90 GSX
15+ Year Contributor
- 322
- 2
- Jun 24, 2004
-
Fremont,
California
Opinions of kit:
The intercooler itself is very impressive. I don't know what grade of metal it is or how much it affects heat transfer, but I can confidently say the the core looks very well designed based on other cores I have inspected. It is beefy and heavy.
I didn't use a magnet on the piping but a ferrari tech and an engineer both told it was steel, which is my belief as well since it was actually giving a 7" chop saw some resistance (you'll hear about cutting below). However, I went to an exhaust shop to have the ends of the pipes beaded and the blowoff valve flange (steel) welded on. They told me it was aluminum. I do know one thing for sure, the small tube that the blowoff valve mounts to is steel, so order a steel flange, that's all that matters in terms of metal. Whatever it may be, they are mandrel bent 2.5" polished pipes. They may be a little thin but they are suffificently strong for intercooler piping. The turbo outlet pipe looks to be 2" in diameter. It's also a mandrel bent pipe welded onto the flange. The pipe on mine was not completely flush with the flange but the weld was good and I doubt it will affect anything. I guess those are one of the things that make up for the price difference, although paying 5x as much as I paid for this setup (205 shipped) for an sbr or something like that is not worth it in my mind. I have nothing against sbr or any other well known dsm vendors, in fact I have bought many things from them in the past.
The couplers are not silicone but they are plied and seem to be of decent quality. I have no doubt that they will get the job done. They look identical to the couplers that came with my Vortech supercharger that's on my trans-am if that means anything to you.
The clamps are t bolt clamps with nylock nuts. They appear to be sturdy enough. I tighted them with an extended craftsman ratchet and a 10mm deep socket and they got pretty damn tight. I don't know what else to say about clamps but they work.
------------------------------
Opinion of fitment:
To mount the intercooler, they supply some aluminum brackets that have corresponding bolt holes on the bottom of the core. To use them, you have to relocate the power steering cooler or loop it at the reservoir and remove it completely to be able to push the IC back far enough for the brackets to extend under the body so you can screw it in. Instead of doing all that, I went to orchard (hardware store) and bought a strip of steel, I don't remember the gauge but it was about 2" wide similar to the brackets the IC came with. I cut new brackets that were about 1" longer and drilled new holes and it worked perfectly, and I didn't have to remove or relocate anything. On the top mounting bracket, I bent a strip of steel into an L shape and used the perfectly placed bolt hole that mitsu gave use running on the vertical beam that supports the hood latch. I attached a bolt there and another on top of the IC so the steel kind of makes an L to wrap around the top of the IC. The only thing I had to remove was the little bracket on the hood latch that the mitsu center headlight piece clips into (there are 2 other clips, I didn't have mine in the first place anyway haha) and everything fell into place perfectly. The core is so secure that it's practicaly my new inner bumper, which I will need since the stock one won't fit.
You can not use the fog lights or the inner bumper with this kit.
The pipes went in fairly easily although it took some modification. First of all, the UICP is slightly too big to fit through the stock holes, so I just said to hell with it and moved the wiring harness out of the way and cut that whole section of metal out from the wheel well with that 7" chop saw. It was pretty easy actually. I ran the LICP and the UICP through that cut out section, although I don't know if that's how the piping was meant to be ran. Can somebody else with the kit verify that both pipes go through the body in that location. Anyways... only 1 pipe required shortening - the one coming directly off the cold side of the IC. I bought a 90* rubber coupler from home depot and connected the two pipes. It fit together better than I could have hoped for. The rest of the piping went in easily. If you can't get the ends beaded, I suggest you do what I did because it's holding very well at 16 psi. I took an adjustable crescent wrench and flared the ends of the pipes. Working good so far...
The bumper skin had to be trimmed in a few places to fit the IC but it was nothing major at all. Not even worth describing to anybody who is going to install an fmic in their driveway.
---------------------------------------------
Opinion of performance:
I went from a stock IC and piping and all the mods in my profile to this fmic. The difference is incredible. I used to have problems with knock. The stock IC heatsoaked as soon as I put the key in the ignition. Somtimes after a couple pulls, I'll get 7-10 counts in second then shift to third and get 15-20 counts of knock!!!! Now, knock has all but disappeared. Occasionally I get a small spike to 4 or 6 counts but it returns to zero but that may be related to other things... The car feels so powerful compared to before, I mean it's finally getting to the point where I'm satisfied with the acceleration. On my logger I'm getting full timing out of the car, something I have never seen or felt yet, it's amazing.
I noticed absolutely no difference in spool up. In fact, it may spool up a little bit faster than before. Also, the blowoff valve sounds nice now. Much more intimidating if that matters to anybody out there in dsm land.
The IC inlet piping is always hot to the touch, but the outlet stayed ICE COLD after about 12-15 full throttle blasts using first, second, third, and sometimes fourth gear over the course of about 20 minutes. I had fun to say the least. Running my hand along the bottom of the IC I can distincly identify the point at which the temperature changes. After all those runs, the last 1/3 to 1/2 of the intercooler was still ice cold to the touch. I know that's not concrete scientific data obtained in the proper manner, but my ass dyno is giving me a thumbs up.
------------------------------------
Final words:
I have a multimeter which also has a temperature probe. If anybody would like suggest an experiment I'm open to any suggestions.
All in all, I don't think you can go wrong with this IC for the price. Even after 1 year, if jean grey came along and disintegrated my core and piping with her telekinetic power, I'd buy 4 more entire setups before I got the price of most of the fmic out there. I mean honestly though, if some company out there can ship me an entire fmic setup of decent quality for 200 bucks shipped, these other guys must be doing something wrong. Yes I'm sure they rely on volume to make money and yes I'm sure it's made in China, and yes I know that some of the finer details are missing, but I refuse to be bamboosled into paying 5x the price for some trivial details and an instruction booklet. R&D ain't that expensive anyway, especially when many of the other kits out there require a similar amount of modification.
I took the leap and bought the xs power kit. It turned out really well and I'm very happy with it. I can scrutunizingly give the kit and A-. Read this, form your own opinions, I hope it helped. Now it's 3 AM and I am getting up in less than 5 hours.
The intercooler itself is very impressive. I don't know what grade of metal it is or how much it affects heat transfer, but I can confidently say the the core looks very well designed based on other cores I have inspected. It is beefy and heavy.
I didn't use a magnet on the piping but a ferrari tech and an engineer both told it was steel, which is my belief as well since it was actually giving a 7" chop saw some resistance (you'll hear about cutting below). However, I went to an exhaust shop to have the ends of the pipes beaded and the blowoff valve flange (steel) welded on. They told me it was aluminum. I do know one thing for sure, the small tube that the blowoff valve mounts to is steel, so order a steel flange, that's all that matters in terms of metal. Whatever it may be, they are mandrel bent 2.5" polished pipes. They may be a little thin but they are suffificently strong for intercooler piping. The turbo outlet pipe looks to be 2" in diameter. It's also a mandrel bent pipe welded onto the flange. The pipe on mine was not completely flush with the flange but the weld was good and I doubt it will affect anything. I guess those are one of the things that make up for the price difference, although paying 5x as much as I paid for this setup (205 shipped) for an sbr or something like that is not worth it in my mind. I have nothing against sbr or any other well known dsm vendors, in fact I have bought many things from them in the past.
The couplers are not silicone but they are plied and seem to be of decent quality. I have no doubt that they will get the job done. They look identical to the couplers that came with my Vortech supercharger that's on my trans-am if that means anything to you.
The clamps are t bolt clamps with nylock nuts. They appear to be sturdy enough. I tighted them with an extended craftsman ratchet and a 10mm deep socket and they got pretty damn tight. I don't know what else to say about clamps but they work.
------------------------------
Opinion of fitment:
To mount the intercooler, they supply some aluminum brackets that have corresponding bolt holes on the bottom of the core. To use them, you have to relocate the power steering cooler or loop it at the reservoir and remove it completely to be able to push the IC back far enough for the brackets to extend under the body so you can screw it in. Instead of doing all that, I went to orchard (hardware store) and bought a strip of steel, I don't remember the gauge but it was about 2" wide similar to the brackets the IC came with. I cut new brackets that were about 1" longer and drilled new holes and it worked perfectly, and I didn't have to remove or relocate anything. On the top mounting bracket, I bent a strip of steel into an L shape and used the perfectly placed bolt hole that mitsu gave use running on the vertical beam that supports the hood latch. I attached a bolt there and another on top of the IC so the steel kind of makes an L to wrap around the top of the IC. The only thing I had to remove was the little bracket on the hood latch that the mitsu center headlight piece clips into (there are 2 other clips, I didn't have mine in the first place anyway haha) and everything fell into place perfectly. The core is so secure that it's practicaly my new inner bumper, which I will need since the stock one won't fit.
You can not use the fog lights or the inner bumper with this kit.
The pipes went in fairly easily although it took some modification. First of all, the UICP is slightly too big to fit through the stock holes, so I just said to hell with it and moved the wiring harness out of the way and cut that whole section of metal out from the wheel well with that 7" chop saw. It was pretty easy actually. I ran the LICP and the UICP through that cut out section, although I don't know if that's how the piping was meant to be ran. Can somebody else with the kit verify that both pipes go through the body in that location. Anyways... only 1 pipe required shortening - the one coming directly off the cold side of the IC. I bought a 90* rubber coupler from home depot and connected the two pipes. It fit together better than I could have hoped for. The rest of the piping went in easily. If you can't get the ends beaded, I suggest you do what I did because it's holding very well at 16 psi. I took an adjustable crescent wrench and flared the ends of the pipes. Working good so far...
The bumper skin had to be trimmed in a few places to fit the IC but it was nothing major at all. Not even worth describing to anybody who is going to install an fmic in their driveway.
---------------------------------------------
Opinion of performance:
I went from a stock IC and piping and all the mods in my profile to this fmic. The difference is incredible. I used to have problems with knock. The stock IC heatsoaked as soon as I put the key in the ignition. Somtimes after a couple pulls, I'll get 7-10 counts in second then shift to third and get 15-20 counts of knock!!!! Now, knock has all but disappeared. Occasionally I get a small spike to 4 or 6 counts but it returns to zero but that may be related to other things... The car feels so powerful compared to before, I mean it's finally getting to the point where I'm satisfied with the acceleration. On my logger I'm getting full timing out of the car, something I have never seen or felt yet, it's amazing.
I noticed absolutely no difference in spool up. In fact, it may spool up a little bit faster than before. Also, the blowoff valve sounds nice now. Much more intimidating if that matters to anybody out there in dsm land.
The IC inlet piping is always hot to the touch, but the outlet stayed ICE COLD after about 12-15 full throttle blasts using first, second, third, and sometimes fourth gear over the course of about 20 minutes. I had fun to say the least. Running my hand along the bottom of the IC I can distincly identify the point at which the temperature changes. After all those runs, the last 1/3 to 1/2 of the intercooler was still ice cold to the touch. I know that's not concrete scientific data obtained in the proper manner, but my ass dyno is giving me a thumbs up.
------------------------------------
Final words:
I have a multimeter which also has a temperature probe. If anybody would like suggest an experiment I'm open to any suggestions.
All in all, I don't think you can go wrong with this IC for the price. Even after 1 year, if jean grey came along and disintegrated my core and piping with her telekinetic power, I'd buy 4 more entire setups before I got the price of most of the fmic out there. I mean honestly though, if some company out there can ship me an entire fmic setup of decent quality for 200 bucks shipped, these other guys must be doing something wrong. Yes I'm sure they rely on volume to make money and yes I'm sure it's made in China, and yes I know that some of the finer details are missing, but I refuse to be bamboosled into paying 5x the price for some trivial details and an instruction booklet. R&D ain't that expensive anyway, especially when many of the other kits out there require a similar amount of modification.
I took the leap and bought the xs power kit. It turned out really well and I'm very happy with it. I can scrutunizingly give the kit and A-. Read this, form your own opinions, I hope it helped. Now it's 3 AM and I am getting up in less than 5 hours.
I see 90GSX has installed his pipes differently as he has said; show some pics for us to see. I can use all the help I can get. 
