Is there any benefit of larger SMIC vs large front mount?

[Spyder95VR4]

Is there any benefit of larger SMIC vs large front mount?

[VR4Drive92]

The SMICs don't put a higher heat load on the radiator.

[NOMIEZVR4]

The SMICs don't put a higher heat load on the radiator.

That can easily be addressed by wiring in an additional fan or two...you could put additional push style fans on the condenser and never have any issues...

[VR4Drive92]

I mean on track driving / mountain runs. It also depends on what boost you're running and what turbos that boost is coming from.


For cruising around... I've never had an issue with my main fan and a 4'' thick FMIC.

[donniekak]

That can easily be addressed by wiring in an additional fan or two...you could put additional push style fans on the condenser and never have any issues...

Fans aren't the problem when you are overheating at high speed.

Think of it like this. I live in Phoenix, the air temp 12" from the road can be 130* easily, pass that through an inter cooler cooling 300* air, and add let's say 30* to the temp. Now, turn on the ac and heat the air up another 20*. How much cooling can 180* air do?
I solved my issue in my dsm with an air scoop. I have a sheet metal scoop on my car behind the intercooler, and in front of the ac coil. It pulls clean air up, and into my radiator/ac coil. I dropped 20+ degrees with this mod.

[NOMIEZVR4]

Fans aren't the problem when you are overheating at high speed.

Think of it like this. I live in Phoenix, the air temp 12" from the road can be 130* easily, pass that through an inter cooler cooling 300* air, and add let's say 30* to the temp. Now, turn on the ac and heat the air up another 20*. How much cooling can 180* air do?
I solved my issue in my dsm with an air scoop. I have a sheet metal scoop on my car behind the intercooler, and in front of the ac coil. It pulls clean air up, and into my radiator/ac coil. I dropped 20+ degrees with this mod.

Picture would be great.

Spyder95VR4...I've got a 3" FMIC, oil cooler also has been relocated behind the fmic..AC works and I have a advance auto radiator...never had any overheating issues.

[Unlogic]

What he said. Particularly if you have a working air condition because then your putting the heat from both the intercooler and the AC condensor into your radiator.

I've ran SMIC's for two seasons now and I've never had any overheating problems at the track even though I tend to run with the air condition on full blast.

[JasonY]

FMIC's 9/10 times are done poorly, fit poorly, and look ugly and cause cooling issues on over half the cars that run them.

The perfect FMIC is the one you dont notice.

They do work better in 9/10 situations on a 3/S as far as max thermal capability.

I prefer not to run them since I live in an area with a lot of traffic which is a lot of stop/go in 100* heat with the a/c blasting, temps 10" above the road are probably 110ish.

I like cars built for the worst case scenario. Its not cheap or easy to make a FMIC work correctly, so SMIC's are a much easier option. Plus you can run stock piping or the Samco replacement piping and have soft hoses coupling everything which makes things super easy to work on under the hood and OEM look/fitment is always fun to have in a 500awhp car. "nah mostly stock"

FMIC cars seem to run about 10* hotter than a SMIC car all things being equal. Sometimes thats enough to throw the temps over the edge and cause a run away heat issue where the system cant recover, or its not and no big deal.

Toni and Terry have some of the few well sorted FMIC installs with proper ducting done. Its a lot of time/effort as mentioned before to make right.

Jason

[MDoe8]

there are a billion variables that all have to do entirely with how the car was built. A properly built FMIC setup will make great power back to back and will not overheat. A properly build SMIC setup will also make great power back to back and obviously won't overheat either. There are 1000+ hp cars running twin intercoolers and 1000+ hp cars running single intercoolers. Choose what works best for your application and you'll be fine.

I'm going with Ohhnoo's smic's with 2" piping for my build due to packaging reasons. Should be able to handle whatever I can throw at it and i plan on 700+

[oohnoo]

Main issues would be battling high temps and surging. I've battled temps rising and tried all the tricks of the trade including proper ducting. But the temps still climbed when my AC was on but only when in traffic and never while cruising. Swapped over to a '99 bumper in hope of getting more air in there so time will tell. Also for the past couple years alot of people are now experiencing surging issues with FMIC's. This doesn't happen with SMIC's or even my DualCore FMIC and now there's an option for soem large SMIC's which should cure all issues people have been having......

http://www.3sgto.org/parts-sale/1459...rge-smics.html