Well, hopefully this gets a sticky because i spent a lot of time taking pictures and figuring this out! Not to mention all the work going into just this post!

So here it is. A completely hidden from outside the car FMIC!

Items you must remove:
AC Condensor (The thing in front of the radiator)
Both horns (You can relocate them if you like them)
Vacume Canister (Just makes changing vent options slower)

Items used: (All bought from ebay)
24" x 12" x 4" intercooler
4x 3" L pipes (18" long)
2x 3" Elbows
1x 45* elbow
10 Silicon couplers 3"
22 T-clamps 3"

And now the fun part!

You need to trim the front bumper support beam.
Each end needs to be cut ~4" in and ~3 1/2" high, this leaves just enough room for the pipes to connect to the intercooler...




Now you need to cut the back supports for the bumper so that the intercooler will fit inside the bumper. There are two metal ones that go vertically near the center, cut them off and remove the weld that held them to the bumper to get the intercooler as close to the bumper as possible. Also cut the two plastic supports around the studs on each end.


Here is what it looks like when the intercooler is bolter to the inside of the bumper, use the slight indent in the bumper as a guide for where to put the two mounting bolts, then drill through the bumper and bolt the intercooler to the bumper...


Now to get the intercooler to lay in there horizontally you have to cut that support that goes from the bottom of the radiator support to the hood latch. Don't worry, i fully tested it and you don't need it. Also you can see i removed the two plastic sections used to duct the air to the radiator, I tested and believe it or not, removing them HELPED cooling!!!


Now you may need to clearance the end of the frame rails to make sure the tanks of the intercooler get by while re-installing the bumper with the intercooler attached....


Continues on next post....

 

Here is a few shots from above and below of what it looks like with the intercooler installed, I had a tranny cooler installed which had to be relocated above the intercooler.. tight fit but i got it in there.





Now you have to cut the plastic guard that helps support the front clip, cutting it made it flimsy, but when bolted back in it still supported the clip well and stayed rigid.


Now for all the pipes...Depending on your pipes you'll need to trim a few shorter...



Continues on next post....

 

Here is the other side, where we trimmed the plastic guard the goes underneath...



And thats how you do it! Took us a grand total of 6 hours with two people. Myself, and my best friend Pat. Pat helped figure out how to do a better FMIC idea that didn't include cutting the fog light area.

ME:


Pat:


The final product... and no way to tell its got a FULLY functional FMIC, not even if your laying on the ground unlike the procharger ones!


Feel free to ask any questions, i do have a few other misc pictures i can post if you need more detailed instructions.

 

Excellent job, It's nice to see people figuring out new ways to do stuff even after a standard on how to do it has been accepted by most. If I wasnt dead set on keeping my AC that would be the way I would mount mine. Do you have any way to test how effective it is at cooling the air charge in that location? Is all the air forced to go through the IC before it reaches the radiator?

 

BTW, if you cant find anyone locally with a bead roller for your intercooler pipes I found a pretty cheap way to do it at home with some crimping pliers and a pipe expander. There's some pics on page 3 of my cardomain site.

 

Let us know how it turns out in terms of cooling!

-B

 

I'm definitely curious on how much air you are getting. Unique setup and really stealth but a side by side comparison would be nice to see which one performs better. Great job and excellent write-up!

 

Thanks guys!

The intercooler is large enough where it gets ALL the air before anything else, so we will see how much it effects the radiators effectiveness to cool.

As for a side by side comparison, i'll need someone running close to the same amount of boost with a FMIC thats close to the same size intercooler. I figrured watching IAT when weather conditions are vary similar would work well...? Anyone willing to help me on this? Also it would be nice to compare to the two different procharger intercoolers as well, but i don't know anyone with those setups around my area...

 

After some thinking on trying to get this FMIC idea to work while still having functional AC, I think if you get ~8" tall IC or ~10" tall with 3" deep core IC that you can easily clear the AC. With a 12" tall 4" deep IC that i used in this install, it is actually about 1/2" ~ 3/4" away from the radiator. I don't think i have any pictures you can see this clearly but the IC isn't touching the radiator at all.

If someone can chime in and let me know how thick the AC is then i could double check on my car and tell everyone for sure what would work with an AC car. I actually don't have any of my AC components anymore...

 

Nice job with everything. However, having a similar setup on my car, you might have some issues with the FMIC actually doing much to cool down your IAT's. The air dam will help direct air up to the FMIC, but if it just goes to the FMIC before the radiator, you will probably have engine cooling issues. Even though the air dam will direct some air to the FMIC, it will probably need more to be effective.

I say this because I have had personal experience with mine. I had to cut holes behind my fog lights to get additional flow to help the FMIC cool the IAT's down. In addition to that, I also had to add surface area to my air dam from below to direct more air from the ground to help the radiator with cooling down the engine temps (before I did this it was getting TOO HOT). And finally, I had to creat another air dam just below the bumper to direct air straight up to the FMIC from below. It wasn't until I did all this before the car had normal running engine temps again, and the FMIC actually lowered the IAT's.

Here's a pic. It the best one I have of the car from below. I'll try to get better ones in a couple months when I get the car out of storage in Indiana.

 

Well, so far in-town and highway cooling has remained the same. But its is only about 30*F around here at the moment... so that doesn't say a lot. I actually don't have the blower installed at the moment so i can't give you IAT readings right now. I should have it on the car next weekend.

 

The blower alone will raise both IAT's and engine temps. But, like you said, at 30*F, everything is going to be cold in your car (engine temps ect.)

Wait till summer comes and it's 70+F, that will be the true test for you.

 

Yup, I already plan to change too mostly water with a good water wetter to help. Then possibly adjust the air dam.. possibly mess with the fans. I'll make sure to keep updating this guide as things change to keep everyone upto date.

 

Well, so far so good. I've driven about 100 miles almost now and there has been no problems whatsoever. Cooling still seems the be working fine, both highway and sitting still. The fans pull enough air to keep the temp needle from even moving. There also hasn't been any odd noises or rattling anywhere and the intercooler still apears to be mounted rock solid.

Of course this is still in ~30*F weather but it did almost get upto 40* one day and that didn't seem to affect the car at all, again at highway.. in town.. or sitting at idle.

 

I remember when I was still N/A and at those outside temps, my gage never moved either.

You really are going to have to wait till a 70+ degree day comes along to see the performance of your setup. At the current outside temperatures, your IAT's and your engine temps will be cold regaurdless.