I'm going to get rid of my m2 medium upon the arrival of my single turbo what wouldyou guys think is the best FMIC for road racing?

1.) Apex
2.) greddy 2 row
3.) other _________

 

Forget those shiny show car kits and get a Spearco custom bar & plate:
http://www.spearcointercoolers.com/

If you must have a kit for you FD, then this one looks pretty decent IMO:
http://www.turbostreetfighter.com/html/cooler.htm

 

i like that one from horsepowerinabox.com. BIg and fairly cheap. Marc

 

If you do alot of road racing dont use a front mount. You will overheat. Keep the M2.

Jason
www.rx7store.net

 

now that's what I like to see....

Jason...kudos for giving good advice...when you could have easily recommended selling him a FMIC

 

I say get a front mount AND a vented hood.

 

still dont know how all the japanese tuners are getting away with it....

they do have vented hoods and what not...

 

can someone explain how a front mount would cause overheating for road racing?..... i remember sr used to offer a top mount intercooler, i guess thats for road racing huh?

 

You'll need as much air as possible for the radiator. With a front mount you're taking air away from the radiator and possibly sending air hotter than ambient to the radiator.

 

That's precisely what i was thinking. Almost all japanese tuners use FMIC in road racing. I was thinking of getting a greddy 3 row becasue the gap between the IC and the radiator i smaller, and then taking out the AC condensor in between, and then blocking off the intercooler and radiator so air only gets to the intercooler and radiator and does't go anywhere else. I was also thinking about getting a new front bumper, and a vented hood as well. Also, I heard single turbo can also help cooling, that' going in soon too. Maybe I can use the FMIC then??? What do you guys think?

 

Jason i beg to differ on your opinion, i have been road racing in my car on numerous ocasions in this hot *** Texas weather and NEVER had overheating issues and i even run a stock radiator. my FMIC kit keeps the radiator in the stock location, i also have a lot of local customers that do the same, some with upgraded rad's and some with stock. so basically what i am saying is that all FMIC's are not created equal mine works!!

www.rotarysc.com prev. turbostreetfighter.com

 

when i first came up with the design i thought the same thing so i made a duct that rivets under the stock bellypan and direct aire directly to the radiator bypassing the FMIC!

 

If you are using this to direct air thats a different story. Typically the radiator needs to be in the direct path of air to keep temps down when road racing.

Jason

 

I agree with Jason, if you plan to road race you better not take a chance with a typical kit frontmount, most likely you will have overheating problems. If Marcus' kit has special ducting his might work better than the others.

Wade

 

Can someone please explain how the japanese tuners get away with it then? I want to get rid of my m2 medium becausei don't think it's made for single turbo and also the fact taht there may be pressure loss because of not enough air getting to it. I plan to make custom ducting so that the air goes directly to the radiator.

 

Road racing doesn't have the same cooling requirements as street driving because you never stop at the light or get caught in stop & go traffic. You may have even noticed NASCAR crewchiefs taping over the radiator duct because the engine is getting too cold. The so-called "secrets" of the Japanese tuners include:
1) Oil coolers
2) Upgraded radiators
3) Proper ducting and/or staggering
4) Repositioning of components

The M2 medium should work just fine with a single-turbo. Why wouldn't it?

BTW, a lack of air (or hot air in the case of the SMIC) will reduce the intercooler's efficiency, not the pressure drop. The extra piping that you are talking about for the FMIC would probably increase the pressure drop some, depending on the bends.

Required reading:
The Spearco Catalog
http://www.spearcointercoolers.com/
Corky Bell's "Maximum Boost" or "Supercharged!"
http://www.amazon.com

 

I remember seeing a setup at sevenstock 3 (Chris, Tony? It was one of you guys I think...) with a FMIC that placed the radiator horizontally and at the bottom of the car, sort of like this: |_ That is one way around it if you must have a FMIC. I don't know how well it worked though but its a novel idea. With the radiator fans on you'd be sucking in cold air from underneath the car, with a little clever ducting it shouldn't be too hard to get good airflow.

 

i never used the duct on my FMIC , i made it just in case it over heated but it never has, the duct is sittin on a shelf collecting dust!!!

 

Hey, anybody know why the link to www.turbostreetfighter.com isn't working anymore?? I'd really like to get some more info from the manufacturer and probably order one as well to go with my soon coming BNR secret weapon stage 2 twins!!!! Kinda hard to do when I can't access the website. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Laterz.

Zach

 

With a larger than stock bumper opening and proper ducking, a front mount should not be a problem

 

Another - Very primitive in this pic. I had just gotten it running.

 

what type of intercooler is that and where did you get that shroud to block the air? That's a very clean design

 

Are those that are saying to stay with a SMIC sugesting that the top mount is better fro road racing. I would say that the heat soak in the IC would end up causing a lot of problems.

A properly designed FM system with good ducting and so on, should work fine. As long as you don't completely block all air from the rad, you should be OK.

 

80-CU IN ... I like the Diet Coke can mod! That is a nice setup but I wonder if the fan is effective at idle or in stop and go with the hood closed. Setups with unshrouded fans tend to recirculate hot underhood air around the outside of the fan. Curious of your results.

Guys,

I know alot of folks running road courses in the FD and everyone that is serious about it (meaning fully modded cars with drivers that push the limit of the car) runs a front mount has water temp issues. Most have aftermarket or mod'd front ends to let more air in, vented hoods, large twin oil coolers, aftermarket stock mount radiators, and keep boost down to limit water temps. Most of these folks have switched back to stock mounts and water temps come down significantly. I was surprised and would not have believed it otherwise. After learning this, I am almost glad I did not have oil temp and water temp gages when I was lapping TWS!

I believe an effective fmic radiator combo could be devised with a properly sized vertical radiator (the angled radiators suffer from poor air distribution and overall air flow). Look at several solutions found here on the forum as well as the combo that Pettit uses on their three rotor conversions.

 

No the 1 fan is not enough. Ok to around 80F. outside air temp. The engine got up to 195F without the air on. This was in stop & go traffic for around 1 hour. Top speed around 5 - 10MPH. MAX mostly stopped. ( Los Angeles SUCKS ) When moving I have never seen temps above 183F. ( Out side air temp 90F with no air-conditioning.)
I got the fan for free so I thought I would try it.( 15" Flexlight.) I will be adding 2 - 7" electric fans and this should solve the problem. 15" fan turns on at 183F - the 2 - 7" fans will turn on at 189F.

Intercooler is an APEX'i GTR core Old Style. Works ( VERY WELL ) I only payed $210 for it.

60F outside air temp idling for 5 min. I had condensation dripping off the intercooler with my 1 fan running. I though that was very kool. The intake pipe can be HOT to touch but the outlet is nice and cool. Intercooler and Radiator are ducked together with my Air condenser in the middle. Definitely not the best but the easiest.

No track time as of yet. But 1 very high speed run up Angeles Crest HWY. and down HWY 3. twords Palmdale. 14 - 15 LBS of boost. min speed 60 max prox 157 3 to 4:30 AM. no trafic average outside air temp 50F. This definitely wasn't Willow Spring in the summer when it gets to be 110 + F outside but so far I was happy with the results. I need suspension big time. No fun drifting at 130MPH when you don't want to.