Well, since I don't agree in paying close to 3 grand for a v-mount, I decided to make my own. It took me about two days, and it was basically just making brackets and fitting them. Here are some pics. Enjoy
Mike

 

Looks great, what core did you use? Is you whole car painted like that?

 

I used my greddy 2row core. It was weird, it fit so perfectly, almost like mazda had designed the car with vmount in mind. Hmm.. Yeah the whole care is camo until I can get it to my buddy's place to get painted. I'm glad you like it.
Mike

 

that looks sweet man..

 

got any pictures of the whole car i wanna see the camo fd?

 

it's in the interior/exterior section

 

yes it is. I need to post pics of the ductwork I'm making for it today. More pics to come.
Mike

 

how are u going to run the pipes?????

 

I would be very carefull using that type of mesh on the front of the car.
I used that "thick" type of mesh, and I immediately noticed that at higher speeds (read - above 40mph), the thickness of the screen actually re-directs airflow. By this I mean the screen acts as a "rudder" to change the airflow characteristics and forces the air flow at a 90 degree andle to the way you mount the screen. So, in your case, because the radiator is tilted back, and your screen is tilted forward, the air flow will pass right above the rad, and the rad will not see any air.

I did something similar, but in my case, my FC's rad saw good air and temps were normal, but the oil cooler saw NO air, and the oil temps skyrocketed! As soon as I removed the screen, the oil temps returned to normal.
make sure you have both a water and oil temp guage - and keep an eye on both.
-a

 

BTW wont that 180 bend in the IC pipe really affect lag and power delivery? Maybe you may want to think about changing that.

 

Sunshine: That is awesome info that I was not aware of. I had planned on just removing the screen in the first place because I hate that mesh stuff, and now I'm set on doing so. Do you think not having it in front of the oil cooler will be better for it? Get back to me if ya can.
Fatman: I seriously thought that all over and I'm going to cut off the inlet and outlet, smooth the two and fit them, then re-weld it. Thanks much for the info guys, I appreciate it all.
Mike

 

Well, Im not sure what you mean by that. But here's my thinking...I dont really like the look of the mesh, but it can serve a very important purpose of protecting expensive aluminum gear like your radiator, oil cooler, and intercooler.

I think that my observations with the mesh I used have a direct correlation with the thinkness of the mesh. Your screen looks "thick" just as mine did. I believe if I were to use a thinner material, then it would allow the air to pass through it without having a "redirecting" effect. Also, the mounting angle is a factor, if the mesh is parellel to the heat-exchanger, then there is no issue. In my case, the air was directed right into the radiator, but over the oil cooler. That is just the nature of the FC's design.

I am currently trying to find thinner mesh to try and use. If that works, then I can protect my expensive aluminum parts. For now, I am not using anything.
-a

 

Basically, I was wondering if no mesh at all is going to be better for a v-mount then having mesh. Like you were saying, the air is directed like a rudder at almost 90 degrees from before it flows into the mesh. In that case, it would be directed into the intercooler, but nothing flow towards the radiator. I remember seeing some sort of gutter guard at home depot last time I was there, which was super thin. I think that would work better but you would need bigger sheets. Let me know if you know what I'm talking about. Let's get to the bottom of this, because I do want to protect my nice aluminum parts!!
Mike

 

I used some quarter-inch galvanized mesh from the Depot when I cleaned up my oil coolers. It's silver here but I painted it black before it went on for good. It's pretty fine wire and you can hardly tell it's there. I put it in front of the IC too. If you only knew how much work it was to clean those coolers...