Fmic Upgrade

[DVSTRK]

hey guys i just recently got a FMIC kit fitted on my rb20 r32, the car had turbo back exhaust and knn podfilter, and was running fine, but after the FMIC went on the car felt asif it had alot of lag and the power delivery was very poor, could this be due to running standard boost and not enough pressure in the intake pipes to spool up faster?

and is it normal for the intercooler pipes to be very very hot?

cheers

[2LV8ETR]

hey guys i just recently got a FMIC kit fitted on my rb20 r32, the car had turbo back exhaust and knn podfilter, and was running fine, but after the FMIC went on the car felt asif it had alot of lag and the power delivery was very poor, could this be due to running standard boost and not enough pressure in the intake pipes to spool up faster?

and is it normal for the intercooler pipes to be very very hot?

Two reasons for lag that I can think of:

1: There is a leak in the piping or connections.

2: When you add a larger IC you increase the amount of air through the system due to the larger capacity of the IC and extra piping. This shouldn't make a huge difference though

If the pipes are getting hotter than the last/stock IC then you have either a shithouse or blocked IC. Did you clear all the packaging out of the IC.

Seems weird to me man??

[clip14]

are the post intercooler pipes hot? is it because its running near the exhaust manifold or close to the engine?

a fmic alone wont increase power. it will allow you to run more boost and make more power. the factory intercooler might have been a bit restrictive so if you got a good kit, you might get better flow, but you'll also notice a bit more lag due to increased pressurised intake volume

[R31Nismoid]

Define "a lot of lag".

You talking off/on throttle, inbetween gears etc?

Or you talking rather than boost @ say... 3000rpm, its now 5000rpm?

[GTR-32U]

I am going to assume that your new front mount IC has the return pipe going across the top of the radiator to meet the inlet pipe . But if that is the case look at how much extra pipework and intercooler core that the turbo now has to pressurize.I believe that it is roughly a metre of pipework you would have gained. As for the pipe getting hot, Pre IC it will always get hot when you are boosting it. After IC you would be picking up radiator heat into the IC piping.....Unfortunately we have Nissan engineers to thank for the lovely manifold design.

[femno]

YES an intercooler actually gives you more power compared to the standard one just by itself. Cooler air burns better and gives more power. Like driving on a cold night.

I once did back to back dyno runs, same day, before and after cooler fitment, no other changes. R33 S2.

The power came on a little later (you wouldnt be able to tell on the road) and mid to top end range achieved a gain. Cant remember how much but it was a fair gain.

If its a cheap cooler you couldve gone backwards. Cheap coolers have cheap silicons joiners and cheaply made pipes that promote boost leaks. Running rich under boost? Black Smoke?

[DVSTRK]

YES an intercooler actually gives you more power compared to the standard one just by itself. Cooler air burns better and gives more power. Like driving on a cold night.

I once did back to back dyno runs, same day, before and after cooler fitment, no other changes. R33 S2.

The power came on a little later (you wouldnt be able to tell on the road) and mid to top end range achieved a gain. Cant remember how much but it was a fair gain.

If its a cheap cooler you couldve gone backwards. Cheap coolers have cheap silicons joiners and cheaply made pipes that promote boost leaks. Running rich under boost? Black Smoke?

no the IC was purchased from another forum member but not sure what brand it is, the IC piping kit was purchased from just jap so i assume that the pipes and joiners would be tip top.....

the car starts boosting at 2800rpm till 5500rpm there after has lag and no power til redline....and just today i have noticed that the turbo is making a fairly loud squeeling sound???

mind you a spark plug change and oil change is due??

any ideas...

Edited February 26, 2009 by DVSTRK

[Ultimategtr]

+1 for plugs.. clean or replace plugs, then spanner check the intake pipes.

[simpletool]

Boost leak at one of the joiners - or core is leaking somewhere. There is some kind of inlet piping pressure check you can do with a can.........search or someone might know where it is.

[InterCooL]

sounds like an air leak to me. do a pressure test on the charged pipes, i did this by pulling off the very first and last intercooler pipes, blocking them up and then just plugging a foot pump into one end (i had an air hose barb and tube). pump it up to pressure (i used a boost guage too).

from what you describe you probably have a huge leak, i did too when i put on my fmic kit, one of the joiners just wasnt long enough to make a good seal and i had air going everywhere. as a result, i was loosing air going into the engine, overspooling the turbo, the ecu had no idea what was going on and it made no power.

you don't want to be boosting your car about if its doing this (air leak) cause you'll overspool and kill your turbo

[paulr33]

i dont think anything is wrong

well he needs to "define" what he calls lag

but it is natural for there to be a touch of throttle lag, that is, time between when you open the throttle, to time the engine wakes up

i would anticipate on a std car that has just had a FMIC fitted to be around 300msec ish difference in throttle lag

as the engine has to pressureize the core and pipe work now instead of short pipes and small core

not a big deal, get a tune, exhaust, add more boost and youll forget all about the sub 300msec lag

[R31Nismoid]

.and just today i have noticed that the turbo is making a fairly loud squeeling sound???

You have a cooler piping leak somewhere, a very small one.

Check everything again - TWICE

[DVSTRK]

ok sweet il double check all the silicone joiners and clamps and re tighten them up, hopefully all is well and the lag may not be as much as it is now and the turbo will not make a squeling sound...

i will post up the result of that as soon as i do it....

BTW. the turbo squels at about 5500rpm till the end of the rev range.

[2LV8ETR]

ok sweet il double check all the silicone joiners and clamps and re tighten them up, hopefully all is well and the lag may not be as much as it is now and the turbo will not make a squeling sound...

Use a spray bottle with water mixed with a little detergent on the hose joints and in the intercooler. The bubbles will show up immediately.

[DVSTRK]

all hoses were check and re tightened, it peformed much better dont know if it was due to the weather because it was a cool night....still a little lag but not as much, and the turbo still makes the eeking sound....

thanks for all the help

[boostn0199]

all hoses were check and re tightened, it peformed much better dont know if it was due to the weather because it was a cool night....still a little lag but not as much, and the turbo still makes the eeking sound....

thanks for all the help

you will always feel abit more lag with a fmic on a stock setup , what i did which helped was to do the stock boost solonoid grounding mod which makes it boost quicker and eliminate abit of the lag, wont work if you alreadi got a boost controller but for me i noticed a differnce

[Rekin]

you will always feel abit more lag with a fmic on a stock setup , what i did which helped was to do the stock boost solonoid grounding mod which makes it boost quicker and eliminate abit of the lag, wont work if you alreadi got a boost controller but for me i noticed a differnce

not applicable for r32's, the standard rb20 turbo uses a 10psi actuator. Not a 2stage solenoid as the r33.

[BezerkR32]

i dare say you have an exhaust leak from the base gasket, its common and will make a squealing sound when the car comes on boost. if the cooler pipework has the behind the radiator pipework then it will create lag. swap the pipes over at the point where they run next to each-other near the steer pump, a little bit of a hassle but worth it as it halves the cold pipe distance.

all hoses were check and re tightened, it peformed much better dont know if it was due to the weather because it was a cool night....still a little lag but not as much, and the turbo still makes the eeking sound....

thanks for all the help