to fmic, i noticed slightly longer spool up time in first from stand still, less turbo surge (was having some issues from changing to a silicone intake pipe) & more noise (intake & BOV, as expected with changing from air box to pod). Lag is still pretty non-existent.

Didn't really notice a change in pull, apart that with the top mount sometimes it felt slower depending on what type of driving you been doing etc... now its pretty constant, depending on ambient temperature

[legacy666]

as mentioned theres many discusions on this. It really depends on how you plan to drive your car. If your trying to get a track car that means a different setup to a street car. both intercooler types have there good points. if your planning on trying to reach more than 210-220kw then changing to a FM might be a good idea otherwise the standard setup should handle up to that much power.And no matter what setup you have ,if your sitting at the red light for 5 minutes and its 28degress outside your intake temp is going to be raised.

Like I say on most threads, put your money towards an aftermarket ECU and a Tune.Thats where the power lies.

[Guest]

ohk coolcool.good to here people thoughts..

i also noticed once i installed a pod filter my bov wasnt as loud and on boost changing gears my podfilter is louder than my bov.is that right?

before the airbox used to make a lil noise,and the blow off valve was loud.changed to a pod.and it doesnt even seem like the bov works nemore?

i think il stay with the tmic.and use the money for a link and a tune,

[ReubenH]

 sti8u said:

Also topmounts seem to get really hot in peak traffic.

You don't require full power, or even full throttle in rush hour traffic, so null point (Unless you have mods and an engine that is leading to det problems in traffic)... My experience with my top mount is that it's been cool to the touch, even when the engine is stonking hot, after any cruise, and that's with a teeny tiny legacy scoop, and a VF39 with no heatsheilds.

My take on it, is only bother with one when it becomes necessary. Too many people slap em on a stock car cause they look good... which is totally pointless IMHO.

More than that i can't say, i've not had any experience with FMICs.

edit:

"I think i'll stay with the tmic, and use the money for a Link and a tune"

Good man! that's what I like to see.

[nt_a_foz]

In saying that i put one on factory and definatly on a cold day can notice a preformance difference, no noticable lag from top mount, better once you start pushing a bit more power or hitting the track..

Id do one as one of my first mods again probably..

[Guest]

FMIC probably worth 10kw on your car vs factory tmic

[sultan]

depends on car too. the top mounts on early wrx and legacys are poos. i had a link, vf30, and 550cc injectors and it could only safely be pushed to 175kw with out det. after front mount the intake temps dropped hugely and it could be tuned to over 200kw same setup.

2 1/4" piping, 400x640 cooler, no noticable difference in "lag" perhaps a little lost in throttle response. no biggy

[Simon C]

I'm running a stock V7 STi TMIC on mine, 251kw on 1.6bar boost. Gary Capper told me that my intake temperatures are starting to climb, and that I should go FMIC as a support mod if I take my engine any further. Of course, I also have the big 12L intercooler spray tank in the boot, so probably not such a big issue for short to medium drives.

[Guest]

Yes the later TMIC are very good.

The OP is running a v3/4 Sti

[funkytown]

 Qwerty said:

Yes the later TMIC are very good.

The OP is running a v3/4 Sti

my v3/4 tmic experienced the symptoms Simon describes at around 200kw

[yellowsub]

i recon if your gonna put the effort in to flip the intake and turn the turbo houseing round its well worth it as it looks cool and you dont get heat soak from a nice hot engine while you given it a thrushing

[Guest]

The top mount intercooler does become a power hinderance when your tuning your car up.

With Link G4 and the air temp sensor is not uncommon to see 60degs+ intake temp after the intercooler after a 4th gear pull. This also includes wetting the intercooler before the run with a fan blowing air on it.

A front mount will keep the air intake temps colder for longer due to more air flow through the intercooler

Colder air = more oxygen in the cylinders and less chance of detonation.

Another advantage of colder air is its more dence so it takes less time to build boost etc. so even though the piping is longer the colder air will help reduce the lag.

Extra things you can do to help keep intake temps down include heat wrapping the intercooler pipes out of the turbo and in to the throttle body as this makes a bit of a difference.

So if your going down the aftermarket ECU and tune route it might be worth spending that $500 or so to gain up to 30kw at the wheels. Pretty cheep power if you ask me..

[Guest]

Have you logged the temps for the version 7+ TMIC ?

[Guest]

That was with a v7 top mount intercooler. I would hate to see the temps with a earlier verson top mount.

It gets worse with a bigger motor such as a 2.5 due to the increase air demands.

[Optical]

 GETLOW said:

It gets worse with a bigger motor such as a 2.5 due to the increase air demands.

ive measured the opposite, a 2.5 requires less boost to get the same amount of air/hp through the engine to make X power. Less boost means less charge temps

[Guest]

 GETLOW said:

That was with a v7 top mount intercooler. I would hate to see the temps with a earlier verson top mount.

It gets worse with a bigger motor such as a 2.5 due to the increase air demands.

But wouldn't a 2.0 spinning at 8000rpm be pretty similar in demand to a 2.5 @ 7000rpm ?

Surprising i tht the big sti tmic's would be better than that given some are running 11 sec qtrs on them.

Are you talking about 50C intake temp or 50C over ambient ?

[Guest]

I'm talking about 50degs+ after a 4th gear pull on the dyno. While the air flow isn't as good as the road, putting water on the intercooler to cool the intercooler and intake charge between runs helps keep the tuning to more like road driving for normal cruising intake temps. even on road testing we find that the intake temps arn't much lower when you "feed it the beans" as we like to call it.

Optical, The 2.5s we have had on there were alot more knock limited by the topmount intercoolers then 2ltrs and we found they heated up the intercooler alot faster compared to 2ltrs as the VF22 and the VF30? were quickly out of there efficiancy range due to the increased air demands of the engine.

You are right that it takes less boost to make the same power with a bigger motor

Intake temps have alot to do with detonation resistance and fueling. The cooler the intake temp, the more fuel you need to keep the air fuel raitos in check. If intake temps are too high you can get pre-ingnition or detonation easily, though this can be helped by running a colder spark plug to help combat it.

This is just what we find with the subys, but I know there is other opinions and experiances and theorys out there.