2 FMICs installed. pics to come.

[Jung]

S Vier and I started both of our front mounts this morning around 1015. we are 90% completed with it. the only problem right now is our lack of front bumpers. early on, we looked at how JHM went about cutting their bumper supports, and quickly realizd after about 40 minutes of using a DeWalt Sawzall, that it was going to take a long time and a lot of effort for us both to hack away all the excess aluminum support. We contemplated taking off the support itself, and cutting it like that, thinking htere were only 4 rivots which were easily replaceable. Wrong. there are like a gazillion (yes, a gazillion), rivots randomly placed along the bumper in hard to reach places. so we nixed taking the supports out at this time since it was 1030pm and we both have to work tomorrow morning.
We both used CXracing FMIC cores and their new and improved piping, which after getting organized and set up for both of us, actually works very well. The piping is bent perfectly, and it is really good quality. The clamps are great, but take a ton of time to clamp/unclamp. There are a few things you will want to purchase along with this kit. one being a Samco (or similar) hose to replace the OEM turbo outlet pipe/Intercooler inlet pipe connector hose on the passenger side. I say this because after we fired it up and went to test drive it, we developed a leak from the OEM hose, and it threw the car into limp mode. The leak was actually from a bad seal from the oem clamp to the hose, since we were jerking the hose around a lot, but it's a good idea to cover your butt, you never know when a tear will strike.

to mount the core, we hooked up the pipes going from the bipipes to the intercooler core. this gives you a great starting placement that's roughly center.

the mounting bracket that S Vier made is pretty simple, but very functional and good for getting that perfect fit. a main horizontal beam with 2, 5 inch vertical beams that attach to 90 degree brackets, which attach to the core. it allows you to adjust horizontally and vertically, the core, to get a center.

before you put on the pipes, take the power steering cooler , using tin snips cut off the bracket that holds the line together. remove the bracket and place it on top of your core, one part under a bracket, and one on top. it is very secure here, and it allows good airflow to it.

putting on hte piping is fairly simple, just make sure all your connections are solid, and that the clamps are tight as hell. the passenger lower pipe should be mounted so that the Air conditioning lines run under the pipe and not on top of it.


we formulated these steps after putzing around for 8 hours undoing and redoing the piping to get things just right, fiddling around wiht the brackets to make them perfect. i swear i spent about 2 hours alone fuckign screwing and unscrewing those damn clamps on the piping to get it right.

pictures of the setups will come later, we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about them...
definitely plan 2 days to do this. 1 day is simply not enough. have all your tools ready, and especially a hardcore cutter that can cut through 1/8th inch aluminum like butter. i wish i had a plasma cutter .

but now it drives pretty well. it didnt go into limp on my 50 mile drive home, so im happy with it. it actually seems like it made a sound difference as well. i can hear my boost a lot more clearly, liek a pressurizing sound. but that may just be because my bumper is off haha.

[tike0rz]

Pics pics pics!!

[Jung]

today after work.. is it legal to drive w/o a bumper, but with the license plate zip tied to the piping? lol

[AudiA4_20T]

today after work.. is it legal to drive w/o a bumper, but with the license plate zip tied to the piping? lol

i drove without a license plate or bumper for about 5 months and only got pulled over once

[Sleeeper X]

did you have to cut any plastic on the rad support?

[s vier]

no

[Das General]

i too drove without a bumper for about 2 months. no issues, but drew in tons of attention.

[OldYella]

It is illegal but some people get away with it. Its illegal due to the lack of 5mph bumpers.

[McKennaS4]

you should probably pressure test to make sure you dont have any pinhole leaks esp if you say it is louder.

[s vier]

Well having ridden passenger on JUNGB5S4's car before the mod and after I can say that I hear alot more air moving Butttttttt........He does have aDarintake and the bumper is off the car while driving so it sounds louder. The OEM hose seems to be the only weak link in this mod.

[drewwynn]

Very interested, looking at a CXRacing FMIC my self.
Get those pics up!

[Jung]

PICS


semi legal with a zip tied license plate


power steering cooler relocated. i f'd up the beautiful plastidip job that was done on the bracket :(


Ambient air temperature sensor relocated to bottom mounting bracket for the SMIC, ziptied in. it needs to be relocated right now, since i'm reading some abnormally high temperatures (105 degrees displayed, 85 actually).

Finally, on saturday before the milwaukee dub meet, i'll be putting th bumper on. cant wait to see how well it fits!

[RolledMySTi]

That would be just hilarious to drive around like that. You should go to the dub meet like that. You would get all the attention.

[tike0rz]

That looks like a decent job. Well done. Now lets paint it black and fit the bumper.

[Kruat]

What I've failed to understand about these FMIC's, is just how much air gets to the top core? I mean, if you leave your bumper completely stock, isn't the top core almost all the way blocked?

[Jung]

i drove it around town this evening, and almost everyone was like "wtf huge intercooler". i was at a stoplight and i heard a guy with his girlfriend trying to talk car, but failing horribly. he said "ooo that's his performance radiator that cools the car down to make the pistons cooler so that it can make higher horsepower"... i lol'd hard when he said it. then you have your standard hicks who only know about american muscle and hgue trucks, and they were like, what a ricer, go back to japan you g**k. but i got a few thumbs ups too which is decent.

no im not going to be painting it black. it's staying unpainted, both piping and core.

I think it'd be interesting to log the diffenece between a stock bumper and a modified bumper that has the whole IC showing. looking at the way the piping is arranged, the top "half" is for the driver's sdie turbo piping, the bottom for the passenger turbo piping. i think te IATs would be higher when the top was covered by the license plate bracket.

[Sleeeper X]

people forget the pipes flip/flop for a reason. its equal to both turbos, they both get equal cooling.

[Jung]

how does the inside of the FMIC look? is there a X sort of thing going on wiht hte pipes, or do they do a U turn?

[audisean1]

i just installed the JHM FMIC kit. the video for cutting the bumper made things very easy. i installed a ps cooler from summit that made the relocation very easy. i didnt cut out the top part of the bumper, after driving the car around the temp difference in the outlets from the intercooler is noticeable, but way cooler than the inlets. they still mix and go to the same throttle body.

[gointoscott]

You should of duct taped the license plate on instead of using zip ties

It does look hickville to me like that, but its only for a few days and to get around. But I guess I would almost go without a plate if its just a day or so, but I guess it doesnt pay to get a ticket either.

I really want to know what difference you notice with the fmic.

To me I'm just not into the fmic. I dont want to lose my fog lights. I want to get some upgraded SMIC's plus I like the sleeper look too.

[Jung]

found another leak (at least i think it's where it is). im basically doing some driving, lightly and boosting, just to break it in and work out all hte kinks. today, i heard a high pitched whining, like a really small supercharger. it's noticable, but it's not like a turbo lady loud. also, when in boost, you can hear the boost too much, and it's building slower, so this leads me ot believe a leak is present. I think its coming from hte bottom passenger side core inlet. i looked at all of my connections, and saw that that clamp was a bit skewed on its backside, not fully over the inlet pipe, so tomorrow after work i'll fix it!
hopefully that's it!

[raketeS4]

That would be just hilarious to drive around like that. You should go to the dub meet like that. You would get all the attention.

i went to waterfest looking like that and I was also running open dumps... i'm pretty sure everyone there saw my car lol

[GramCracker]

how does the inside of the FMIC look? is there a X sort of thing going on wiht hte pipes, or do they do a U turn?

people forget the pipes flip/flop for a reason. its equal to both turbos, they both get equal cooling.

So due to this, it doesn't matter if you have the lisence plate mount on the bumper still intact?

[McKennaS4]

to clarify.... it is merely two intercoolers mounted on top of eachother... the reason the pipes flip flop on one side is because the bottom PS pipe comes from the PS turbo and goes straight through the bottom of the FMIC and exits throught the bottom DS pipe. this pipe must go UP to the throttle body via the DS bipipe so it goes up and crosses the DS top pipe. The DS top pipe comes from the DS turbo and goes straight through the top of the FMIC to the PS top pipe which goes up to the throttle body via the PS bipipe. these two airflows then MIX TOGETHER at the throttle body boot.
EX: temp of air leaving the turbos is 200 degrees.
IF your top core is blocked you will have (numbers for example purposes only) 100 degree air going to the throttle body boot from the PS and 50 degree air going to the throttle body via the drivers side bipipe due to the colder air from the lower section of the FMIC core. this results in 75 degree final temp of air reaching the throttle body. if your top section of the core is exposed, you will have 50 degree air coming from both bipipes thus resulting in 50 degree air going into the throttle body. this being said, the actual numbers are MUCH closer than that and barely, if at all, noticible when i have my top half of my core blocked... i'll post a pic of my bumper setup in a few mins when i go outside and take it. i think its the best way for form on the street and function at the track. i stole this idea from other people so im not taking credit, just trying to share my knowledge as it seems many of you are quite confused about this piping. hope i was able to clear things up for some people and sorry for the long, confusing explanation/ threadjack cars look good guys keep up the good work =) S4 FTW!

[GramCracker]

My only concern was that if you covered half the IC, it would possibly mess up one turbo. So in reality, covering the top half isn't that big of a deal. Correct?

[McKennaS4]

here we go... sorry car is dirty.
STREET MODE

TRACK MODE

discuss ;)

[McKennaS4]

My only concern was that if you covered half the IC, it would possibly mess up one turbo. So in reality, covering the top half isn't that big of a deal. Correct?

reread my explanation man... you have to first understand that the intercooler is POST TURBO! and doesnt in any way effect the turbos. the only thing it effects is the air entering the motor POST TURBO. hope everyone understands this fact..

[GramCracker]

reread my explanation man... you have to first understand that the intercooler is POST TURBO! and doesnt in any way effect the turbos. the only thing it effects is the air entering the motor POST TURBO. hope everyone understands this fact..

Thanks, its clear now!

[s vier]

So last night I had the first chance to drive my car after the install on Sunday with JUNGB5S4.

Battery on.....CHECK!
Engine Start.....CHECK!
Bleed coolant......CHECK!
EFK works......CHECK!
Drive........CHECK!
Now as I get into boost it went up REALLY slow.....hits 10 psi and BAM! My engine dies.

Not good.

I blew a charge pipe off the core.

Fixed...drive....boosting only to 14 then tapering to 10......Boost leak (giac)

grab socket crank first t-bolt on top of charge pipe......snap! FUCK

Limp home.

grab clamp. Drive.....10---14 psi

Give up...

Do Matt's bumper on my car

Pull it off

go home

No GTG for Brady.....:(

[Jung]

duuuuuuuuude... im sorry to hear that your car is giving you shit.. it's so god damn frustrating when you try so hard but then your car slaps you in the face. Brady, i'll stop by IA on my way to the meet. we can ride together if you want to go to the meet.

[Jung]

Sooo, after the meet in milwaukee last night, i'm cruising the strip with a guy wiht a jetta, i hit 17psi in 3rd gear, and allof a sudden it sounds like i have a blow off valve, an theres no boost. shit... so we pull into the BW3 parking lot next to a group of 300zx guys to see if we can fix it. I think to myself, lucky me, i brought all my tools along just in case this shit happened. So we pop the hood and see that one of the clamps holding the upper charge pipe going to the driver's side bipipe was completely off the silicone hose. I go to my trunk and getthe 11mm ratchet with 3 inch extension. Shit.. extension is too short and the rtchet piece not deep enough. had i brought the 11mm wrench along, i wouldve been able to fix it well, but i was ignorant enough to not bring it. I go ask a group of 300zx tt owners to see if they have any wrenches, nope, but they're friendly and take a look at it for me. One of the dudes was a mechanic and somehow, using nissan magic, got the clamp halfway onto the hose. He suggested putting 3 zipties on it really tight, and driving home without hitting boost. i made it home... this morning i ran to autozone and bought an 18" extension, a t30 torx bit (headlights), a 3/8s to 1/4 adapter, and a deeeep socket 11mm ratchet piece. got home, ripped otu the headlights, and rememberd my GenJDM bipipes. I test fit one on in place of my stock bipipe, to see if i could run them with teh clutch fan. It fit!!! so i threw those on and tightened everyhing down, test drove it, and now it's running great with no leaks!
bumper is on, but fitment is kind of bad. i have to trim a bit more around the IC, but other than a few scratches that need to be painted and a lack of headlight washer caps it looks good.
a few updated pics:


after i putmy headlights back in, I removed that bottom mesh, and it looks pretty good