Jan Shim

I was only trying to inject a sense of humor. You need a Admin ver 2.01 Humour Patch. :-)

Jokes aside, I have discussed this topic to death in, er, "the other forum" about whether the FMIC and TMIC is a better choice. There is NO better choice except an informed choice whether either one is suited to the individual's application. I find that most people make bad buying choice simply based on uninformed decisions. I had discussions with Prodrive over whether Bar and Plate core or a Tube-and-Fin one is better and the response was it all depends on the application and that it's not conclusive which is necessarily better than the other.

The EJ20 turbocharged engine is no longer uncharted territory for you Americans. If anything, you guys overcame what I considered a steep learning curve in a very short time and have made so much progress in tuning the engine. Gotta love the critical mass of the American public. I chose a (silver powder coated) TMIC for my ver 4 GF8 WRX Wagon because I knew as far as turbo upgrade goes, I was going to stick with the VF24 so a TMIC made a lot of economical sense. My application were traffic light sprints and dog fights with other race cars on the road so a bigger turbo and FMIC combo would only give my rex looks that don't mean business. Also my 4.111 Close Ratio gearbox (yes, 250hp JDM wagon) meant that it had great acceleration at the expense of top speed so fitting a kit that works well at the upper RPM limit bad is counter intuitive/productive.

Jan Shim

Whether or not you ultimately choose a thicker core TMIC or swap out for a FMIC, any deviation from factory specs affect how the ECU is mapped for the both the velocity and density of air that goes through the intercooler. It's the velocity here that determines how much "lag", becomes a question of how capable the turbo is at pumping the air .. small turbo + FMIC = laggy (noticeable or not is subjective as owners often claim they feel the far pulls harder and that the lag is really not noticable).

Then there's the element of air density from a bigger intercooler that affects air fuel ratio. Although the factory ecu is self-learning, how fast it adapts to the denser charge air from the new hardware is questionnable. In a likelihood, the engine would run leaner, gives the driver a sense of increased power and if this is pushed beyond the ECU's learnt threshold, the ECU retards timing to normalize things. Increased air density requires an increased fuel in a ratio that's ideal to the load at any point in time (very complicated subject matter and again subjective from tuner to tuner).

Jan Shim

I don't know about you guys but over here, FMICs take a lot of abuse from flying debris and the occasional kamikaze birds. I've seen all sorts of tragedies involving costly replacements of FMICs (and bent radiator, if really unlucky) from frontal accidents, hitting a dog but then, it's just the nature of Motorsports, isn't it!

ej20fan

I'm in LA, going with the front mount, as the TMIC isn't doing squat for me or any of my friends. When it's warm here, all of the time, it soaks in a matter of seconds. The moment I get off the freeway, I might as well pull the handbrake and keep driving with it up, as it would feel the same due to powerlosses from heat. FMIC is the way to go, out here at least. If I were living in Michigan or some other state that consistently sees below 0 temps, I doubt that it would make much of a difference. FMIC = better cooling, minimal increase in lag if you buy the right one. I'm going with the Injen unit, and will soon be running a 18G.

ej20fan

HKS Rules. I'm not a fan of their DP, but Up-pipes are all the same, and their HI-power exhaust sound and look great, and let's not forget about those awesome headers. They are a very reputable company, trumping greddy part for part, and $ for $.