Personal choice mate I run a FMIC and race my car at the drags and circuit but have spent countless hours modifying the intakes, radiators and generally the whole front end of my car to work as efficiently as possible. Why didnt I just upgrade the side mounts I hear you all thinking, well thats easy I have brake cooling ducts located in the side air dams which is more important than any very slight difference there would be running smic's versus fmic on my car setup. FMIC with nitrous spray bars looks tough In the office and once again the rest is personal choice buy what you want
Lol, yeah I keep meaning to write a FAQ someday for intercoolers but I never get around to it. Maybe now Im a uni bum again I will do it.
What I find interesting, that no one ever mentions is the heat soak effect. The one single advantage of a FMIC over SMICs is that they don't get affected by heat soak after a few power runs. As the SMICs are in a more restrictive position with regard to cooling airflow, they tend to soak up the surrounding heat, and also are able to dissipate less of their own latent heat while the car is not moving or moving slow between runs (like in normal every day city driving). That was the basis for me in choosing a FMIC on the performance side. I also preferred the FMIC for the looks too . I have posted the details up before if someone wants to search.
james has posted up some stats on his larger smic's vs his fmic. i think it's in groupbuy thread 3 2nd last page
Yeah, install it just above drivers head..this is where roof scoops come in handy, heck stuff it, just put the scoops everywhere and an IC under each one. You don't have to connect them:
SMIC dont cook engines I tested my greddy SMIC agaist a mate FMIC and yeah his intake temps were colder but the air off a dyno fan dosn't reach the SMIC propley. He beleive me that SMIC with good ducting set up were the way to go on a zed when he cooked his on the way to the beach!
One of the biggest problems with SMIC as pexzed mentioned is the heatsoak. If you look at where the smic sits in the car, on the drivers side you have the washer bottle directly behind the cooler and the splash guard for the wheel well. On the passenger side one you have the carbon canister and splash guard. Yes the guards are vented slightly but remember the Nissan Designers never allowed for guys ruuning 600 odd HP from these cars using the stock SMIC setup with larger coolers fitted. In a nutshell the air gets crammed into the cooler by the air dams in the bar and goes where exactly, some might escape through the rear vents in the splash guard but most would sit there stagnant and build heat. They work really well if the washer bottle and cannister is removed and you modify the splash guards. Let the flaming begin
I was thinking the same thing Especially this bit... "but another benefit of the fmic is having boost come on at 3000 i can drive around without boost on at like 2500rpm (normal cruising speeds) and dont chew as much fuel!" I would kill to have boost come on 500 rpm earlier.
Are you referring to my other post in this thread? If so my 2 seater Z32 has a overflow bottle and a wiper bottle at the front. Overflow bottle is on the passengers side, while the wiper bottle in on the drivers side. Both are behind the side mount intercoolers.
well Z-ster i dont know about you but i have to pay for petrol, and you use alot more ON boost then you do OFF boost. so everything i said is wrong.... in that case FMIC has Less lag the SMIC's boys, go for it p.s. thats my personal reason for liking the fmic, you cant prove me wrong for why i like it lol.
You got me ... yes, SMIC have less lag As for being on boost, I've been told that running slightly on boot proves to be more economical on fuel. Maybe someone can verify this
I heard this to. Maybe cause if you run the same fuel but more air, ie. run lean, you get more power for the same amount of fuel?
Well it's been good reading everyone's ideas and it's all just backed up what i already thought, so it looks like smic's for me!!
