And managing heat in stop and go traffic is entirely different than managing heat when tracking. FMIC and v mount can both work if done right.

 

In my journey to develop my own cooling system solution for the FD (charge temps, water, and oil), I have been doing a lot of research on the topic and have not found many successful front-mount intercooler setups used on track cars. Do you have any links to tracked FMIC cars?

When you consider that most professional GT3 level racecars are only around 500bhp, there is a lot of engineering in the heat exchangers and ducting to cool that amount of power. In the time-attack world, most cars are incapable of lapping for more than 3-4 laps without overheating. Keeping high-powered car cool for a pass down the 1/4 mile or on the street is easy. The level of engineering that it takes for a cooling system to sustain 500whp for a 30 minute session is actually a lot harder than you think. Many FDs and Supras (well, there aren't many) at the track are below 500whp. There was a really nice red MKIV that was competing in the Optima Ultimate Street Car series and he detuned the car to mid 500whp and was still having major cooling system issues; because he was a pretty decent driver.

At the end of the day, most high powered turbo 90's cars that are at the track are either: driven by amateurs who aren't very fast and aren't able to push the car to it's potential, are faster drivers who constantly fight overheating issues within a few laps, or run very modest power levels and are able to sustain it. Finding setups that are well-driven, making a lot of power, and are able to sustain it is VERY rare -and something I constantly search for to analyze and evaluate.

As you mentioned, ducting is EXTREMELY important and most setups have very poor ducting if at all. Making a FMIC work is simply a math exercise of matching core dimensions and fin density for a given BTU input, and then having the radiator sized with a proper fin density for the airflow it will receive with the given FMIC. But there's no getting around the challenge of a FMIC increasing the temperature and reducing the pressure to the radiator in any FMIC setup, which gets worse as the power level increases. Another challenge for the FD is its relatively small front opening. If the FMIC is too thick or dense, then the pressure differential to the radiator behind it will greatly suffer; especially if it's not sealed off to the FMIC. At the end of the day, it's A LOT easier to make a V-mount work, which gives each heat exchanger (IC and radiator) the greatest temperature differential possible, which is the direction of my cooling system design.

 

This is during a bumper mock up, but my car had 540whp and this intercooler setup was fine during 3 track days in the summer, I will state that I’m a novice and cannot push the car to its limits. But notice the fresh airflow available to the radiator, which was also completely ducted.

Now if you have a tiny 93-98 OEM front bumper, I can see why FMIC may not be the best option.

id also be curious about John Renna’s setup as he had a similar intercooler set up (fresh air can get to the radiator), and I believe tracked his car and is a much better driver than I.

 

Do you have a pic of your ducting? If the IC isn't sealed to the radiator, then that gap can actually stall out the IC and affect it's cooling ability by having high pressure both in front and behind the core.

 

Don’t have one handy, but it basically sealed the radiator to the bumper opening. So I get what you mean, at speed I can see there might be potential for pressure in front of and behind the intercooler to equal out and stall.

i had it up to 120-140 a few times, did not notice An issue. But I had water injection coming on at 18psi of boost. So that could have offset a potential intake temp issue. But overall it worked fine. Will be doing it again on my 3 rotor. If it doesn’t work, I’ll share it.

Again, I think the key is in proper execution. I run a bigger radiator, and I also have good ducting and heat management in the engine bay (turbo and downpipe are wrapped and coated, vented hood, big bumper opening with dual oil coolers, no air in the system, proper radiator cap and overflow, etc.)

im not putting down the Vmount setup, I’m just saying the FMIC is not a bad solution, it works very well for many, many cars that make a ton of power and a ton of heat to dissipate.

 

Another vote for a vmount, it's just the best of both worlds. So a couple of days ago I was passing through the backside of L.A. The temp that day was in the mid 90's and I was cruising with a water temp of 83C and an AIT of 35C when I came up to bumper to bumper traffic. So after an 1hr+ of sitting in that shitty bumper to bumper traffic, my water temp rose to 88C (my fans kick in at 85c) and my AIT hit 45C. Personally I was miserable, sweating like a hog but the car handled it like a champ. After finally clearing the traffic my H2O dropped to back to 83C and my AITs to 35C. Can't complain when water temps are in the low 80's and AIT's are similar to ambient air temp.

 

Never. Hahaha. But seriously, if this doesn’t keep temps in check then I will go VMount.

 

I'm a fan of the VMIC setup from GReddy. Today for example, ambient temp was 22-23C. Cruising around boosting from time to time, IAT of 22C, WTR 77C. Stop and go portion, crept up to 28C and 87C, respectively, while waiting in the Starbucks drivethru. My fans kick on at 87C and instantly drop the temp down 2-4C. After I got moving, temps went back down to IAT 22C and 77C respectively.

 

Stop an go should be fine with VMIC and FMIC. Fans are doing the work, and the air passing through the FMIC is not super hot because the car is not in boost. If FMIC can't keep it cool in stop and go, then you have an issue with the overall system, can't blame a bad setup on the FMIC being the root cause.

Greddy Vmount kit is nice for sure though.