Question about my SMIC

[Eagle96TalonTSi]

Ive owned the car a few months and am still going through the maintenance before I mod the car at all.

Upon doing a BLT today, I got an up close and personal view of the side mount inter cooler. It seemed to be in pretty poor condition.

I do remember my brother regularly correcting his FMIC with some tweezers every now and then and am wondering if I should do the same with my side mount? Is it going to effect performance at all?

I dont know how well you can tell from the picture, but theres a good 40-50% of it mashed in.

 

[perk85]

When I first purchased my car I took the side mount off and cleaned it with simple green. I also didnt use tweezers, I used a radiator fin tool. you can pick them up at any parts store.Just take it off and clean and fix the fins until you decide to purchase a front mount

 

[Cdc1221]

Tweezers or a toothpick will work fine. No need to buy any 'special' tool. And yes it will help. Those bent fins are blocking airflow. Also wouldnt be a bad idea to clean the inside with degreaser to get out any residual oil in there

 

[AngelOfPassion]

Looks better than mine . Mine looks like it came from after a car had been crushed...

But to answer your question, yes it will effect performance so just do what the others have mentioned above.

 

[perk85]

I only recommend the fin tool because it takes far less time and is more consistent on the gap of the fins. But if the tweezer and toothpick method work than more power to you. I have one in great shape I would give you if you were in my area haha.

 

[Eagle96TalonTSi]

Okay! Ill take it off and fix/clean it tomorrow. How exactly do I get it out of there? Theres a little plastic casing that it sits in right? Is that all I need to remove inside the bumper to get it out aside from loosening the coupling?

 

[TalonKid92]

That sounds about right, unbolt it from and get the couplings off and you should be good to go.