What are the performance gains from having a front mount intercooler? Are they mostly just for looks?

 

no, not for looks, since the IC is in the front it gets more air and therefore cools down the intake charge more efficently than the stock side mounts, which not only have plastic endtanks resulting in boost leaks and also since their next to the engine more suseptible to heat soak.

 

not to mention the size of you HS math book. A proper sized core will cool the iat (intake air temps) to near outside temps and will not have any real pressure drop (less than 1psi)

 

When is it a good time to move from a stock IC to a FMIC? I'm sure the stock one is good up to a point where the IC is useless and restrictive.

 

you will start to notice that you make great power with a chip when you first get on it and then it will seem less powerful after a few hard pulls. This is because the extra heat from the turbo is already more than what the crappy stock intercooler can handle. So the sooner the better, if you can afford it. A decent mod you can do in the mean time is to take a 1/4 drill bit and drill a good amount of holes in the driver side wheel well. This will let the hot air leave from around the core and increase flow. Should help prevent heatsoak a little longer.

 

I did some Vag-Com logs before and after my FMIC installation and the intake air temperature went down from about 60 to 16 degrees (I am running GIAC FXK03 which is fairly aggressive). Also my timing correction factors were decreased on all cylinders. The exhaust gas temperature was also decreased after installing the FMIC. If you want I can try to dig out the logs and post them for you.

 

OK - here is question for everyone - I live in ND (yeah me) so it gets COLD here in the winter - sometimes 20-30 below the donut. so how will and FMIC work when its that damn cold out? Will I have any problems?

 

I live in northern Ontario, Canada. Last winter we hit -40F (without wind chill, one day we hit -70F with wind chill). It was my first winter with the FMIC. No problems whatsoever.

 

Thanks for the responces guys. I am going\to have to look into getting one. Do you reccomend any kits?

 

Besides having really low iat? You wont have any problems. I dont know what you could see being wrong.