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First, I upgraded my intercoolers last summer to a FMIC. I searched everywhere for the best buy ($525). It did not come with the intercooler piping so I had to design my own setup in that area. I was up to the challenge, and it worked out great. Second, I felt that by having a FMIC fill in my Stillen GTZR fascia I would get plenty of cooling to warrant good hp. Maybe, but I have not dyno'd my car yet. I kept looking at other peoples cars with big hp. #'s and they have FMIC's (Wagz, Z1 convertible, etc.). I figured I would go ahead and upgrade my i.c.'s to a FMIC now in case I do reach those hp. #'s. I am still running stock turbo's, but only until I need to replace them. At which time, I'd like to install some Greddy TD05-16G's. So, don't flame me for running a FMIC on stock turbo's...:) Read on. Third, would I recommend this upgrade to anyone? NO! Why? There are too many 'behind-the-scene' changes that are required to engineer a FMIC into place.
A. A Stillen high flow intake must go--no room.
B. Charcoal canister must go--no room.
C. If you buy the Apollo (mine is not--I still have my foglights), your foglights are history--no room.
D. If you buy the larger Apollo, the aluminum bumper must go.
E. COOLING! This is one of the biggest drawbacks. It's wintertime for me right now and I still have to keep my electric fan going 90% of the time. I have a Z1/Howe radiator awaiting install that I hope will aid in better cooling (fingers crossed).
F. Modifying of fascia. My Stillen fascia required 10 different cuts in order to get the perfect fit--it fits perfectly now, but I don't like modifying body parts.
G. I used 2.5" intercooling piping. I probably should have used 2.25" piping to decrease pressure drop, but the turbo's still spool up really well and the power comes on in a vengeance.
H. Time to install. I combined this with my 555 cc injectors upgrade over the summer. Because I was working on this FMIC install as a custom fit, there were no directions on how to do it. This dramatically slows the process down, because you find yourself selecting one way then you find another possible route. The time spent in dilemmas was long. I parked the car in May, 2004, and finally could drive it again in September, 2004. I missed the entire summer. Without having dyno #'s, those are the con's that I encountered. Here are my limited pro's:
A. Looks. Sure, it looks great and aggressive.
B. My previous situation was different than anyone else's that I've read about. I had one good stock intercooler bolted up on the driver's side while the passenger side had some different, smaller SMIC that came from who knows where. Previous owner had something installed, and frankly I don't know what it came off of. Summary? I did not have the efficiency of both factory intercoolers on my car. So, now having a FMIC is actually providing better intercooling than what I had. So, I see this as an improvement. I am looking at this objectively. I am not saying a FMIC is way better than the SMIC's, but I believe it's all in the design of the intercooler. It seems that the really high hp. Z's are using FMIC's on the dyno, but how well do they work in the real world? I dunno. Can anyone comment on the point at which the SMIC's become maxed out? Although I am happy with my FMIC, I try to steer everyone away from doing it on their Z. Like I said, there are too many 'behind-the-scene' changes that need to take place for a FMIC to fit. Will I change it out for SMIC's? No. It's working fine for me. Summer may bring a different opinion, but I'm waiting until then. Kris
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14:31:40 01/28/05
