guys, i was researching on the intercooler and i find out that everybody have a lot of different views from V-mount and fron mount intercooler which really confuse me. V mount intercooler cost more $$ and hassle and that makes me wander why some people wanted to install V mount on it when it comes to performance it ends up roughly the same as front mount. any advise and comments?

 

What threads did you read? FMICs are virtually unusable at the track. They even compromise the cooling system in extremely hot conditions on the street. The SMIC doesn't compromise cooling, but is subject to heat soak and cannot keep the AITs quite as low as a FMIC. It's a much better compromise for track driving and very hot street conditions though.

The v-mount avoids both of these problems and is the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, it puts the radiator fans extremely low to the ground and subject to damage. It is also more expensive/difficult to implement.

There are pros and cons to everything, unlike what some clueless people try to tell you. If you are only driving your car on the street or dragging the car, a FMIC will probably be fine. In any other case, there's no way in hell I would run one. My mechanic replaced his FMIC with an ASP large SMIC to reduce coolant temps...even in the Cali Bay Area.

 

FMIC blocks air going to the radiator thus overheating becomes an issue
V mount provides air to intercooler and radiator which is a good thing

 

My FMIC (and hood) did wonders for my cooling system up here in the Pacific NW...... Daily dirving (before I got another car) and drag strip.

 

I agree with rynberg, it depends on what u do with your car the most, but if u got the money i would go with V-mount because not only do u get air into the intercooler but you get air into the radiator aswell and so this will eliminate some of the overheating problems. $$$$$$$$

 

read on this information on different threads. using the search engine to find it.

i dun plan to hit the drag strip with this car at all. So if i use the FC thermoswitch, since the fan is going to come on at 95 degrees and i used FMIC, that will eliminate most of the problem for week end driving right?

 

Well I don't have a problem with water temps or anything like that with my FMIC and upright radiator, and I'm not running the thrmoswitch, but then again I don't live in a very warm climate.....

 

You will be fine with a front mount if you are not running at the track or constantly beating the crap out of your car daily on the streets.

 

I run a large SMIC and it is fine. To combat the heat soak at lights, I run a 225 watt meridyne fan that I got from Gotham on the backside of it and turned on by my engine management at a certain temp. My coolant temps never go above 182 degrees F at wot etc...I ran the smic because I wanted to have max air flow to my radiator. You will be fine with both in what you are doing with your car. Here is a pic of my SMIC and Fan and is making over 500 whp.

 

Yep, but then what's the point of "upgrading" to the FMIC in the first place....

 

From personal experience going from a FMIC from stock didn't make that much of a difference. I struggled with the same problem the V-Mount cost. All in all if you don't track your car or just take it to the strip a few times any system will work. On the stock twins the piping and size of a FMIC will increase lag by about a second down low. Where you are over heating shouldn't become a problem unless you retain the stock radiator.

Don't forget the attention factor as well for the FMIC.

 

In my case the attention factor of the FMIC is a positive because it takes the Policeman's focus off of me not having a front plate =) Before the FMIC I got pulled over MANY times for no front plate

 

I love that duct. What smic is that?

 

i run a front mount, and i beat on it hard sometimes. recently on a hot day last week i was pushing it pretty hard and water temps never went above 88 and ive never seen them above 91...i have an aluminum radiator...and my air temps are way down from the SMIC...

the shop i take my car to has built a SCCA championship winning race car RX7 that had a front mount for some time and a v-mount for some time, and it is now a time attack car, back to huge front mount...maybe having a 4 inch radiator helps >=P

when it comes down to it...ducting and efficiency of every component will determine how well your system will run.

 

FMIC no good for the track?? ahh... so how do panspeed, fujita, amemiya, et al make the fastest rwd cars in japan such great track weapons?? They've all stuck with FMIC for their top cars.

Not to say VMIC isn't a wonderful thing - but FMIC being no good for the track is an overstatement, at best. It can and HAS been done - repeatedly.

That said, you can certainly poke holes in the setup of many, many people who have posted engine bay shots....

 

I run a HKS FMIC and a large Feed Rad and never had any problems

 

I understand your point, however the track cars your speaking of have custom purpose built race radiators.. Nothing I'm aware of that's a straight drop in, can handle the rigers of a track situation.

 

A custom triple or four pass radiator for the Rx-7 can cost little $600 I was going to have one install with my car but didn't want to wait 8 weeks for it. There is nothing about the FD radiator that makes it unique once it's mounted vertical. Yes it will require some minor fiting to get the hoses to line up right but considering all the Fitting work goes into most upgrades, most notably ducting which is a science this is pretty easy.

 

You know, I was going to make the same comment! In my last post, I made the impression that the v-mount is a must for the track and not a front mount. This was not my intention. I ment to imply that the v-mount is a much better way to go on the track. You don't have to worry about getting air to the radiator or getting a monster radiator.

 

That fan is worthless unless you pop the hood. I ran the same setup and found that the fan will only circulate hot underhood air back thru the core dur to the restrictive cold air ducting. The fan did work well to cool the core with the hood up, say between autox runs or drag strip runs or dyno runs, but otherwise it did nada.

 

DaiOni, each one of those companies I've seen both FMICs and either SMICs or V-Mounts on their FD's. I don't think they float one way only. In fact, I'd argue that while in the past they've all rocked FMICs, the current trend is toward V-mounts in virtually all the racecars. I've got tons of pics showing the newest FDs from the respective companies rocking V-mounts...

 

::rolls eyes:: No its not going to be moving COLD ambient air over the fins, but it does circulate air rather letting it totally stagnate and heat soak and is pulling air from the ducting area (still not cold at all,but cooler) not the hot engine bay. I see that everybit helps, and it wasn't expensive at all...also its like sucking air right into the compressor housing with a single turbo, you are sucking hot engine air from the engine bay, where as my setup, it has a 4" aluminum pipe going through the frame down into the right bumper duct feeding it cool air...you start with X amount of heat and it will be able to cool X amount of air,so if your starting temp is cooler to begin with, it will be cooler going in the motor. So, you can say its worthless all you want, but opinions are like ********.....

And the actual intercooler itself is a PFsupercars race SMIC...and wonder why Ray wilson said the fan does help as well...I dunno why, it's not like he just started working on Rotaries last month.

 

Wow BLitzed33, you know that's prob the FIRST (not to say there aren't others, but I've never seen 'em) single turbo that has a true cold air intake extending to the front nose (rather than a filter leaving it sucking hot air from the engine bay) that I've seen? And I LOVE how short the piping is from the turbo to the IC! Ray's got some skills, esp. for somone who's only been working on rotaries for TWO months

The other thing I think twokrx7 is missing is that it doesn't matter whether the air is hot or cold; it's the IC's JOB to cool the air The fact that the IC is seeing air *period* is the point and advantage here (vs. leaving air to stagnate, as BLitzed33 mentioned).

~Ramy

 

Then I guess my experince with a fan on a SMIC is not worth sharing, hold on to your unfounded dreams.

 

Hey Ramy,

Alot of people asked me about that setup, it works very well. I am also installing a water injection setup soon Does this car look familiar? Notice the coldair pipe in the bumper without the filter and no fmic , no v-mount ic...yup,mine now