Weedy
03-27-2007, 11:23 PM
Ok, ok I know there are a hundred different threads out there about intercoolers blah blah, but I thought I would post up a review about the new TMIC that I just installed last night.
There has already been a couple of reviews on the vendor, so I will not say anything else but that it was friendly service, and eager for my business. There was a slight mistake on the shipping address, although nothing that couldn't be corrected with UPS.
Now to the product itself. The kit was very complete first of all. In fact a friend of mine who is a fellow board member here, commented that the kit I received was more complete than the one he purchased a while back for his STi. As well as he paid more for his intercooler than I did mine. The packaging was creative, although it definitely served the purpose well. The equipment all arrived without any damage, and all required components were there. This included the TMIC itself, hard y-pipe, silicone couplers and turbo outlet, as well as the three gaskets and nice t-bolt clamps for the connections. The components fit together well, although the gaskets were slightly off on their cuts. Nothing a steady hand can't take care of with a little bit of time.
The installation was as sraight forward as any other TMIC install, although I did have to remove my strut tower bar for the installation as the TMIC actually hit that bar when trying to lower it into the engine bay. Once this was out of the way, I only ran into two other slight problems which were quite simple to fix. FIrst the throttle body hose coupler that they provide you with is too long, and the IC would not sit down far enough on the TB to get the turbo outlet pipe on the turbo. I switched back to the stock throttle body silicone hose, and that problem was solved. The second small issue was the outlet hose connection to the turbo. It was very tight, and actually the coupler needs to be slid down almost to the end of the y-pipe in order to have enogh length to get the hose connected. After these two issues were taken care of, everything else was like butter. Installation took all of about an hour and a half as I was not sure the exact steps that I would have to take for the installation. Now that I have put one of these in, I would be confident in saying that I could do another installation of these in less than an hour start to finish, and taking my time.
My initial driving impressions of this IC are good. Slightly more lag with my VF30 than before, although boost seems much smoother. I have not done some major pulls yet to see how much my EGTs dropped, although I am confident that I will notice a significant difference. Right now I am only running about 1.2BAR on my VF30 and pump gas, but going from the stock TMIC I am sure I am running much safer and able to squeeze a little more power out of my car if I want to.
Overall I would give this TMIC a 4 out of 5 rating, and would not hesitate to suggest this IC to a friend.
PS - NO I did not go through my hood scoop with those screws when I modified the stock splitter! :lol:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/HackedSplitter.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewICFront.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewICLeft.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewICRight.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/SplitterBottom.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewIC.jpg
There has already been a couple of reviews on the vendor, so I will not say anything else but that it was friendly service, and eager for my business. There was a slight mistake on the shipping address, although nothing that couldn't be corrected with UPS.
Now to the product itself. The kit was very complete first of all. In fact a friend of mine who is a fellow board member here, commented that the kit I received was more complete than the one he purchased a while back for his STi. As well as he paid more for his intercooler than I did mine. The packaging was creative, although it definitely served the purpose well. The equipment all arrived without any damage, and all required components were there. This included the TMIC itself, hard y-pipe, silicone couplers and turbo outlet, as well as the three gaskets and nice t-bolt clamps for the connections. The components fit together well, although the gaskets were slightly off on their cuts. Nothing a steady hand can't take care of with a little bit of time.
The installation was as sraight forward as any other TMIC install, although I did have to remove my strut tower bar for the installation as the TMIC actually hit that bar when trying to lower it into the engine bay. Once this was out of the way, I only ran into two other slight problems which were quite simple to fix. FIrst the throttle body hose coupler that they provide you with is too long, and the IC would not sit down far enough on the TB to get the turbo outlet pipe on the turbo. I switched back to the stock throttle body silicone hose, and that problem was solved. The second small issue was the outlet hose connection to the turbo. It was very tight, and actually the coupler needs to be slid down almost to the end of the y-pipe in order to have enogh length to get the hose connected. After these two issues were taken care of, everything else was like butter. Installation took all of about an hour and a half as I was not sure the exact steps that I would have to take for the installation. Now that I have put one of these in, I would be confident in saying that I could do another installation of these in less than an hour start to finish, and taking my time.
My initial driving impressions of this IC are good. Slightly more lag with my VF30 than before, although boost seems much smoother. I have not done some major pulls yet to see how much my EGTs dropped, although I am confident that I will notice a significant difference. Right now I am only running about 1.2BAR on my VF30 and pump gas, but going from the stock TMIC I am sure I am running much safer and able to squeeze a little more power out of my car if I want to.
Overall I would give this TMIC a 4 out of 5 rating, and would not hesitate to suggest this IC to a friend.
PS - NO I did not go through my hood scoop with those screws when I modified the stock splitter! :lol:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/HackedSplitter.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewICFront.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewICLeft.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewICRight.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/SplitterBottom.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w186/JWeedy21/NewIC.jpg