Driftmotion vs. HKS Fmic?

[TravisD62]

hey guys, i've done a good amount of research and it seems the driftmotion fmic kit is great quality. i'm undecided at the moment because i can get a full hks kit for $1100, or i could spend half that on the driftmotion.... I have a garrett gt35r going into the car all the supporting mods and am shooting for 600rwhp on boost. will the driftmotion be able to handle that power? and i also understand the installation of that kit is alot better than it used to be? i really don't want to be makeshifting brackets and ziptying things. thanks.

Travis

 

[91Supra313]

why not start off by asking driftmotion. bigaaron (spelling??) is from there. He would know better then anyone else.

 

[3p141592654]

Not to rag only on DM because all the vendors IMHO can improve their FMIC kit descriptions. Given the cost of these kits, the level of effort the vendors put in to describing what you get is abysmal. I've actually had vendors tell me to search the forums to find install pictures because they don't have any themselves! Things they almost never tell are whether the FMIC installs to the stock mounting points, whether it needs custom fabrication of brackets, whether it requires mods to the hood latch, OEM oil cooler, tiedown hooks, etc, plus even basic stuff like the pipe diameters, FMIC dimensions, etc. are usually missing. This includes the pricey HKS and Greddy and similar stuff where they often just have some generic picture of a Mitsubishi kit and some vague description. Before I plunk down $1k I want to know what I am getting. Talking to the vendors is time consuming and frustrating, wish they would just improve the kit descriptions.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Not to rag only on DM because all the vendors IMHO can improve their FMIC kit descriptions. Given the cost of these kits, the level of effort the vendors put in to describing what you get is abysmal. I've actually had vendors tell me to search the forums to find install pictures because they don't have any themselves! Things they almost never tell are whether the FMIC installs to the stock mounting points, whether it needs custom fabrication of brackets, whether it requires mods to the hood latch, OEM oil cooler, tiedown hooks, etc, plus even basic stuff like the pipe diameters, FMIC dimensions, etc. are usually missing. This includes the pricey HKS and Greddy and similar stuff where they often just have some generic picture of a Mitsubishi kit and some vague description. Before I plunk down $1k I want to know what I am getting. Talking to the vendors is time consuming and frustrating, wish they would just improve the kit descriptions.

x1000

I hope Aaron and a few other vendors read that and take it to heart. I choose my mods VERY, VERY carefully and if there is any doubt as to the install effort required that makes a HUGE difference in my purchasing. I think it's perfectly logical for any vendor to have 10+ pics of install and procedures necessary for their products to be used, especially when it's a custom kit.

All that being said, Aaron @ DM is by far the best vendor I've ever dealt with. He's gone above and beyond what I would expect from most vendors and his level of service has yet to be met by anyone else I've dealt with. Driftmotion rocks.

 

[Nick M]

Things they almost never tell are whether the FMIC installs to the stock mounting points, whether it needs custom fabrication of brackets, whether it requires mods to the hood latch, OEM oil cooler, tiedown hooks, etc, plus even basic stuff like the pipe diameters, FMIC dimensions, etc. are usually missing.

This is one of the reasons for me to order up from Cartech over the also high quality HKS. The pictures on Bishops page of the HKS unit look really good, but the Cartech picture shows the mounts as being the same.

 

[3p141592654]

The lack of any performance data is also really annoying. George Spears taught everyone years ago how to measure the performance of an intercooler, but I have not seen a single manufacturer publish even basic stuff like efficiency and pressure drop. If I was to go by the vendors the only performance metric is the intercooler thickness! Well, I live in hope that some day vendors will provide real data on the IC products they sell.

http://www.turboneticsinc.com/all_about_intercooling

 

[Nick M]

The lack of any performance data is also really annoying. George Spears taught everyone years ago how to measure the performance of an intercooler, but I have not seen a single manufacturer publish even basic stuff like efficiency and pressure drop. If I was to go by the vendors the only performance metric is the intercooler thickness! Well, I live in hope that some day vendors will provide real data on the IC products they sell.

http://www.turboneticsinc.com/all_about_intercooling

I have an (many) old tech article from Turbo magazine that did the testing.

The factory intercooler leaves little to be desired with regards to both pressure drop and cooling effectiveness. When we ran our first dyno tests on the Supra (TURBO Jan '87) we thought the restriction at higher boost pressures was actually in the turbo, but in conferring with Cartech, Spearco and HKS it was found that the stock intercooler itself was a major contributor to the problem. Testing at Cartech showed the stock intercooler to have a 3 psi pressure drop a 6.8 psi and a whopping 4.3 psi pressure drop at 9 psi. In other words, the turbo had to do the same work and therefore, produce heat as if it was run at 13.3 pounds of boost, while the engine itself was only seeing 9 pounds of boost.


All of these intercoolers are similar in size except that the Spearco unit also employs slightly larger diameter tubing in some locations going to and from the intercooler.


The only intercooler we were able do to an actual before and after test with on our own car was one of the units from Cartech. At stock boost pressure we found an 11-horsepower gain between the stock and Cartech intercooler. While this gain was actually measured at the stock (8 psi w/exhaust) boost pressure, it should be noted that intercooler efficiencies are best tested in a real world or street environment with actual air flow across the core. Previous testing on the Cartech intercooler showed a 7/10 psi drop at 6.8 psi and 1.10 psi at 14 psi which basically agreed with our dyno runs. In addition to actual pressure drop, Cartech testing of the intercooler showed 89% efficiency vs. 68% on the factory unit. With the similarity in intercooler upgrades, it would be safe to say that any one of these would be an almost mandatory option if you are starting to go for serious boost.

 

[3p141592654]

That is useful info on an old school intercooler. I would like to see comparisons with the newer knockoff stuff on Ebay and other places. Any newer test data available from these mags that you are aware of?

 

[Nick M]

I haven't seen any. If they are not telling lies about Spearco cores, it has to work decent. Meaning those units that claim to be a Spearco core. The Cartech unit was a Spearco core. At one time. Come to think of it, the Reg Reimer page has the HKS unit on his Celica Supra, and picked up about 20 hp at 14 psi. I want to say he went from 339 to 364 rwhp.

A 4.3 psi drop across the core at 13 psi. How nice.

 

[JDMMA70]

AMS Did a test ill see if I can find it. But it showed eBay cores lacking in efficiency compared to HKS, Spearco and GReddy cores. And even their own in house core was lacking compared to the big names.

 

[3p141592654]

That would be great to see. AMS = Alamo Motor Sports?? They used to sell the Cartech IC kit.

 

[Nick M]

http://www.alamomotorsports.com/AMS/ams_ic_supra.html

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