FedEx dropped this off today..

Well, my front-mount intercooler finally arrived today! I bought it off eBay for $210 shipped. I bought the core w/ endtanks only because I'm having a local DSMer do my intercooler piping for me. Victor Brant is the guy who is going to do my custom piping, if you know him. He had a full weight galant vr4 that ran an 11.4 in 1/4 with a sleeper 16g! Now he has an imported Evo7, one of five in the entire country when he imported it a year or two ago. Anyways, he is awesome with custom fabrication of any sort, plus he's giving me a good deal on the piping setup :grinyes:

I am taking the core to him this Monday because he wants to see it. Then I'm going to take the car to his shop on Saturday, mount the core, and let him do the piping. So it will be about a week before I can have the core on the car and running. I can't wait to see what a difference this will make! :)

Here are a couple of pictures I took of the core... core size is 20.5"x8.5"x3", tube/fin design, flows ~780cfm with .2psi pressure drop @ 15psi. I bought this core because it is the closest I could find to the size I wanted. However, I wish I would have found this core - http://www.alienauto.com/intercooler_22x9x3.htm before I ordered the one I have now, because it's pretty much the exact same size and flows just as well, but it is bar/plate. Oh well, if worse comes to worse and this core doesn't do a good job of cooling, I know a local honda guy that is getting ready to turbo his car and I could just sell this one to him and buy the Alien Auto core :)



Shot of the entire core..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic1.jpg


View of the inside of the endtank..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic2.jpg


Random shots..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic3.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic4.jpg


Shot of the endtank welds..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic5.jpg


The money shot..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic6.jpg

Looks like a nice core, Matt! I'm thinking more and more about going with the JohnnyRacecar fmic core, myself. For $215 shipped, and with such good reviews on DSMtuners, it is hard to pass up.

Are you doing short-route piping for your setup? Do you think you'll be able to keep the fogs?

Looks like a nice core, Matt! I'm thinking more and more about going with the JohnnyRacecar fmic core, myself. For $215 shipped, and with such good reviews on DSMtuners, it is hard to pass up.

Are you doing short-route piping for your setup? Do you think you'll be able to keep the fogs?


I almost got the JRC core, but nobody has any flow #'s for it and that is one of the most important aspects of intercooler choice, IMO.

Yes, Victor and I have decided on short-route 2.5" piping, all mandrel bent aluminum. I'll be sure to post up some pics of the entire setup and piping when it gets finished!

And no, the fogs will not be able to stay :( It's pretty easy to tell that from the last picture with the core sitting in front of the car :biggrin:

Yeah, having no flow numbers on the JRC core is a little sketchy. People seem to love it, though. Sometimes people are able to run their piping under the stock fogs, but with that core, the i/o are only like 2/3 of the way to the bottom and it probably wouldn't work.

The numbers arent always arrived at the same way from one brand to the next. And dont forge that we never ever approach the cfm numbers these things are rated at (2 literes is .07 cf, times rpm, 265 cfm for most poeple). The numbers they give dont really help determine what flow will be at higher pressures, but lower flow. I prefer to see how well a core has worked for others, if that info is available. Otherwise I just go with the basic rules of thumb. LEngth adds to pressure drop, height and thickness reduce it but reduce cooling air to the rad, etc. We've gone over it all before, you get the idea.

I think this core will work perfectly for your plans, regardless of the flow numbers.

That looks real nice! Who did you get it from on ebay? Did they have any more?

The numbers arent always arrived at the same way from one brand to the next. And dont forge that we never ever approach the cfm numbers these things are rated at (2 literes is .07 cf, times rpm, 265 cfm for most poeple). The numbers they give dont really help determine what flow will be at higher pressures, but lower flow. I prefer to see how well a core has worked for others, if that info is available. Otherwise I just go with the basic rules of thumb. LEngth adds to pressure drop, height and thickness reduce it but reduce cooling air to the rad, etc. We've gone over it all before, you get the idea.

I think this core will work perfectly for your plans, regardless of the flow numbers.


Very good points, and hopefully I can provide some information on how this intercooler performs so that others can have a base of information about this particular core when they are searching for an intercooler. I will definitely get back with everyone once the intercooler has been installed, and I may have some dsmlink logs for you to look at as well :biggrin:

DSMlink logs are always good :)

Man, that intercoolers going to look so good on your car. I cant wait to see it done. You should make a write up with pictures when you install it. Oh and also write a review on how it performs.


If it works good for you, I may just get one in the future. Do you have link to where you got it from?
Good luck!!!

Man, that intercoolers going to look so good on your car. I cant wait to see it done. You should make a write up with pictures when you install it. Oh and also write a review on how it performs.


If it works good for you, I may just get one in the future. Do you have link to where you got it from?
Good luck!!!


Thanks, I hope it performs as well as it looks! Here is a link to the core I bought.. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7977920876&category=33742

I don't think a write-up is necessary because there are so many write-ups already out there. However, I will take pictures and note some of the more troublesome fitment issues like the power steering cooling line loop/removal.

This looks like a good core, but be wary of many ebay cores...often times they will be total crap, like most of the performance brands on ebay

Yes, be sure to shitcan that POS PS fluid cooler. It cost me a radiator after I relocated it. Should have shitcanned it right from the start...

thats buy now button almost got the best of me!! please let the few of us looking to buy a fmic soon know how it works out.

The thickness of the core in the ebay link you posted is only 2 3/8 inches. Is that the one you got?

The thickness of the core in the ebay link you posted is only 2 3/8 inches. Is that the one you got?


Yes it is. I guess for some reason I thought I saw 2 7/8"? I don't think the very slightly thinner core will make much of a difference, though. And honestly, this is a fairly medium-sized core compared to what is popular for DSMers right now. For example, the SBR core alone is 24x12x3.5 which is fucking HUGE in any car. In fact, I don't see any advantage to any car running an air/air intercooler larger than that. So you see, this core fits my needs almost perfectly :)

All in all, I just really wanted a core that flows very well with very little pressure drop and has decent cooling abilities, as a water/alcohol injection setup is only 2-3 parts down my list from where I am right now :biggrin:

Buschur Racing makes a nice alcohol injection system. It's featured in the June issue of Turbo magazine where they tested it on an evo. The evo make 443 on the dyno @ 23psi on 93 octane pump gas with the alcohol injection.

WOW. Surely that evo was not on the stock turbo...

A local stock turbo evo made similar power numbers. And he's not alone. ;) The EVO's turbo with the 10.5 cm exhaust housing has a lot of potential with minimal mods. The local guy mentioned had a MBC, exhaust, intake, and cams.

But then again, I dont think he did that on pump gas. I think the pump numbers might have been 400 even. Of course the whole point of alky injection is to duplicate race gas performance on pump gas fuel, so none if this really matters anyway. The race gas number still applies IMO.

I'm still very impressed, though. I was under the impression there wasn't a lot of difference between the Evo8 16g and the EvoIII 16g, but apparently I was wrong! 400hp on pump is sick for a 16g.

Flow numbers end up being pretty equal. But the much larger exhaust housing increases VE, and the twin scroll housing/paired cylinder manifold keep lag down despite its size. I guess. :)

*** UPDATE! ***

Alright guys, the intercooler has FINALLY been mounted. We didn't have time to do the piping yet, but that is being done this friday. Here are some pictures of it mounted on the car...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic_on.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic_on2.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/guitarXgeek/fmic_on3.jpg



Like I said, piping and stuff is getting done this friday! I'll be sure to check back with some more pics, as well as a review of the intercooler's performance :)

Looks really good!!! Much better then before, your going to short route the piping right?

no fog lights!(weight reduction) Front mount intercooler, no pipes(looks fast but isnt) .....you ricer :loser: lol
well atleast now it looks kinda cool :evillol: :smokin: :bigthumb:

Looks really good!!! Much better then before, your going to short route the piping right?

Thanks! And yes I'm going with short-route piping.


no fog lights!(weight reduction) Front mount intercooler, no pipes(looks fast but isnt) .....you ricer :loser: lol
well atleast now it looks kinda cool :evillol: :smokin: :bigthumb:

Yea, you can't tell the pipes aren't there from far away :icon16: . Either way, I am still a ricer for sure ;)

I also just purchased a plx m-250 wideband o2 that should be here sometime this week. I may just go ahead and have Victor weld in an o2 bung for me and I'll wire up the wideband into dsmlink this weekend, too :biggrin:

MAke sure you cap off the inlet and outlet before you drive, if you haven't thought of this already. It would suck to have a rock get in there, then go through the motor when you finally get it plumbed in :D

MAke sure you cap off the inlet and outlet before you drive, if you haven't thought of this already. It would suck to have a rock get in there, then go through the motor when you finally get it plumbed in :D


Damn, good idea. We have to take the intercooler back off anyways (only 3 bolts) when we do the piping so we're just going to clean it out then. Thanks for the concern though :p :biggrin: