1g ebay IC, Pictures inside

[LaN-]

You can keep your stock radiator fan with the J pipe. One person had an issue with it but thats because he had a thicker radiator.

You will have to get a slim A/C Fan.

The intake pipes will be 3", but i'm still waiting to here back where these are at. (taking a lot longer then i expected.)

 

[EuroGSTSpyder]

cool, I got a slimline sitting in the hallway ;-)

Will do with my hard intake pipe for now then..its just a little small...

 

[Burnett03]

nice kit

 

[LaN-]

Im ready to order the smaller kit Lan please email me with directions on how to do it. thanks
[email protected]

email sent

 

[T_K]

I bought and received this kit and am going to be installing it this weekend. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

 

[Underdog378]

Finally got mine installed after a couple minor issues. Pictures to come soon.

 

[T_K]

Here's my full review of buying, receiving and installing the kit. I can't speak of performance yet because I haven't driven the car much except around the block. I have some things to fix before I really drive it.


So I was looking for a FMIC kit and after reading this whole thread and looking at other kits I thought it looked decent and the price looked great. I exchanged a couple emails with the seller and then decided on it and sent him the money saturday or sunday. Monday I got a FedEx tracking number which did not update at all during the week but I decided to wait as these things happen. Friday came and I received nothing so I emailed the seller to let him know that I'm really concerned about this. He promised to check with his warehouse and a day or so later he apologized for the mistake - they didn't ship it at all. So on monday I got another tracking number which was this time working. On friday I got everything. Consider I am in NJ and the seller ships from CA, 5 working days aren't bad at all. Nothing was missing from the kit and everything looked good quality. I actually got one extra small t-bolt clamp.

The same friday evening I started ripping my car apart.

First this is the core against my Alamo SMIC which itself is 2x thicker than stock.

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And people claim upgraded sidemounts are good to 400hp?? WTF

Long story short everything's easy to figure out without instructions and fits as advertised. I had one major issue: one of the sides of the j-pipe was too close to the bolt hole in the flange and I couldn't get a bolt in. I worked on it with my grinder, slotted the hole and beat the sidewall somewhat so in the end it worked out.

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I emailed the seller about it and he gave me some advice on what to do but promised if I can't make it work to ship a replacement.

On a side note I would have liked a boost source fitting on the J-pipe for my MBC.

The core seemed to hand well enough on the couplers but I wanted some real support so I made those brackets for it (note I had a machine shop next door so making those brackets took me like 10 min).

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Here you can also see how I cut the latch support. I had to completely remove the power steering cooling line and then I stuffed it back behind the IC. I haven't shown how I enlarged the holes on the sides because it took like 5 min on each side ( I used an electric grinder for this) and is a no-brainer. Also the coolant overflow bottle must be relocated, mine is just hanging right now but I'm ###### going to get a smaller one.

Then me and a buddy went medieval on the crashbeam. It ended up looking like this:

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The corners of the brackets that hold it to the frame also needed to be cut

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After that it fit perfectly

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Here's the finished job

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So when I was done I closed the hood and got a nice tiny but annoying dent in it - my Forge BOV was too high. I'll have to get it to sit lower somehow.


Conclusion:

Seller - Very honest guy, responds to emails almost instantly, handled my shipment issue quickly even during the weekend. Would definitely recommend him.

Kit - the value is great for the price and overall I'm happy with it. Only two major issues:

- - - BOV flange too high, even 1/4" lower would have saved my hood.

- - - quality control on the J-pipe must be more careful to keep tolerances within spec so that it's usable.



Now I need to get a few annoying problems fixed to really drive and push the car to see if the whole mess was worth it

 

[Underdog378]

Same exact two problems that I had. I've got the same little dent in my hood now too.

 

[LaN-]

Thanks for the review.

Sorry about the J pipe and the BOV. I'm in the process of getting those 2 fixed. The BOV flange will be sitting almost on the pipe now which should net about 1/2 - 1 inch. The J pipe needs needs to be extended out just a tad for clearance, its just hard to make such a sharp bend so you can keep your stock radiator fan.

i'm always willing to work with a customer that is having problems because i know how much of a pain in the ass some of this stuff is. If there is any problem i'll do whatever i can to make it right.

Keep us all posted on how it holds up to the boost.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[T_K]

I boosted a lot today, with the EIII16G @19-20psi untuned I had 95% of the time 0 knock and sometimes 1-3 counts or so - probably because of the lack of tune and I think I'm a little lean. I need to get my wideband installed soon!


The bad news is the car easily overheats now and my alternator is almost dead because of the heat. Doing 70 on the highway I get around 100-102C water temp and in slow traffic it'd quickly get to 106-108 and then the fan fights it so-so. Not good. I'll have to find a way to increase flow to the radiator. But that's a common FMIC problem I think.

PS I haven't done an actual boost leak test but it feels like no serious leaks.

 

[SonySlave]

Keep us all posted on how it holds up to the boost.

Thanks,
Mike

Well I ran 15psi daily on my 14b on pump when I put this FMIC on my car. And I ran 19psi at the track on race gas with 22psi spikes with no blown couplers. I blew up my 14b and I'm waiting for my E316G to get here and we'll see how that goes. I'm getting temps in the low 190s*F on the highway and about 199*F to 223*F while sitting in traffic. So I'm not doing too bad, and I'm also running a cheap AutoZone thermostat. I'd like to get a pusher and a puller fan to help ease this temperature rise. I'm also going to get an OEM thermostat and run a bottle of Water Wetter in the radiator and see what happens.

 

[T_K]

For reference, I have a 180F thermostat, a bottle of water wetter in the rad and the stock fan on the pass. side.

 

[LaN-]

I boosted a lot today, with the EIII16G @19-20psi untuned I had 95% of the time 0 knock and sometimes 1-3 counts or so - probably because of the lack of tune and I think I'm a little lean. I need to get my wideband installed soon!


The bad news is the car easily overheats now and my alternator is almost dead because of the heat. Doing 70 on the highway I get around 100-102C water temp and in slow traffic it'd quickly get to 106-108 and then the fan fights it so-so. Not good. I'll have to find a way to increase flow to the radiator. But that's a common FMIC problem I think.

PS I haven't done an actual boost leak test but it feels like no serious leaks.

Did you leave your A/C in? If not it might be time for a new radiator. buddy of mine has his A/C and oil cooler and he hasn't had any issues over heating with the stock radiator fan.

 

[T_K]

No I removed AC long time ago.

Before the install I was seeing like 87C on the highway, now it's 100C and over.

I'm thinking, maybe I should trim some more of the crashbeam and bumper so there's some air going around the IC and to the rad.

 

[boostcrazy92tsi]

With the condenser, fmic, and oil cooler my car runs a consistant 206* F. Being that yours jumped to 212 I would take a look to make sure that your rad is in good shape. My car hits 212 on the first opening and than never again goes that high. As for the BOV and the Jpipe. We noticed problems with the jpipe long before anyone else got kits. I have the worst one of them all since mine was the first full kit made. There definitely needs to be a rework on it. As for the bov it all depends on the car. With the 1g bov I havent had any problems. Its very close to the hood, but not enough to hit it. All i can recommend it loosening the couplers on that side and trying to force the pipes down closer to the intercooler. Thats the only way to lower it other than taking the pipe somewhere and having the flange cut down and lowered.

 

[danyz250f]

Has anyone ran this kit with a smim?

 

[LaN-]

Has anyone ran this kit with a smim?

i will be very shortly. You'll need a custom UICP.

 

[danyz250f]

Or is the up pipe pretty straight and can I just cut off 3 inches?

 

[Underdog378]

Going to the track tonight to test it out now that I have the massive boost leak fixed. Haven't gotten a chance to check for others yet as I'm sure there are some small ones, but the car is running solid and hopefully I can put down some ok numbers tonight.

 

[revsclipse]

Hey LaN

I spoke to you a while ago about getting one of the kits. I will be ready to get one next week please let me know where to order it. I was the person that helped with the first kit that was a 1/4" short.

Thanks Rev

 

[LaN-]

just shoot me an email to [email protected]


danyz250f - sorry i didn't reply to your message i never got a notification that you replied.

You might be able to cut off 3 inchs to make it work, but i honestly don't know. With my SMIM i have a straight t body elbow then a 90 degree bend. Either way its not like it would be hard to come up with something.

 

[Dream On]

I'm starting to have some problems with overheating now that it's warmer out. Usually in traffic or cruising it is ok, but if I go WOT through the gears a couple times back to back, then it starts heating up pretty fast and I've got to turn on the fan and the heat. I have no A/C, but I do have the stock passenger side fan, thermostat and radiator.

 

[boostcrazy92tsi]

The biggest problem with this kit is the thickness of the core, and the lack of ducting. The only thing i can recommend to everyone thats overheating is to fab up some cheap ducting to route more air thru the ic core and not above and below it. Making sure that your radiator is in good shape is another thing that needs to be done. My car is running the ic, condenser, and rad with one fan and i run no hotter than 210 while cruising. For this reason i know that the overheating can be avoided if your cooling system is running at its maximum potential. A cheap peice of cardboard directing air towards the rad, over the top of the top of the core should help alot. Another option is to get a cheap slim line fan and run it in the pusher formation. Being that the condenser is gone in most dsm's there should be more than enough room between the core and the rad for a slimline fan.

 

[want_a_gsx]

Interested in how well this intercooler is holding up; for some reason, this thread has fallen off the map...!

Has anyone else put down any numbers/times with this intercooler setup?

 

[LaN-]

Interested in how well this intercooler is holding up; for some reason, this thread has fallen off the map...!

Has anyone else put down any numbers/times with this intercooler setup?

Core is holding up real good, i'm running my FP green on it with no problems, i'll be going to the dyno soon.

Someone else that i know that has this kit just put down 480 AWHP on a 3065 with an OK tune.

The BOV pipe and J pipe have been addressed, but i've got 20-30 piping kits to get rid of still.

Thread has sorta faded away only because there isn't much new with the kit. I'm selling them on punishment racings website which is nice and so far I haven't had any real problems i couldn't take of outta the 100+ kits i've sold so far.