One Sided Fmic

[JustinP]

I know this has been covered somewhat before, someone was going to purchase one of these http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...p;rd=1&rd=1 and try it out but I never heard about the results...

I would just like to know if they are any good? My only real concern is the tightness at which the end tank turns around - would this be a problem?

I am wanting to put it on an R34 GT-t as while the stock SMIC is OK for the 210rwkw's the car has, it suffers from heatsoak when in heavy traffic, even in the winter. The one sided FMIC appeals to me for the simplicity of the pipe work and I don't really want to spend around 1K on ond of those Blitz or ARC ones that have the return pipe coming back under the FMIC.

Also, I should not need to retune my PFC when upgrading the SMIC to an FMIC should I?

Cheers :laughing-smiley-014:

[fEkuaR]

Im running that exact intercooler, i made a thread about it. Just got it worked well with my car on 210rwkw. Decided not to go for more power as i am over spending money on my car. Im running a hiflow turbo, pfc, trust turbo back exhaust, split dump ect ect... Anyway its deffinately fine for 210rwkw. I made custom piping to suit. The reo bar does require cutting on a r33.. however mine had been cut by a previous owner.

Edited June 15, 2007 by fEkuaR

[JustinP]

Im running that exact intercooler, i made a thread about it. Just got it worked well with my car on 210rwkw. Decided not to go for more power as i am over spending money on my car. Im running a hiflow turbo, pfc, trust turbo back exhaust, split dump ect ect... Anyway its deffinately fine for 210rwkw. I made custom piping to suit. The reo bar does require cutting on a r33.. however mine had been cut by a previous owner.

Ahh yes you were the guy with that thread! Thanks for replying I think I might get one then, I just hope I don't have to cut the reo bar on my 34... I am looking at maybe 240-260rwkw at at a later stage but if I guess it's not suitabe for that level of power I can always sell get soemthing better.

They are only $185 anyway And they would have to do a better job than the standard SMIC, especially in terms of heatsoak.

[fEkuaR]

I believe it would be fine for 250rwkw. It seems to flow well and to be honest the difference in response compared to my arc sidemount and this it minimal. For the money it is a great intercooler. If i can help with anything else let me know, im more then happy.

[LatinR33]

looks good, you got a pic of it with the front bar on looks promising. So its a bar and plate any good cause been told tube and fin heaps better and flows alot better.

Edited June 15, 2007 by LatinR33

[mad082]

i think it would add more lag than other ones like that. other ones (like the blitz style) are higher and have the tubes run verticle. in your case the air has to go all the way to the cooler and then back again, so it probably travels a longer distance than a hybrid style cooler. as far as cooling the air goes it would be good for that fact that the air travels a nice long distance in the cooler, but would suffer from pretty bad heat soak since the cold air comes out so close to the inlet. the air would be at it's coldest point just after it has done the 180 degree turn (which would probably slow it down a bit) and then after a bit of driving it would actually heat back up as it reaches the outlet due to the heat radiating down from the area close to the inlet.

[fEkuaR]

I have had no problem with heatsoak, and as i said its not laggy at all. I Put a just jap cooler on the car i found that to be laggy. It was to big for the power i was making and i was unhappy with it. So i went back to the arc cooler untill i got around to doing this install. So i have personally experienced a standard intercooler, a arc sidemount, a just jap cooler and now this. And im the happiest with the current set up. I have a photo on my phone with the front bar on i will upload it later tonight i have to run out for now. Hope this helps.

[rev210]

You get what you pay for and that intercooler is 'crap'. It's got a very bad end tank design that doesn't even attempt to direct airflow.

If you are going to aim for 240rwkw my advice is to stop thinking like a cheap ass and go for something that might cost a little more but, actually has design quality behind it. Some of the china intercooler kits even with longer tubing are going to run rings around that one in performance and thats not saying much. Performance being real measured results and not "it feels laggier...." or " it seems much faster....".

At the very least if you 'have' to get this intercooler get new end tanks made for it.

[Tangles]

ok..... I thought about that type of intercooler but decided against it.

found an Apexi intercooler, on ebay from Japan, made for the 180sx, called Apexi "Hybrid" as its half tube/fin and half bar/plate

it is a return feed type cooler and is pretty sweet

using it on my rb25det Stagea, should be fine for 230rwkw

there used to be a link on the apexi usa website but its gone, sorry.

search ebay, might find another one. I got it for around 300usd, I bought some pipes for 100usd and 3ply silicone and bolt-type clamps. put it together myself. was pretty pleased with my efforts, however my new tuner laughed at my dodgyman job and redid it for me no charge, lol. works fine - the below pic was when I was using rubber silicone (cheap, came with the ebay pipe kit), kept popping off due to the cheap silicone and the cheap clamps, so I got the proper 3ply blue stuff from JustJap (one 3rd the price then Autobarn) and the bolt clamps from an irrigation place.

[BAMR33]

You get what you pay for and that intercooler is 'crap'. It's got a very bad end tank design that doesn't even attempt to direct airflow.

If you are going to aim for 240rwkw my advice is to stop thinking like a cheap ass and go for something that might cost a little more but, actually has design quality behind it. Some of the china intercooler kits even with longer tubing are going to run rings around that one in performance and thats not saying much. Performance being real measured results and not "it feels laggier...." or " it seems much faster....".

At the very least if you 'have' to get this intercooler get new end tanks made for it.

No offense, but what you've said is the biggest load of crap. You are judging the intercooler by the way it looks... how could you even know how much it flows, what restrictions it has, weather or not another kit will flow more. fEkuaR already said he has had a number of intercoolers and this type was the most successful for him (And yes of course you can feel and gauge the difference). A 600x300x76 cooler isn't needed for 250rwkW performance unless it's pretty much a track car.

And being a cheap ass is not part of the argument as its been proven time after time for lower power output applications like this China intercoolers are more than sufficient. Besides that a lot of China kits around today are nearly carbon copies of the more expensive bigger name cooler kits.

[mad082]

i have had disagreements with rev210 in the past over intercoolers, but i agree with him on this one. the only real way to tell if it has actually improved performance is on a dyno.

there are major design flaws with that cooler. 1st is that the drivers side end tank isn't rounded, so airflow is dramatically affected. the air comes out of the top part of the cooler and hits a dead flat wall. it needs to be rounded so it is guided round the bend. air speed would be lower on this than a kit with longer piping. the air will flow faster through piping than it will through a cooler.

2nd is that the cooler is too skinny (height wise) so once given a good thrashing it would suffer major heat soak. the heat from the inlet would start radiating down to the area around the outlet. it would probably be ok for stock level cars, but anything with an aftermarket turbo would need a much better cooler.

3rd is that then end take on the passenger side needs to taper in to the piping better. at the moment there would be air coming out of the fins and some would be going straight out the hole, and some would be hitting a dead flat surface and stoping then creating turbulance as it moves sideways.

also if the divider between the 2 inlets isn't properly sealed you will be getting hot air going through the gap without being cooled at all.

[W0rp3D]

I am looking at changing my fmic atm but im looking at this design http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Intercooler-Univers...1QQcmdZViewItem have seen it in work on a mates car and there was not a problem.