Re: FMIC Questions (G60ING)
G60ING:I think there might be one way to do a FMIC on a Corrado with a/c retained but you will need a custom radiator, condensor, fan. They need to be 2" shorter so the IC pipes can go over the top of the items to where the IC has been grafted into the front coresupport and bumper. A lot of work when a charge cooler can give similar results and not cause a lot of hacking.
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Well, not really. No custom work needed for radiator or AC... as you know I was not willing to sacrifice my creature comforts for my FMIC, and I retained all the AC and my larger-than-stock radiator without modifying them at all. What I did was copy the Audi 5000 IC which has the inlet/outlet on the same side, make a nice large u-bend reservoir for a smooth 180* air transition, and in retrospect I did not have to carve so much out of the bumper as I did... it only needed to be trimmed a bit. Ah well, result of being the guinea pig. Padfan1's turned out much cleaner as far as the bumper cutting goes. "Hacking" isn't required... now that we know what we're doing, it's only a couple hours labor to trim the bumper and center core. Not too bad.
As far as the "inefficiency" of the 180* bend on the end tank is concerned, if you add up all the angle changes necessary in order to run the Rallye outlet and have the FMIC flow left to right like a standard core, you will find that you end up with the exact same angle transition figure as my setup. Both add to approx 540* from charger to TB. It's just that with one you have the 180* bend at the charger, and one has the bend at the IC. Either way you have the same amount of changes in air direction, the same amount of volumetric efficiency. 26whp sure made it worth my time.