iam looking to upgrade my stock intercooler to something a little bit more efficient past 11-12 pounds, i have found alot of information about the pfs smic, but i know a guy that lives around me selling the ARC for a couple hundred dollars less, i was wondering if any 1 had any info about the arc smic, i searched but i didn't come up with much, will the difference be that big between the pfs smic and the arc smic? any opinions on the topic are welcome, thanx in advance

 

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/i...olers.html#THE

 

ummm, thanks for the intercooler breakdown, although i wasn't really looking to find out how they work, i was looking for people that had some kind of expierence, with the 2 i/c's i mentiond, but thanks for the intercooler tutorial, you can never learn to much.

 

Seeing as how almost no one has ran the ARC SMIC, I seriously doubt you are going to find anyone who's run both.

Just compare core sizes and end tank design. The PFS SMIC is a nice upgrade over stock, with significantly lower pressure drop and intake temps. It allows you to keep your battery, and the stock crossover and intake tubing. Yes, there are certainly better cooling SMICs out there, but they require battery relocation or other trade-offs.

 

I've got a car in my garage that put down 340 rwhp with the ARC SMIC.

That said I would go with the PFS SMIC.

Jeff

 

Interesting that when I installed my PFS IC I didnt notice any lower pressure drop - meaning that I didnt change my settings on ProfecB and after the switch, I was still getting 10psi on low setting as before. Any clues on what could be causing that ?

 

That's what should happen. What difference it makes is that your turbos don't have to work as hard to product that 10 PSI of boost.

 

Ahh.. ofcourse. Now that I think about it, it makes sense. Stupid me

 

I completely disagree. The Profec B is NOT closed-loop. If you add airflow mods without changing the boost setting, your boost values SHOULD go up.

Mine went up over 2 psi when I added the PFS intake+smic combo.

 

On the other hand I think Mahijk mislead me, lol

ProfecB only determines how much the wastegate opens. And if the setting is untouched then adding more airflow (i.e. less restrictive IC) should yield in higher boost.

So again - what could be the cause that I didnt see any boost difference vs. the stock IC ? Could it be there is something in the IC or what ?

 

thanx for all your replies, i guess ill be coughing up the extra dough for the pfs smic

 

Just chaning the IC itself doesn't always show an immediate boost increase. You aren't necessarily increasing the amount of air you are flowing, you are just cooling the air that you have more efficiently which results in better power.

 

Mahjik, the stock IC restricts flow at even 10 psi. If you tune a Profec for 10 psi with the stock IC and then add a less restrictive IC, the boost pressure should go up.

 

The stock IC is about 1 or 2 psi off, very very minute compared to the 10 psi pumping through. Maybe he is spiking really quick 11 and settling back at 10.

 

Hey Jeff would you recommend that as well for track? Where temps get really hot? Or Front Mount?

 

My experience - when at track even after some 5 laps my IC "colder side" piping is extremely hot to touch...

 

The boost may go up since the turbos were working at say 15 PSI to make 10 PSI and now if they work for 15 PSI they make 13 PSI (those are just arbitrary numbers). However, that has more to do with the efficiency of the IC rather than the amount of air (since just changing the IC only you are still only throwing the same amount of air into it).

 

Just FYI, when I changed out my stock for my old Blitz SMIC, the boost was the same however the turbo response was MUCH more crisp.

At that time, I had intake, dp, hi-flo, catback, Pettit ECU, pullies....

 

Correct, Mahjik, that was my point.

Fatman: Actually, the stock IC is about 3 psi of pressure drop at 10 psi, it will get worse at higher psi. The PFS SMIC is 1.25 psi pressure drop at 10 psi.

 

Yes, but that's not necessary "flow", that's more "efficency". But like I said, I did not get an increase in boost with mine, just better power and more turbo responsiveness. I would wager that adding that intake along with your IC is what made most of the difference. You were changing the "amount" of air coming into the car as well as the effectiveness of the cooling of the charged air.

 

But I added also both intake and SMIC. But its true that I had APEX'i power intakes before. Could it be that the APEXi "hot" filters were performing / breathing better then PFS cold air box with single huge K&N filter ?

 

No. I prefer ASP/M2 med/large sized ICs, PFS IC is a good 2nd choice. The ARC IC is very small, slightly larger than stock.

I don't like FMIC based largely on what they require to be moved around in the front end. Many intakes with the FMIC are "hot air intakes" also. Overheating is a common issue with FMICs also, of course there are people that are successful at using them on the track also. This will start a huge FMIC vs. SMIC debate.

 

Nooooooooo, my dad just bought an ARC front mount, and I was wondering wheather I should "borrow" it from him. Mu ha ha ha! I guess not, saving cash for the ones you stated. Thanks for the advice.

Quick Edit, if some how by a custom job or something I could actually get COLD air (not air after the rad, and IC) to the intake, would then you suggest a FMIC? Because I already have an upgraded radiator, yet I know my intakes (blitz) are not in the best place.

 

Oh, maybe I'm confused between "Race" and SMIC? Is the ARC a FMIC or SMIC? The ARC I've seen is a small SMIC that is very similar to the stock IC.

 

I have an ARC SMIC, and you are correct in that it is not much bigger than the stock intercooler, but my car doesn't see any heavy track work or high boost so it does the job just fine. I don't really know any stats on it because it was on the car when I bought it.

Someday I will probably upgrade to something along the lines of the ASP/M2 medium IC's when I get a little more power hungry.