FMIC or SMIC

I am having toruble deciding on which I should put on my car. This is not a which is best post, from searching and reading I can see that an FMIC allows more power in the long run, I am just looking for opinions.

I have rebuilt my engine, painted the engine bay, all nice and new looking shiney and either chrome, polished or glossy black in there. Now the front end is going on and I need to fit my IC and I have a brand new SRD FMIC here in a box. I am putting a Do-Luck front end on and will have some black fine mesh over the big holes at the front to protect whatever I have behind there and now the day of installing it is here and I can't help but think maybe I would be better off with a CW SMIC instead? I don't really want to drill holes to relocate the coolant overflow and the PAS cooler as I will want to revert to stock front end with active spoiler at some point...at which point the FMIC will need to go anyway.

Opinions? please

The SMIC's from CW of GW are good for well over 500bhp and no mods needed. I fitted the GW one, its larger than stock but a direct replacement. I even notice a better throttle response. Don't know it that was down to the relative size of intercooler or just that the original one had fins that crumbled to dust if touched. So unless you are running over 600bhp is there any point to changing the ducting to accommodate a fmic?

Do-luck = FMIC (unless you can correctly duct the air from the opening for the SMIC, if you can, SMIC)

Stock bumper = SMIC

Do Luck bumper would look a little empty without a FMIC in it too I reckon. That's probably half the reason it was designed that way. There must be a way you can fit the FMIC without chopping up for the expansion tank etc?

Of course there is. Just remove the stock expansion tank, it all unbolts, no holes needed.

Then fit an SRD expansion tank behind the battery, Secure in place with some dual lock (if you don't want to drill holes) however it's wedged between the battery and the slam panel it's not going to go anywhere. No holes, no chopping at all.

Remove the plastic splash guard or get a 2nd hand unit to cut to route the intercooler pipe and the PS cooler pipes.

The SMIC's from CW of GW are good for well over 500bhp and no mods needed. I fitted the GW one, its larger than stock but a direct replacement. I even notice a better throttle response. Don't know it that was down to the relative size of intercooler or just that the original one had fins that crumbled to dust if touched. So unless you are running over 600bhp is there any point to changing the ducting to accommodate a fmic?

Just a small point but the CW SMIC is good for just over 600bhp. A few people doing this already including AndrewK's car.

Given that your going for a big mouth bumper, looks alone would suggest an FMIC.

Of course there is. Just remove the stock expansion tank, it all unbolts, no holes needed.

 

Then fit an SRD expansion tank behind the battery, Secure in place with some dual lock (if you don't want to drill holes) however it's wedged between the battery and the slam panel it's not going to go anywhere. No holes, no chopping at all.

 

Remove the plastic splash guard or get a 2nd hand unit to cut to route the intercooler pipe and the PS cooler pipes.

Basically my set up though I did remove my P/S cooler for a side mount one

Aftermarket Front you would probably be better with the FMIC

Stock Front go SMIC

If you do go FMIC please please make sure your radiator is in decent condition so many people running dead radiators then throwing FMIC in front of them then complaining about high engine temps.

I was going to say make sure its shrouded properly as well as its makes all the difference on a hot day.

Cool, thanks for all this. I have the SRD full kit with the expansion tank etc so will use the above comments to help me

So with the plastic splash guard, best to get another one and cut it up to go around pipes? or should I just get a stainless/polished slam panel plate? I guess they both do the same thing but one just looks shiny...right?

2 completly different parts of the car there. The splash guard im talking about is where the undertray sits, as your intercooler pipe will need to pass by, the SRD instructions show where you'd need to cut.

ah ok, so I need to cut the undertray? Well thats not happening as it was a new one on there not that long ago. I will need a second hand one to cut as you suggested.

On to the other bit I mentioned, can that be kept or do I need a slam panel piece?

No you don't need to cut the undertray, it's a side part. it's hard to explain and i cant find any pictures for it.

Edit, this part:

Ah ok, in that case I will get a new one before they are discontinued (if it is still available!) and cut my original up. Thanks for the help, doing this tomorrow