Hey,

just a simple question ..

would a front mount give you any more gains over a big tmic, running the stock turbo with a tune(verso)?

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"Wrong fitment".

never ending debate.

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signature.

on a stock turbo (td04) the difference will be pretty small. But having a FMIC gets rid off heat soak problems when sitting in traffic and will allow tighter timings.

For a td04 a bigger top mount and water spray would be a better option. But having a FMIC means if you want to get a bigger turbo in the future you will have some good support for it.

Also, if you are going to get a FMIC dont go elcheapo ebay special. having 3 miles of piping weaving in and out of your front end wont help with lag issue especially when you get a bigger turbo. Also 3" pipes may look good at autosalon but they will also suck for lag.

Rotate the compressor housing and run the smallest amount of piping possible. 2.25" hot side. no more than 2.5" cold side for pipe diameter.

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RS Liberty - Because WRX's are only good for parts...

i wacked an "ebay" style cooler setup on my lib. flipped the core and modified the pipework to be shorter which was fairly straight forward. gained 20kw atw compared to the standard water to air cooler. little bit more lag there but pulls much harder.

It was a gc8 kit that i used, none of the pipework was 3" either.

yeh i have recently wacked a FMIC kit on, Bough a cheap autobahn kit from bently auto ! alot more lag which i dont like but top end on a cold night, she pulls hard! you need a tune when you install one, if you want your car to run smooth

yeah ide imagine a front mount on a stocky turbo wouldnt do much, tune or not(prolly worse without a tune). i AM planning to get an upgraded turbo in the futue so i might just do it at the same time or after the turbo. ill be looking at a direct bolt on turbo, nothing too overzealous.

when u say 'rotate the compressor housing', does that mean flip the manifold so the throttle body is at the front of the car, therefore having shorter i/c piping or just mount the turbo a bit differently?
ive seen the reversed manifold on a wrx once but i heard its illegal ..

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"Wrong fitment".

Rotating the compressor housing involves removing the compressor housing off the turbo and then reattaching it so that it faces in the opposite direction towards the drivers side suspension tower. The point of this is to cut back the amount of IC piping needed. Normally FMIC piping would need to do a approximately 270 degree bend off the turbo so that the piping can start heading towards the front bar.

Having the compressor housing rotated cuts back around 50cm of piping. And also helps to keep the FMIC piping away from the hot exhaust housing and dump pipe.

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RS Liberty - Because WRX's are only good for parts...

how exactly do you make the timing tighter? goes it involve spandex pants of some description?

a FMIC on a stock TD04 on a heavyass GDA will be teh poo. you'll pick up a whole bunch of lag and when it finally starts to get fun the td04 will have a cry and go limp. Do you currently have a tune or will you get a verso at the same time? for the same money, you'd probably be better off getting a VF34..

that said, if you like the look, go for it

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MY93 Impreza GX 1.8L, 0hp, 0nm

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SUBARU-WRX-ST...QQcmdZViewItem

Hey Evi

I have one of these fitted which is probaly one of the widest ones you can get in between the throttle body and the fire wall with a VF34 to boot.

No turbo lag with such short piping connections. Good for 20psi boost with the right supporting mods, no worries.

On the subject of heat transfer and that, I,ve had it out on the freeway and some back roads for a bit of a thrashing and found minimal temperature increase with a bit of a bonnet scoop backing plate modification which entailed trimming it to maximize the amount of air entering the engine bay.
It was actually very cool to touch even around the turbo side of the intercooler with the help of some quality heat shielding tape wrapped around the turbo dump side.

Cheers

Nails