FMIC or SMIC?

[FlyinMSP]

Yes, but if you put a blow-off valve you'll lose some air (more than with a SMIC) then you have to build pressure again, but with a bigger volume to fill. Does this makes sense, even if it's the end of my day and my brain is fading....

 

[ZenProtege]

I agree with genius.
Get a sidemount for moderate boost and bolt ons. Go with the front mount if you want room to play and better looks.

I was intitially going to get a side mount until I got a killer deal on a used front mount from a friend. I say get the sidemount.

 

[sweetlou69]

go with the fmic.. it mite be alittle more than an smic.. but its worth it.. just upgrade to it no so in a year or so u decide u want more power and then youll need an FMIC.. not to mention how badass your car will look w/a giant FMIC

 

[UnNaturalinc]

Why would you limit yourself by getting a side mount though? If you change your mind later on and want to upgrade further.

The front mounts are not that much more money... I'd say leave it stock or get a front mount. Spend money elsewhere if you can't decide now, it's not like you HAVE to replace it now. I've been running 250hp for over a year on the stocker. :shrug:

 

[genius]

Why would you limit yourself by getting a side mount though? If you change your mind later on and want to upgrade further.

The front mounts are not that much more money... I'd say leave it stock or get a front mount. Spend money elsewhere if you can't decide now, it's not like you HAVE to replace it now. I've been running 250hp for over a year on the stocker. :shrug:

You are blowing hot air LOL! J/K

You are not really limiting yourself at all. The upgraded SMIC is good for 250 ~ 270 HP.

 

[Spooled]

I would have to agree with HP Freak. You can get an FMIC kit for not much more than you'd pay for the SMIC and pipes. Actually, some are less than an SMIC and pipes. Now if the SMIC kit CAME with the pipes, then I'd say the SMIC is the way to go. I just feel that you should swap the pipes at the same time since running higher boost will weaken the the stock ones eventually.

FlyinMSP, you're right on the fact it needs more air to replace the air released from a larger volume, but I did some calculations in another thread a while back about the amount of time it takes to fill the extra volume of expanded pipes. It was quite a bit more volume, and yet the time to fill it was negligible. We are talking 100ths of a second. The extra intake temp drop should out-weight that +/-0.01 sec. spool time.

What you should do is just figure out which SMIC and which FMIC you would want, then weigh the cost/performance between them.

 

[03MSP04EVO]

I called Greddy to ask about their FMIC and they said the project hasn't even been started and they don't think they have enough intrest to put it into production.

I am sad.

 

[Spooled]

You are blowing hot air LOL! J/K

You are not really limiting yourself at all. The upgraded SMIC is good for 250 ~ 270 HP.

I'm not criticising, but what does that really mean? Is that the max air it can flow or the opint of diminishing returns? Or is that where it can't pull enough heat out? And how does it compare to an FMIC on a car at 250hp? Will the SMIC be struggling both with flow and heat while the FMIC is fine? The reason I'm asking is because the FMIC may make it easier to get 250hp (ie - at a lower boost level). Again, I'm not criticising, I'm just interested.

 

[Spooled]

I called Greddy to ask about their FMIC and they said the project hasn't even been started and they don't think they have enough intrest to put it into production.

I am sad.

A Greddy FMIC kit for a Protege is like wearing Air Jordan shoes to a neighborhood basketball game. Sure it looks impressive, but you still can't slam from the free-throw line.

 

[Paul]

the smic is going to give you enough room for the power you want.
my opinion, the fmic looks nice but doesn't do anything for performance unless your shooting for that 250+ hp. even so at 250hp a smic will be fine.
or save urself some money, get some hard pipes and call it a day

 

[terbow]

the smic is going to give you enough room for the power you want.
my opinion, the fmic looks nice but doesn't do anything for performance unless your shooting for that 250+ hp. even so at 250hp a smic will be fine.
or save urself some money, get some hard pipes and call it a day

What do you have to base that on?

to me this thread reminds me of the mpnick upgrade vs gt28rs.speculation.

Unless you do comparative tests with controls theres nothing to be said about either unit comparatively. What we do know is the SMIC WILL heatsoak and run out of steam at some point and the FMIC will continue to perform better until it reaches its limit which is way mroe than the smic. And the location is a factor. The stock smic location is crap there is not NEARLY enough airflow in the air dam to even compare it to the fmic.

with that said, if you plan to boost high, or a good amount of hp dont waste time getting an smic because the day you reach its limits you will wish you hade gotten the bigger unit.

 

[otmsp]

BIGGER is better!

 

[UnNaturalinc]

the smic is going to give you enough room for the power you want.
my opinion, the fmic looks nice but doesn't do anything for performance unless your shooting for that 250+ hp. even so at 250hp a smic will be fine.
or save urself some money, get some hard pipes and call it a day

I run 250hp on the stock IC and have for well over a year now. No, it's not the most efficient thing, but it works for the limited drag racing I do and works just fine for daily driving. If there were no front-mount options and only side mount upgrades available I still would make my own front mount (which we are currently working on). And to say a front mount won't do anything unless you have 250hp + is just crazy talk

I do find it odd you are giving tech advice.



Based on a consumer standpoint (putting my salesman job aside) I just don't see why you wouldn't spend a bit more and have a much better setup. The only reason I would image that Mazda used the side mount in this car is because it was already done. It's the same IC from the turbo diesel models in Europe (from what I understand). Had there not been that application I could only assume there would be a better IC setup (ie, Mazdaspeed Miata). So instead of designing a complete IC setup all they had to do was build a couple pipes to connect everything together. I also would only want a front mout is for the look, I wont deny that.

 

[Spooled]

What about air diversion plates? Does anyone actually sell something like the Circuit Motorsports air diversion dam for the SMIC?

 

[terbow]

I think it would have to be custom. I havent seen any personally.

 

[Spooled]

They put one on a project MSP in one of my mags at home. The idea is to force the air to flow through it rather than past it.

 

[terbow]

oh yea i mean i havent seen any other than those. (ie. none in production)

 

[Spooled]

oh yea i mean i havent seen any other than those. (ie. none in production)

Ah, sorry. I'm really surprised that someone didn't make one to compliment all the SMICs. IT would be a great cheap mod.

 

[terbow]

yea i second that.

 

[UnNaturalinc]

I was going to make one.... just one of those things I never ended up doing though. I just got around to that lower air duct thing for the intake, that was easier to do.