Intercooler options - the best of

[RXHEAVEN]

please post pics of preferred intercooler options, and reasoning behind choices if possible too thanks

[Raffmeister]

I went with the KnightSports SMIC, 'cause I wanted to keep a stock look, was told it was one of the better performing SMIC's,(over twice the size of the stock "toaster"), comes with it's own duct,was available in Oz through REVS in Adelaide and was "relatively" easy to fit (thanks to Sandy et all), price was OK too.Painted up it looks pretty inconspicuous....

[MAVRCK]

For the stealth choice the Knightsports is great, personally I love the look of a big front mount and don't think RX7s look the same without it so I'd never consider V Mounts or a SMIC... If i wanted to go under cover on the road an FD RX7 is the last car I would have bought :D

I like Plazmaman the FMIC kit because you don't have to relocate half your engine bay, it actually fits and it's made up of the best of the best quality bends, clamps, silocons and of course, cores.

Don't listen to the hype about FDs overheating with front mounts... mine runs great and I sit in traffic every single day. It only got a little hot (99-101 deg) on a 38 degree day once when i had the air con on but apart from that it's great. Stock rad, stock AST (I know, I know! :( ), stock everything.

[Raffmeister]

some "in progress" pics..........

[RXHEAVEN]

what kind of reduction in temps did you see compared to stock

[Raffmeister]

what kind of reduction in temps did you see compared to stock

No idea of temp reductions but when I place my hand on the inlet it's too hot to touch, the outlet on the other hand is far colder and only "luke warm" if that makes sense.According to Knightsports info, @ 7000 rpm the stock cooler takes air at 140 degrees and reduces it to 91, whereas theirs effectively halves it to 70 at the same rpm's, no doubt due to it being dual core.Works for me :)

[MAVRCK]

Mine sit around 35 from memory when i'm gassing it. One side of the pipes are warm from the engine the other side are dead set cold like refrigerated water. Alloy intercooler pipes help alot in this regard as air moving quickly through alloy cools anyway. If you don't believe me get a straight piece of alloy, hook it up to the compressor and jet air through it. After 5 seconds the whole pipe is ice cold.

[SER158]

Im envious of your plazmaman FMIC kit, Im still saving for one, because you dont have to move the battery and is made for the series8. Also Plazmaman is a brand I respect, well thats my 2cents.

[D CUPS]

Blitz 3-Core FMIC ! Thick IC core
and dont even need to remove the front bar to fit. Its all work in and under the engine bay.

[RXHEAVEN]

If you don't believe me get a straight piece of alloy, hook it up to the compressor and jet air through it. After 5 seconds the whole pipe is ice cold.

haha

that's because when compressed air expands it absorbs heat, from anything, I really don't think that has anything to do with plastic versus alloy itself , you just feel it being colder to touch because allow transfers heat quickly (and draws the heat out of your hands.

With an alloy intercooler this would mean you would be able to feel the heat difference by touching your hands more so than if you touched plastic..

[ADJUST]

Another vote for the blitz here.

Front mounts do hurt engine water temps on the track though.

Brad

[sledgie]

Don't FMIC with a thick intercooler if your going to track it - I've relocated my 100mm thick Hybrid to VMIC as I was overheating (up to 120C) on the track with radiator in stock position. Now water temp is fine with radiator layed back, and sub 50C intake temp on long fast tracks - but intake temps up to 70C on slow twisty circuits, so SP bonnet openings planned shortly and/or thinner core.

[FD 4 ME]

I want a Big knightsports V-Mount like "ONE29's" I had a photo but can't find it. U got pics of your Sledgie???

[ol-skool]

if i was to go a front mount id get the same plazmaman as MAVRCK. Looks good and is easy to install... win win.

It does block airflow to the radiator, there is no arguing this.

Im possibly going to go an upgraded SMIC in the near future but still haven't ruled out the plazmaman FMIC.

[SER158]

So v-mount = cooler engine bay than FMIC ?

[ADJUST]

V mount is the ideal set up, but a vented bonnet is really needed to make it work its best. V mounts do have draw back like they will heat soak from the radiator if the car is stationary.

[SER158]

I have a Mazdaspeed vented bonnet now, is that enough to make a v-mount work? or do i need a AD9 or whatever they are called :cheese grator

[ADJUST]

Any bonnet with reasonable venting area located above/behind the intercooler that draws air out of the engine bay should suffice.

[gotorx7]

+1 for the Blitz..

With Koyo Rad and Mazdaspeed (knockoff) vented bonnet, I've never seen over 97 on the street in 38+ temps..

Have seen 110 on the track once though..

Cheers,
Dave

[RXHEAVEN]

haha yeah so off topic I forgot it was even the intercooler thread I originally started,.... seriously LOL

just staring at bonnet etc.

[SER158]

Sorry i went abit off topic my apologies. Back on topic, what radiator can you fit with the Plazmaman FMIC? Any?

[MAVRCK]

Yeah any mate

[SER158]

sweet thanks Jack.

[R-R-Rx7]

went with a custom setup for my kit
kept the rebar and it doesnt show from outside.
Short pipes, extremely efficient and has all the benefits of the SMIC, the Vmount and the FMIC with no drawbacks

Wise-one Auto japan modified this greddy 24x12x4(inch) spec R intercooler which was originally for the Skyline R34 GTR

[rustythesnowman]

Actually I was staring at my engine bay (as you do) and was trying to come up with a practical reason why you couldn't custom mount a cooler core where the V mount would roughly go, and create appropriate ducting to separate air flow to stock rad and cooler core. Theoretically the same amount of air would reach both cores, just the orientation of the radiator would differ, and you still need the vented bonnet. It would just eliminate the need to change the orientation of the radiator and aircon heat exchanger.

Or did I miss something?

Essentially that's what the RE-Amemiya SMIC version 2.0 is isn't it?

Haven't seen too many setups like it, so I wondered if there was a reason why people didn't do this.

[sxdvl]

can anybody tell me if there are any fmic kits other than plazmaman kits that do not require moving of parts, just a bolt on affair?

[ol-skool]

id go v mount myself but seems to be a bit of a stuff around getting it mounted, plus you should get a new vented bonnet etc. This is also why the standard replacement SMIC is so appealing, that or the plazmaman FMIC.

[sxdvl]

yeah so many choices haha, some people have said the blitz fmic are good any feed back on what was needed to be moved or was it relatively easy fit

[D CUPS]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/djchesta/IMG_2061.jpg

[sxdvl]

does anything need to be moved at all or is the blitz kit a drop in hassle free kit?

[joe]

im looking at V-mount as the car is going to be used on the track. does anyone have any v mount pics handy???

[gotorx7]

does anything need to be moved at all or is the blitz kit a drop in hassle free kit?


Definitely not a drop in..

[Kin]

im looking at V-mount as the car is going to be used on the track. does anyone have any v mount pics handy???

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/618/cimg2953mr4.jpg

[joe]

sorry for the question but im new to V mount, why are some mounted like the pic above and some are almost dead flat??

[Rockyramboa]

Looks like some kind of GReddy V mount kit but cant seem to find it on any GReddy website.:confused:

[my_fd]

anyone here have a v-mount kit on their fd? if so hows it perform? what kinda temps u getting?

[Kin]

sorry for the question but im new to V mount, why are some mounted like the pic above and some are almost dead flat??

not much difference really

my HKS one has the IC lying slanted and radiator horizontal

RE-A and KS and some others have the IC lying horizontal and the radiator slanted

tbh... the flat IC and rad would probably be good.. since my hks one.. radiator sits very low on the car and ive scrapped off the fans before

[Kin]

sorry

cant post

not RR verified test data

its bullshit

[RICE RACING]

Intake temp

Cold night 25-30
hot day moving 40
hot day stop start 40-60

never seen it go above 65 or so.. thats when i turn the car off and turn back on a few min later.

Never seen it on boost either!

You cannot quote or claim IC temps without doing this test

0-200kph
1st to 4th gear
THE QUOTE YOUR IAT at the end of 4th gear !!!!!!!

Everything else is total fucking bullshit ;)

Kins IC is 80% Eff
Most FMIC are around 80% Eff area
SP IC and other stock mounts with vented bonnets are around 72+% area
Stock mount IC on non vented bonnet are around 55% to 60%
Non vented bonnets drop it by as much as 10% +++ Non ducted FMIC's drop 5% or more!

Arbitrary AIT's with non proper tests or measures are just fucked and this forum is fuck for the most part as people in the majority are just stupid cunts with no idea.

[Kin]

sorry pete.. they wanted an idea.. not a 100% accurate RR verified VBOX'd data

im not going to be doing 0-200 runs to test it

oh and if ur such a hardcunt!! if ur sp ever drives

come drive it in sydney and gate it around everywhere. id like to see that

[ADJUST]

My blitz FMIC seems to sit about 10-15 deg above ambient at the track.

[RXHEAVEN]

in past 2 weeks of daily driving in Perth 30-38 degree weather, cruising open road on stock IC have been seeing around 55-65 degrees IAT.
With a bit of stop start (park 10mins, heatsoak and get back in) seeing as high as 93 degrees, then with a bit of non stop open road cruising 60-80km/h slowly comes back down to 65-75 after 10minutes or so.

In saying that I drove to work early this morning minus the ambient heat outside, and first 10mins once I got up to mid 80s coolant temp my IAT was only in the 30s. Second 10mins of the journey was in the 50s.
This was with 60km/h zones and generally cruising at those speeds with a few brief stops for traffic.

LukeBOX verified of course
(Stock IC, Stock S8 ducting, Stock bonnet, on a BPU RR tuned FD)

[MAVRCK]

Pete you've hurt Alan's feelings i'm gonna need you to apologise mate.

[RICE RACING]

Sorry boys I have a short fuse (working like a cunt).

Back to it! but only thing worth knowing is Efficiency of the Heat Exchanger, when you know this you can then take into account boost pressure, compressor efficiency, ambient temperature, barometric pressure, then you can do a calculation of the actual charge temperature.

This varies with speed and taking away heat sink effect of a large IC you really need to do the test after about 10~15 second full load application (such as seen in a 1st to 4th or 5th gear pull at maximum power and boost).

Arbitrary AIT readings are just that.

The test above cuts away the heat sink effect and takes into account how the IC works at speed and ducting and throughput through the IC is very important (ambient air passing through it), proper ducting can increase the efficiency over 10%+ I ran this type of testing in my old yellow first gen bringing the IC temp down from 65 deg C to 50 deg C with nothing more than detail work.

Explanation over and I am going back to work.

This is the formula I wrote to do my testing of IC

Charge temp = Air temp~ambient + (((Air temp~ambient+(((((Boost~psi/14.7)+Barometric~bar)/Barometric~bar)^.238-1)*(Air temp~ambient=273))/Compressor~eff)*(1-Intercooler~eff)))

[RXHEAVEN]

Thanks Pete, you know your stuff.
I posted my info above as sometimes people just like to relate to simple experiences which can still give a pretty good ballpark idea of what to expect.

I'll post up what my IAT is before and after a quarter mile run sometime soon, that's got to be pretty close to 0-200

Pity you get so much heatsoak sitting in queue before the run, might need some dry ice to help out with the times :)

[RICE RACING]

Thanks Pete, you know your stuff.
I posted my info above as sometimes people just like to relate to simple experiences which can still give a pretty good ballpark idea of what to expect.

I'll post up what my IAT is before and after a quarter mile run sometime soon, that's got to be pretty close to 0-200

Pity you get so much heatsoak sitting in queue before the run, might need some dry ice to help out with the times :)

As soon as you lift off at end of 400m the IAT will shoot up....... you really need to log this on computer and take a reading when the throttle is still depressed fully say at 7000rpm in 4th gear after a standing start full run.

Yes I do know my stuff, and I find forums very frustrating most times!

Even the most basic IC can be made to work efficiently with some detail work and knowledge of what is happening and why. One of the simplest mods with requires near zero brains is the FMIC as there is not much you can do wrong and still have the IC perform at near its peak attainable.

Lots of others can and do work very well, but you really need to measure the true capacity of your IC and this is only possible when you use the very basic forumla I provide above. If your interested in seeing how your IC performs v's someone else on a level playing field.

Still yes it can be ok to read soem random experiences but there is lots of scope for interpretation without knowing how something is really working in what conditions.

[RXHEAVEN]

I can look at the PFC in 2 channel mode (air temp and IC temp) while doing 8000RPM in 4th at 220km/h :)
just need to look back out the windscreen as i pull the parachute that's all

[JonnySun]

What about average Intercoolers? i have a budget of about 500-600 for an IC atm. want something thats easy to install of course and preferrably one that shows in the vent of the front bumper. (looking at you dave)

[98FD]

I can look at the PFC in 2 channel mode (air temp and IC temp) while doing 8000RPM in 4th at 220km/h :)
just need to look back out the windscreen as i pull the parachute that's all

Not as good as v-box but you can borrow my FC datalogit and log your run, I logged a run 0-170, start IAT at 55* and at the end of run only went up 1* more to 56 @.90 bar boost.That was with a RE Amemiya SMIC on a hot day... we can try and hook up a switch to open your chute at 200kmh so you can keep your eyes on the road:rolleyes:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/ccsfd/untitled.jpg

[Rdodds033]

would a larger SMIC work for a single turbo (TD06 20-25G or T04Z @10PSI) as well as they do for the twins?