Am I Crazy? STI TMIC as FMIC?

[BrandonEchols]

Alright, This might be a completely ridiculous idea, but I'm up for asking and seeing what you guys have to say.
I'm in the planning/thinking stages of my car, and am picking up parts when I have money available, and when I come across deals I can't pass up.
Final goals I'm shooting for is 350-400 HP, well rounded car that can give the subaru boys a good spanking now and then.
Currently I have a Holset HE351VE I'm planning on using with the car, and because of the elbow that is has I was thinking of using a top-to-bottom flow setup, something like the RRE 1G core with custom piping, just to avoid making that 180* turn to go back the other direction for a standard FMIC configuration, and have all that extra wasted piping. I'd like to go as short route as possible, keep my lag to a minimum.
Then I started having a couple crazy ideas, and what I kinda settled on the possibility of running an STI compatible TMIC in the front (possibly something like a Perrin unit, if it'll fit), and a civic half radiator or similar sized unit, each taking up about 50% of the available space where the stock radiator used to reside.
I've made a quick and crappy picture to give an idea of what I'm thinking.
Take a look and tell me what you guys think.

 

[14u2nV]

How would you route the water hoses for the radiator? I don't think the sharp angles would be good??

 

[Muskrat]

I've thought about something similar to this before. Two things to keep in mind:

1) Civic style radiator already looses you a bunch of cooling ability.

2) Having the radiator in front of the turbine is going to allow it to absorb radiant heat off the exhaust/turbine/o2 housing, further reducing it's cooling ability. Heat shields and ceramic coatings will help, but you'll need to do something custom with the Holset.

Your coolant routing is easy to solve by having hard pipes fabed up.

I also don't know if any gain would be seen over a traditional front mount set-up, besides being able to retain all of the front crash bar for safety. Also I think the space is going to be a lot more limited than you think, meaning the size of the core you can run is probably smaller than you're expecting.s

All in all I think it's better to run a full size radiator and a front mount, or go all-out and do an air-water setup.

 

[BrandonEchols]

Really?
I did a quick google search on the civic half rad and found a thread on DSMtalk from Road Race VR-4 saying that he saw lower temps with the half unit than before.
Of course sticking it near the Holset's hotside might change that. I was figuring on coating the hotside though, or using a turbo blanket....maybe both. I've also bought a set of E3 vents from a guy in the UK and am waiting for them to show up, so I think that'll also help with underhood temps.
I was planning on having to run hardpipes, or at least SS braided line with AN fittings for the coolant system.
As far as space goes...that's probably the main concern.
Does anyone know the measurements of that front cutout?
Guess I could do some poking around and get some numbers.
I could also potentially do a little bit of a vertical "V" shape with them to use the space better, and get good airflow to each.

 

[Barnes]

I don't think he'll have to worry too much about cooling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorage,_Alaska#Climate

 

[steve]

Au contraire mon frère. clicky

 

[Barnes]

Zomg Steef is correct. PLUS!! The northern latitudes warm faster than the equatorial regions. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bawling.gif

 

[BrandonEchols]

Actually now I'm taking a more serious look at an air-to-water setup...

 

I wouldn't go A2W unless you live your life a quarter mile at a time.

Added weight, complexity and plumbing to probably perform worse than a simple A2A intercooler.

 

[curtis]

Which ever you use just look at the fact that subaru upgraded the intercooler from the wrx to the sti. That tells me the factory unit on either barely supports whats going on from the factory.

 

[BrandonEchols]

Quoting Darksyne:
I wouldn't go A2W unless you live your life a quarter mile at a time.

Added weight, complexity and plumbing to probably perform worse than a simple A2A intercooler.



I've read that a lot on several forums, but all the people who actually are running them say that it's a great system, as long as you have a properly sized heat exchanger (i.e. - radiator) positioned up front, then it works phenomenally well. Better than an A/A unit in most conditions. The only time I've seen it recommended against by the people who use them is for something like AutoX, where you're in boost most of the time, and have the speed and airflow to make an A/A unit work better.
From what I understand, anytime you're off-boost (which is a lot in a street driven car) an A/W system is cooling, including while you're stopped/ moving slowly - where an A/A unit is not very effective. I think with a proper radiator mounted up front, perhaps two civic half units - one for the motor and one dedicated to the A/W setup, that it would be a great route to go. Thoughts?


Quoting curtis:
Which ever you use just look at the fact that subaru upgraded the intercooler from the wrx to the sti. That tells me the factory unit on either barely supports whats going on from the factory.



You'd think so, but I've read on NASIOC that the stock STI TMIC has been run up to around 400whp, (sounds like some of them were even pushing over 500hp before the stock TMIC became a real restriction) and I believe that is a 18.5x7x3 core.