kingofthehill

time has come to invest in a front mount intercooler to go with my big new turbo.
but with so many on the market im after some feedback on which 1('s) i should be considering. plus and minus points of what you've got fitted please.

my budget is upto £800ish give or take, but obviously the cheaper the better

thanks in advance.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

What car, what model, what turbo, what else !

LOL

DunxC

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

Hybrid FMICs are excellent quality and at a great price too.

Used in quite a few high powered Imprezas on here with great success.

Hybrid FMIC Kits - Subaru Impreza - best prices

kingofthehill

knew i'd leave something out. thats what happens when posting at 1am instead of sleeping!

cars a 2002 impreza sti import, with a TD06 20G turbo.

bighead

iTrader: (1)

APS

bonzee

iTrader: (2)

another vote for hybrid had one fitted couple of weeks ago well happy

silent running

Get an Autobahn for around £200 or a Hybrid for under £300. No need to spend £800. APS are supposed to be good, but at the end of the day, I don't know whether the big money intercoolers are measurably better than say a Hybrid. I've had an Autobahn btw and I'm just changing it for a Hybrid. The Autobahn was a good FMIC and at the price I couldn't say no. Loads of people use them.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Autobahn are absoulte junk from what ive seen. The cores are sh1te and the fit and finish is crap. The ones i have tested didnt work at all and had very little in the way of fin design in the cores.

But for £200 what more can you expect?

The Hybrid coolers work very well from what i have seen and are much much better quality than the Autobahns. These actually work and do quite well given their price.

From there you have the option of the expensive coolers, bang on your budget of £800 is the offering from Perrin. This is very good quality and works well. There are lots of guys using them in the US with great results.

Frome there on you have the 2 top (bolt on) coolers money can buy APS and Hyperflow.

Hyperflow offer a standard cooler for about £1100 and the big "Monster" for approx £1300. Both of these are very good from what i have seen.

APS offer the DR525, the DR650 and the daddy cooler the DR725. The DR725 will set you back approx £1300.

The cooling abilities of these big coolers is absolutely massive but more to the point are their fit and finish.

The fit from my APS DR725 is absolutely flawless, everything is supplied inc the templates to cut your bumper and any fixings, brackets and reserviors you may need.

With 1.8 bar from an FPGreen turbo my ACTs struggle to get above 2 degrees more than ambient temprature with teh DR725.

You get what you pay for with coolers mate... you pays your money, you make your choice

banny sti

iTrader: (68)

Frayz this is the updated version of the autobhan88 intercooler with a tube and fin core, do you think this will be an improvement over the older model?

Autobahn88 - Subaru Impreza WRX Sti Front Mount Intercooler Kit 96-00

Banny

frayz

iTrader: (7)

There is a good chance that will be alot better than the old bar/plate unit. It practically had almost no internal fins so offered almost no heat rejection at all.

After seeing the previous Autobahn stuff ive not even looked at the current stuff. TBH i did not know that had revised it. See if you can get hold of one or find someone that has one to get a photo of the internal core design.

j555 hks

iTrader: (4)

mostly everyone from the north east gets there hybrid fmic
from harvey smith .......top piece of kit. and cheap.

mickywrx

iTrader: (29)

Mine works fine thanks.

£1300 on an intercooler And then scrimp on the turbo.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Scrimp?

I assume you mean the Green and not a (Holy) MD321T?

Ive had a T on my car thanks and the performance is the same.

Seeing as my car is a development car for Mocom Racing dont you think i could have the choice of almost any turbo that i want?

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

Put it this way...

We've had the opportunity to stock the Autobahn intercoolers and they a keenly priced, but its the Hybrids that we sell as they are of a far higher quality.

Given the choice of FMICs I would fit a Hybrid everytime

Hybrid FMIC Kits - Subaru Impreza - best prices

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

How about trying to find an APS DR 500

Shaun

silent running

Well I can't agree that Autobahn are 'junk' - regardless of the cost, which is incredibly low for what you get - they do work. Just not as well as something costing 4 figures. But the Hybrid seem to be a good middle ground, good price, good FMIC.

WRX_Dazza

i bought my hybrid, from Bob at aztec and am well happy with it...

he even delivered it to Mocom racing directly and they fitted it while i waited!!

i say waited, it was more a case of loitered around asking loads of tedious questions and making tea!! lol

great bit of kit all round, and finsihed off the Simtek / Injector / pump / upgrade a treat.

XR-Wayne

Mocom Racing seem to be the company to use now round the Essex area. Such good reviews on them.

Does the battery have to be changed to allow room for the pipes on the Hybrid FMIC?

Mus

iTrader: (2)

autobhan is the shi**st intercooler i came across,it blowes pipes off so many times the pipes are absaloutley rubbish.when it gets a bit cold u can forget about giving it the beans.u get wat u pay for.

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

Hybrid fits fine with OE battery

Hybrid FMIC Kits - Subaru Impreza - best prices

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

Thanks for the feedback Daz.

'Kingofthehill' ordered his from us also.

Am sure he will be equally impressed.

Hybrid FMIC Kits - Subaru Impreza - best prices

mickywrx

iTrader: (29)

The meant it was in jest. Or did you miss that.

321T? Hmm, 16g here and happy with that, thanks. A "T" is not that good on a 2ltr apparently.

maydew

iTrader: (9)

keep the sti top mount ,save the cash,if it aint broke dont fix it lol. sti top mount works well

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Appologies, i did miss that. I just assumed you was one of the (MD321T is the only turbo that works) bandwagon that seems to be floating about.

They get all noshy when you mention an FP green.

mickywrx

iTrader: (29)

I think I'd be massively overdoing it with a 321 and 380cc injectors

Hmmm there's an idea.

I aint a fanboy of any turbo Frayz, apart from the 16g, 330bhp @1 bar club.

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Some years ago I imported a number of APS FMICs and from memory the cost was £1140 each. One of these is still on my STi 6 Wagon. The car is fitted with Air Charge Temperature and Ambient Temperature monitoring guages. I have a similar setup on my 95 WRX Wagon but that runs a Hybrid FMIC. During a mapping session Bob Rawle commented that the Hybrid on the WRX Wagon seemed to keep temperatures far closer to ambient than the APS on the STi 6 Wagon.
I had already made that same observation and other people had already commented on it.

I supply Hybrid GT FMIC kits from stock held here in Darlington to any UK mainland destination for £285 per kit inclusive of overnight delivery and Paypal.
I only sell Hybrid FMICs (including GDB) because of their good quality, easy fit and good results in the field. The Hybrid GT core is fitted to many high power Scoobs including last years Time Attack winner, supplied by me.
With this FMIC kit MY93-00 you can retain ABS, aircon, original large battery etc but you will lose the original Subaru air box and panel filter.

maydew

iTrader: (9)

how do your Hybrid GT FMIC compare against the stock sti top mount???i.e lag/temps/ flow rate ect etc

on a stock 2l running an andy f 20g

silent running

LOL well I only had a pipe blow off once on mine, not in cold weather either, so I don't know where that's coming from. I had no trouble at all giving it 1.5 bar of beans time and time again, no problems. And the blow that I did have was down to one crappy jubilee clip that I'd not done up square to the FMIC inlet, not the fault of the intercooler, the hard pipes or the hoses. So I'd say that in actual fact, 'u get wat u pay for' should actually be 'you get a hell of a lot more than what you pay for' with an Autobahn. Not denying that it's the bottom end of the market, but it does its job and is incredible value for money.

Saying that, on balance the Hybrid seems to be better value for money even though it's slightly costlier, hence why I'll be having one off Harvey soon. I still can't see any justification for getting anything 'better' than a Hybrid.

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Maydew : Because of the claims about how STi 8 FMICs were good to run over 400 bhp I fitted one to my STi 3 Wagon to gain first hand knowledge. It was a bigger job than I anticipated and it took around three times as long as it would have taken to fit a Hybrid FMIC. It was also more expensive than a Hyrid FMIC kit as I also required the scoop undertray and STi 8 scoop. Efficiency with the O/E scoop is poor and the STi 7 scoop is marginal.
On all my cars I monitor air charge temp at the throttle body along with ambient temperature. The Hybrid FMIC in my WRX Wagon with 422 bhp from one of my own 05-06-20Gs outperforms the STi 8 TMIC in the STi 3 Wagon at 371 bhp.
As well as looking at temperatures you need to measure pressure drop. The STi 3 with STi8 TMIC has .2 bar drop at 1.5 bar. The WRX with Hybrid GT Spec has so low a pressure drop that I need smaller scale guages to measure it accurately and that is at 1.7 bar.

When I embark on my next round of modifications on the STi 3 Wagon I will remove the STi 8 TMIC and fit one of my Hybrid GC8 GT FMICs.

My conclusions are that the New Age cars have far more efficient top mounts than any of the Classic Scoobs but at somewhere between 350 and 400 bhp a New Age car will benefit from an efficient FMIC.
STi 5 and 6 TMICs are better at cooling than STi3 and 4 and STi 3,4, 5 and 6are streets ahead of the slanted intercoolers of ver 1 and 2 cars which probably struggle a long way before 300 bhp.
STi 3 and 4 struggle a little past 300 bhp and STi 5 and 6 are seeing high induction temperatures past 320 bhp.
My STi 3 Wagon when at 335 bhp could take the ACT guage off the scale at 70 C in a standing start to 100mph flat out.
Next time someone extols the virtues of an STi 8 TMIC over a Hybrid FMIC, ask them if they have first hand experience of both of these installations and confirm that they do have air charge temperature guages and ambient temp. guages to monitor how the intercoolers are performing.
If they do not have personal experience of both or if they do not monitor both temperatures then how do they know what they are talking about. Chances are they are regurgitating someone elses rubbish.
"I read it on Scoobynet.......................

naughtyhunnybunny

iTrader: (7)

Now I'm worried after reading this thread !! We have a Autobahn frontmount which we are fitting Sat along with a dif turbo etc etc ready for its re map on Tuesday, I bought it off a guy on our local subaru forum, is there an obvious way to tell the earlier front mounts to the later modified and better ones?