hey i am looking for a fmic i was wondering what is the right size to look for an FC? thanks guys

 

depends what turbo your using and how much boost your planning on running

 

looking to run about 12 psi of boost but i mean like what size would fit on the bumper or any other spots!

 

Get the greddy kit its worth it.

 

i can't afford a greddy kit they are like 1000 bucks

 

a good custom is around $800, plus 8 hours of labor.

greddy is way cheaper

 

I think 800 is steep. I say more like, 300-500. ebay cores are cheap and as far as I know work fine. You can order a bunch of mandrel u-bends and straight pipes from any big domestic distributor like summit or jegs or things like that for pretty cheap. Just have to cut and paste from there. If you can weld at all it wouldn't be too difficult, although premade would definitely be easier.

 

Or you can do what im doing:

saab 9000 ic(huge and good till 25psi) - $60

Ebay set of 2.5' ic pipe bends, straights and couplers - $100

ebay ic pipe section with bov flange $30

total $190+ labor

 

26x19x3 is the greddy core. This is a huge intercooler that will cool enuff for any mod you do. I can put my hand on the aluminum pipes on the turbo side and its hot. Then touch the side after the intercooler and its cool to the touch. Don't listen to these guys making their own intercoolers out of duct tape and plastic end tanks. If you don't want to but the greddy kit thats cool but make sure you get the same core size and do all your pipes in aluminum and use the proper silicon couplers. Also you will need who ever you are paying to weld up the aluminum to run a bead around the end of the pipes or ever time you boost they will pop off and your car will die instantly. Heres a pic of how pic the core is under the front skin. Actually this pic is not as good as I thought so I will have to get another one later.

 

I agree with Bukwild. By the time you buy good aluminum piping, silicon couplers, t-bolt clamps, and a good core you're nearing the price of the Greddy kit. Is the additional work of fabbing the IC pipes up worth the $100 - $200 in savings to you? If you search around long enough, chances are that you can find a used Greddy kit for cheaper than fabbing your own FMIC setup.

 

If you try to build yourself a custom setup using components of similar quality to greddy, it'll run you pretty close. However, if you get an ebay core, fab up some brackets of your own, and cut some mandrel bends and weld it all together yourself and get couplers, you can save a decent ammount, but then again quality does suffer.

 

If you can't afford it, stop ******* with the car.

If you don't have a job, get one.
If you do have a job, work more and save more.
Once you saved the right amount, go get what you need.


-Ted

 

G-DAMN... Somebody peed in Ted's Poi again.......

Almost EVERY pre-made FMIC thats worth a **** will require you to remove the front bumper and hack up the bumper support.... I diddn't want to do that so I made a custom FMIC



I spent about 550 bucks on my IC setup... it has a good Modine Core and I had the end tanks custom fabricated to fit at the end of the frame rails, in front of the oil cooler and routed the pipes around the radiator... the IC cost about 300, the rest was in pipe work, clamps, etc..


here you can see how the pipes are routed.... they go in beside the rad through holes that were already there and I simply widened with a die grinder.....

My IC works... BUT and this is a BIG BUT...... it required a LOT of fabrication..... AND... while it flows well and cools well, it also blocks a lot of the air tunnel to the rad... and makes it impossible to use an E-Fan until i get a vent hood..... (its JUST not flowing enough at highway speeds and the temp gradually rises while cruising)

There are a LOT of factors to consider when getting an FMIC.. Flow THROUGH the IC to the radiator is also a consideration..... My IC sits in the air tunnel.... thus the end tanks block 48 Sqaure inches of airflow, the remaining has to pass through the cor before it gets to the rad..... to restrictive.... I didn't plan on that factor... as I never planned on adding an E-Fan... The Greedy ICs pass more air... and now, even though I'm proud of my IC system, I wish I would have bought the Greedy..... (just being flat out honest)

I also KNEW that this whole thing would take a while... my car was up on stands for THREE MONTHS while I re-bult the motor, did all the FMIC work, Haltech install, all that crap..... Just fabricating the pipe work took a couple of days... cut a piece, put it on, cut another piece, make sure the angle is right, tape it up, spot weld it, take it out, completely weld it together.... put it back in..... make the next section....

I'm REALLY starting to take Ted's stance on a LOT of these things..... Do it right or don't bother..... Modifying an RX on a shoestring budget and a millisecond timeline is a recepie for the shoeleather express.... You end up fudging stuff because you either have to get the car working so you can drive to work tomorrow, or the right part isnt avaialbe at 10:00 saturday night,

While the Greedy's COST more...... guess what.... they've already done all the leg work, you just bolt it on........ thee's where the expense come in....

Do your research, look at what OTHER people have done, (ask for ACTUAL TEMP NUMBERS) and plan on having your car down for a couple of days and life will go MUCH smoother for you!!!!!!!

 

Sorry man...it's been a loooong week, and it's still not over for me - still two more days of work. :P

I just read between the lines, and I think the original poster doesn't have the fabrication skills to put together a full kit even with a cheap eBay IC core (+ endtanks).

I bet the original poster wanted a complete kit with everything included.

The GReddy ends up being one of the cheapest, complete FMIC kits for the FC3S out there.
Did I miss any?

I need to click the guy's profile to find out how old he is...


-Ted

 

No bday in profile...

http://www.rotary7.com does not exist, or the website is currently down.

WTF?

I put money the guy isn't even 20?


-Ted

 

if I was going to design my own intercooler it would be a vmount but I have seen how much of a pain in the *** that it and don't want to do that anymore. not tomention how much of a pain it will be just to get to your stuff. Taking your intercooler stuff off to check the level of your coolant would get to suck

 

Agreed..... If you add up all the time I spent fitting, welding, cutting, grinding... etc.... multiplied that by 20 bucks an hour and added what I paid for the materials.... (if you can find a mechanic for 20 bucks an hour......) i could have bought two greddy IC's!!!!!!!!

 

ok ted first things first i have a great job! i do work and i am 27! the reason why i can't afford it is because i am putting all my money on to getting a big house so i am very limited on what i can spend on my FC so if you think i am some punk kid. so if your not going to be helpful please don't post. i am working on the car little by little i know that the intercooler is going to cost me 200 alone and i know the pipes are going to cost me another 200 or so but if i can get them part by part i would like to do that. my wife doesn't like me spending a whole lot of money at one shot and she is right the big house is our goal before we have kids so thank for not telling or giving me any kind of input! and if you want to know my birthday so you can send me an intercooler it is 12-9-1977!

 

Got all my materials for bout 300$ I moved my radiator 2inches back. Didnt have to hack anything up! took 3 hours to finish

 

Well, your wife is going to be even more pissed when you cheaply modify your car and need a rebuilt engine. j/k

Dont listen to Mark (Skir) he thinks he can run a T-78 on a RTEK!

 

lol to late for that motor is already rebuilt! but i mean i want to get the parts little by little so money is not missing right away..lol know what imean i was able to hide some money in my sock draw and that is my inter cooler money then i will put some more money in the sock draw and get the piping and my boy is going to do it all for me so i don't have to worry about the labor he just wants a case of beer!

 

Ignore the car.
Concentrate on the house.


You seem to be stubborn - even your wife thinks spending money on the car is a bad idea.


Now why would I want to do that when *I* don't even run an FMIC?


-Ted

 

That's only because you can drive around the entire island twice before you even get the car warmed up!

 

This sucks. There is a field in engineering called thermodynamics which is very useful for sizing an intercooler. Generally, the smaller the better for the same heat removal (less compressed volume and generally less static pressure drop with a smaller core, all else being equal). I haven't taken this class yet, it is pretty hard stuff, like senior level undergrad mechanical engineering with a lot of fuzzy math.

So yeah, man I'd love to be able to bust out some calculations and figure out the *right* size for an FMIC given an HP goal, boost setting, cfm, etc. and than add ~10% to it to get the smallest core to do the job. Less lag, less pressure drop, might actually make a turbocar fun to drive!

 

^^^^
im with him on this one..