AWIC vs. FMIC?

livestrong14 · Post by **livestrong14** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:28 am

I just came across an EVO frontmount IC and it looks like it would fit rather well. Would it be better than the Black AWIC? Which is more efficient?

Thanks,

-Devan

legacymax · Post by **legacymax** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:38 am

from what i can remember, a key to keeping a AWIC system from getting heat soaked is have a good size reservoir in line of the system. What kind of driving do you do?
-Max

livestrong14 · Post by **livestrong14** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:12 am

I will be doing autocross and drag racing.

Post by **Legacy777** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:42 pm

An AWIC setup is much more complicated, and will probably cost you more money to setup properly.

With that said....if you have an AWIC setup properly and it doesn't get heat soaked....it'd probably be better.

I think for your applications though....a FMIC would probably be better.

legacymax · Post by **legacymax** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:49 pm

Legacy777 wrote: I think for your applications though....a FMIC would probably be better.

I don't know, if he is drag racing and autoXing, he could make on ice bath for his AWIC, and it would be great for these short burst actives. Now, if you were doing a bunch of canyon runs, i would suggest the FMIC.
-max

rallysam · Post by **rallysam** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:56 pm

I vote FMIC. The piping is not really elegant, but it works well.

AWIC is complicated, and requires exchanging heat twice instead of once, and seems more susceptable to heat soak than FMIC (albiet not as susceptable as TMIC). Honestly, TMIC is the only one I've ever tried, and it was terrible for all amateur motorsports (drag, autox, rallyx) due to heat soak.

legacymax wrote: I don't know, if he is drag racing and autoXing, he could make on ice bath for his AWIC, and it would be great for these short burst actives. Now, if you were doing a bunch of canyon runs, i would suggest the FMIC.
-max

Vikash did that, and it didn't seem to be very practical. I mean it worked and made his intercooler cold as crap, but he needed a MASSIVE cooler in the back seat (the size of an extra passenger

), and he had to refill it with ice half a dozen times throughout the day.

Post by **Legacy777** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:57 pm

Yeah....I guess he could do that....but is he going to just run a front radiator, or add a separate piping system to run into the ice bath. Depending on the tubing....you start adding more head to the pump, etc, etc. So it's not just a clear cut thing.

If you wanted to run an ice bath type of setup, yeah that would work, but it would need to be permanently mounted for them to allow it in auto-x. (Hell they make you take out floor mats for auto-x.

turboleg · Post by **turboleg** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:18 pm

Since I'm new to the turbo market I don't know how common this is. But an old friend of mine put an FMIC on his Civic, removed the NOS system and reworked it into a CO2 sprayer that cools the IC super quick. He claimed it worked welll for drag. I suppose if it was setup right this could be used on a TMIC as well to reduce heat soke...

C02 is pretty cheap as long as you have a local welding shop/hardware/paintball shop around.

Just an idea.

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:30 pm

I've heard of the C02 type things. They do work....just another option.

elYk7kYle · Post by **elYk7kYle** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:56 pm

kind of a noob to awic and fmic as a mater of fact to but wouldnt there be a way that you could use the freon *spelling?* from the airconditioning pump or whatever to cool the air going into the motor?? i dont know how but there has got to be a way... just a thought... probably not that good but a thought in deed...

Psychoreo · Post by **Psychoreo** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:29 am

i'm sure if you re-route the AC lines and evaporator to the front of the car, put the evaporator inside of a FMIC, ran the piping for a FMIC and turned the AC on full it would do something. Or you could use one of those CO2 things to do the same thing.

turboleg · Post by **turboleg** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:27 am

You would probably need to find a way to keep the air and evaporator seperate. You'd probably end up getting condensation off of the evaporator. Kind of an ugly way to do water injection.

IronMonkeyL255 · Post by **IronMonkeyL255** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:43 pm

elYk7kYle wrote:kind of a noob to awic and fmic as a mater of fact to but wouldnt there be a way that you could use the freon *spelling?* from the airconditioning pump or whatever to cool the air going into the motor?? i dont know how but there has got to be a way... just a thought... probably not that good but a thought in deed...

I believe that Ford had the SVT lightning (supercharged F-150) set up to use the a/c kinda like that.

Haven't had the chance to work on one, though, so I don't know how they have it set up.......

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:50 pm

Using the AC system is not really a productive/efficient way to cool the intake charge because you're using energy from the engine to cool the air....

Most of the time, unless you've bumped the boost up a lot, to gain some extra hp, you're going to lose hp at the lower rpms where you don't need super cold air.

turboleg · Post by **turboleg** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:47 pm

livestrong14 · Post by **livestrong14** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:48 pm

Bump: I would like some more members opinions that have dealt with both. Doug? Matt? Kelly?

turboleg · Post by **turboleg** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:24 pm

Not to muck up the discussion anymore but..back on the AC to tool intercooler deal. I have seen several electric water pumps I wonder if you could use a drive unit like that to rotate an AC compressor to lessen the load on the engine. You'd probably have to make special arangments for RPM differences and Torque outputs for the electronics but it'd be cool.

I still wouldn't try it just because I think you could spend a lot of money really quick.

AWD_addict · Post by **AWD_addict** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:30 pm

If you wanted a really complicated setup you could use the AC to cool water in one AWIC type enclosure, then use the cool water in the real AWIC.

As far as AWIC vs FMIC, the AWIC would probably be better for your applications. As legacymax mentioned, the AWIC is better for short time use periods. It also allows the possibility of sub-ambient intake air temps. If you're doing track races with many laps, the FMIC would be better.

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AWIC vs. FMIC?

AWIC vs. FMIC?