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Thread: racebitz's DIY FMIC & Air Intake Thread

  1. #1

    Default racebitz's DIY FMIC & Air Intake Thread

    To stop taking over the other intercooler thread with my rambling i thought i would start up a thread and give others a insight on what can be achieved with some spare time,planning and a bit of hard work.

    After finding out that there is a serious lack of aftermarket parts for the MPS's in Aus and then the Aussie $$ going down the toilet i decided to make my own FMIC setup to save some cash. The FMIC is only a temporary thing as i will be using a W2A setup once i can plan it all out and find the componants i want. Anyway, heres a few quick pics, i will throw up more detailed ones once i have it all together and run though the installation and parts list.

    I will start off with the cooler install as the intake placement is determined by the piping and will be done last.

    As my 3 is used for daily duties and we traded the spare car in when we purchased it i had no choice but to do the install in stages. First stage was to mount the core in place. Here are a few pics to show it mounted. (will take pics of the brackets once finnished)

    Without bar off

    And with the bar fitted.

    The core is mounted from above & below and is very secure, it needs to be with the roads i drive on every day.

    Next part is of course the piping. For this i had to remove the plastic trims from inside the bar on the sides, these are just a few clips and bolts as you may know. I started off with the Hot side piping as this was the most involved. After doing a bit of research on the available kits i was able to figure out the best, and pretty much the only route for the piping and what alloy piping and silicon bends i will needed, however i didnt like the excess use of bends on the other kits piping and wanted to make it as simple as possible and look a lot neater. Clearance with this is the biggest head ache, especially over the top of the engine. It took countless efforts and a lot of headache's for my mate and i to get the clerance i needed while keeping to the plan. Below is a few pics of how it ended up.





    The bracket for the piping is not yet welded on in the pics, and the silicon joiner to the right will not be there in the end, join will be welded. Oh and disregard the hammer . I tried to keep the front section of the piping out of the way and out of view as much as possible. We had an issue with clearance of the piping and the plastic tab that sticks out from the radiator support (that the factory air box joins to) However we spaced it as best we could and once its up and running will check for clearance and any vibrations and decide if it needs to be removed.

    All this went together relatively easy, the only other issue i had was the silicon bend off the turbo. the size is juuust over 2" and has quite a big lip, the 2" to 2.25" silicon bend would not slip over, even when the turbo was hot, silicon was heated up nothing.. The slicon i am using is very stiff in the straight sections and does not expand as easy as softer silicon or rubber. In the end i needed to trim the edge slightly to allow me to get the hose started then with a bit of silicon spray and brute force it slips on, and has become easier with time as the silicon stretched to suit.

    Since then, well today actually, i managed to get the down section of the hot piping almost finnished, was 1 bend short after a slight change to the plan when piping didnt line up as i expected. Should be able to get the last 45bend in and have it set up for welding which has to wait untill wednesday. Another perk of modding your daily

    I will take a few more pics tomorrow and update when i can.

    Jason
    Last edited by racebitz; 27-02-2009 at 06:09 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    One word....Wow....

  3. #3
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    How many kilowats does the hammer give the car??

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by 2000MN View Post
    How many kilowats does the hammer give the car??
    Mte you wouldn believe if i told you!

    Ok, hot side piping is all welded up now, and after a trial fit this afternoon im happy to say it fits up, so im happy with that. Was a bit worried with getting all of it done at the one time without checking in between, but i could only have it off the road for 1 day. Now just got to make up 1 more bracket and get them welded onto the piping and that sides finnished.

    Also made up the MAF sensor housing aswell this week, MY GOD, how much power does the stock air box restrict The thing is an animal now once boost hits. I will say tho that im going to do a bit more work with it as i have flat spots and some hessitation on low revs, would be due to the larger(3") size of the housing if im correct. Im going to chase down some piping closer to standard size and make up another one and see how that goes, also chase up a better filter than the one i currently have on it.She's frigen noisy too Everyone knows its a turbo now, was a bit annoying at first as i dont want to sound like a ricer in a skyline, but just have to put around if i dont want to attract attention.

    Anyway, here are some up to date pics, will throw up a few more detailed shots of the intake once its all sorted.










    Jason

  5. #5
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    Looks great!

  6. #6

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    Thanks, will look better once its all coated, tryin to decide Matt or gloss black.... Goin to paint the valve cover too, and prob get the manifold heat shield coated black aswell to blend it in and keep the heat down some more.

  7. #7
    Nevermind Guest

    Default

    Very nice job.

    How much do you think you saved on this compared to ordering one from the states?

  8. #8

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    nice work..

    yea a running tally would be nice to know if your saving...

  9. #9

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    Interesting to see if it came in under what a CorkSport FMIC with CAI Kit did?

  10. #10

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    What have you guys paid for them? at the moment, i pretty much have all the material i need, except for the clamps and i am just under the $650 mark for both inlet and cooler setup. It will prob be about the $700 mark finnished, but then im going to get it all coated so that will add another priob $200...

    This includes a few parts that i have not used or were not what i needed, and also a few tools along the way.

    It may not be a big difference when the exchange rate was good, but buying one now from oversea's would be a mistake.

  11. #11
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    Good work Racebitz...now how much to make us all one

  12. #12
    Nevermind Guest

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    and install

  13. #13

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    At the moment i just want to get our car sorted and see how things go. If all goes well, which i think it sould i might then look at makin a few sets up. Will need to make up some jigs for the piping. It will be a lot easier next time round tho, thats for sure.

    If we end up doing that i will prob ask for another test car to check fitment again with the pre made pipes, a lucky forum member might get a upgrade for the cost of the parts. I wont do anything like that if im not 100% happy with the fitment and quality of the setup.

    As for fitment, honestly, you wouldn pay someone to fit it, get a mate over and you could have it in and setup in bout an hour, ive got it down to bout 30mins to remove the inlet, front bar and top mount, then install the piping etc... core is alrady mounted, but thats only 4 bolts anyway..

    Gotta work on relocating the pwr steer cooler now, or use another smaller one to fit under the inner guard so i can do the cold side piping.

  14. #14

    Default

    shotgun 2nd test car !!

    lol

    sounds awesome man... am really keen to see the numbers at the end of this...

    my only wish is that i had a decent amount of tools and supplies at home to have a crack at this myself !!

  15. #15

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    Mate, no specialist tools in my garage. I was using an angle grinder with a 1mm wheel to cut the piping at the start, now using a drop saw with blade to suit, lot of time saved with that, but still use the grinder if the cuts close to the bend. Files and sand paper to clean up after the cut (will be purchasing a bench sander soon which will be much better)

    Other than that its pretty much it. The big thing is the time & knowing the right people to help you out.

    It all may sound ghetto, but in the end, its only a cooler setup, im not buiding race engines on my garage floor (all though i have seen some tough ones done like that) As long as you clean out the pipes & check over everything before installing you cant go wrong.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2000MN View Post
    How many kilowats does the hammer give the car??
    And is he still wearing those baggy pants.


    I was surprised how much noisier mine is too post FMIC install, it sounded loud with the CAI, but the CAI and FMIC it's a roar of induction heaven.

    You may be having flat spots etc with your MAF housing because of the lack of air straighteners (as per the stock airbox, and most of the intakes available) the Mazdaspeed CAI has a 3" housing which only seems to really lean the AFRs slightly by fooling the ECU, mind you this was pulled from production and subsequently the air straighteners have been added, so they must make a pretty big difference.

  17. #17

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    Was thinking about getting one of those air straightners you can buy seperate and trying it out, will need to mount the sensor a bit further back to gice some more space tho. Its all a learning curve anyway, will see what we can come up with when we do the next one.

  18. #18

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    Ok, just a quick update, nothing much to report, i have taken off the Inlet and put it back to stock, the new larger MAF housing was showing some lean AFR's on boost so i have decided to make up a new one. Will be making the housing the same ID as the standard setup and see if i can get the figures i want. I have also ordered a new K&N filter which is on back order till early Jan.

    On the cooler side of things im looking around for a small oil cooler core to replace the stock PWR steering tube as it is in the way of the cooler piping (cold side) If i cannot find a decent after market one the size/price i want i will look a bit harder into re locating the stock setup.

    Not sure if i will have any more updates before the new year as work is pretty hectic at the moment, but things should move quickly once the silly season is all over. Stay tuned!

  19. Default

    great job mate.

  20. #20

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    Just waiting on the new K&N filter to arrive (sposed to be by 8/1) and i will get stuck into finnishing this all off.

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