So, I am looking at the front of my car and there isnt a whole lot of room for a FMIC. I have an S5 TII and the frame rail brace on the front is right where you would normally put an intercooler. I have seen kits that work around this but they usually require the bumper support to be removed or cut out and I want to stay away from that.

So, I am somewhat leaning towards a v-mount setup, although i hear it isnt that practical unless you are tracking your car all the time. I dont know how accurate that is, maybe someone with experience could give more info (something about the amount of airflow available at low speed isnt enough). I would also have to get a vented hood with a v-mount, not the end of the world, but not something I planned on.

I was thinking of a third option, though. Assuming i had enough room, what would keep me from spacing the radiator back like 4-5 inches with new brackets (that I will be making anyways) and putting the FMIC on the inside of the core support? The stock radiator leans towards the front of the car at about a 10-15* angle, so I could maybe keep the bottom point the same and make a bracket to space it out parallel to the motor, then slide the FMIC against the core support. Either that, or space the whole thing back and make it all lean forwards. I would have to make ducting and everything though, so it seems about the same amount of work as a v-mount (with more piping). Still, kinda throwing ideas around.

Also, if you have any good pics of standard FMIC installs on FCs let me know, I did a few searches but cant find any that look like the stock bumper support is kept. I guess if I have to remove it its OK but Id rather not.

 

If your going to try putting a FMIC in front of the radiator, make sure to make some sort of shrowd or something to vent more air to it. Having the front mount block the radiator is going to make your water temps increase and more than likely, your going to be blocking your oil cooler too.

For all that work, your better off cutting out the middle piece of your front bumper and mounting it up there.

 

For one you are going to need a bigger radiator. My koyo is great. I don't know anything about v-mounts. It's a lot of work. For your third option, I'm sure you'll run into hood cleanance issues if you use a stock sized radiator and pivot it more vertically. Cosine of 15 degrees is about .9 so you are looking at the top of the radiator being 10% taller than it is now (no calculator or dimensions).

 

Good point on the hood clearance issue, but I am going to be using a custom radiator anyways so that is something I could take into consideration. All in all though I am straying away from the third option simply because the bumper support is not looking to be as important now As for a v-mount, the hood vent is more of a problem for me than the fabrication of mounts and ducting.

 

Its pricey, but get the greddy fmic. As far as I know the bumper support stays in place, just have to cut the holes for the piping to enter the engine bay.

http://www.rx7store.net/category_s/317.htm

 

Dont hate for my posting this outside of the Non-Rotary section, but its not going to be rotary powered Its just theres less turbo peeps in that section and this is intercooler specific, so i thought I would post it here. Thanks for the link though, I searched for awhile for install or how-to pics of FMIC's on FCs but didnt find much, if you have any in mind let me know if you could.

I read a review from the link you posted that said the bumper support can stay with some creativity so Im going to take a closer look and get some measurements down, see what I can fit up there. The oil cooler is going also so Ill have a little bit of extra room, hopefully it will be enough. If at ALL possible I want to mount the IC with the end take tubes on the top to minimize piping, so that could get interesting.

 

So don't leave us hanging.... What kind of forced induction engine are you putting in?

 

Oh sorry, SR20. Just waiting on funds for the motor itself (probably tax season unfortunately ).

 

Here is a potential answer for you









Or this

 

HOT DAMN, thatd be the day. Thanks for the reference though, definitely jealous.

 

Hmm, that's a unique way to mount an oil cooler.

 

Just put the intercooler between the crossmember and rad. Problem solved.

 

Just posted how I did my FMIC on a budget, should work for an SR20 just have the turbo on the other side. (not a nissian guy so I could be wrong) Its real hard to keep the bumper support, if you want the extra safety get a bar welded up later it would be easy and cheap. Running the intercooler right in front of the rad is hard bc there is no where to run the IC pipes without sharp bends.

here a pic just in case you cann't find my post

 

I like this set up. How are is your water temp, oil and AIT?


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MINE

 

How important is this bracket? Can I ditch it without that lower piece sagging?



(ps thx for the pic S/C FC )

 

You can ditch it but then your hood latch will not work. (I tried it) This could easily solved by making a support bracket from upper bumper support. I almost did this to mount the intercooler father back, but then you cann't run the intercooler pipes without 90's which would restrict flow. Most cheap intercoolers are too long to fit back that far, mine was 31 inches and would require frame notches, or modifing the end tanks to fit that far back. Take your bumper off and take some measurements, you can use a card board box to test fit and see what size intercooler you could fit in different locations.

 

Water and AIT temps are great. Water doesnt break 100 C and AIT was at 23 - 26 C on our last outing.

This car is mainly used for the winter time attack season which so the AIT temps will go down once it cools off here a bit more.

The oil cooler and oil temps are awesome in the winter but not so good if day time temps are over 75 F. The last outing with this car was about 75 degrees outside and oil temps went up to 110 C once or twice with 15 - 20 minute run sessions.

The oil cooler started off as a test piece but has stayed in the car since it works well in the winter. We may change it to a FD dual oil cooler set up this spring.