Had a read of all of this.
Jim has nailed it, no matter what you do to a TMIC, it simply cannot do what a FMIC does.
The stock, or any aftermarket TMIC sits in an extremely hot engine bay, with the forces of convection constantly working against it. They do ok, but pound for pound(excuse the pun) the FMIC will cool the air fast, and more efficiently resulting in better combustion, thus power/torque.
If any of you know me from the other forums i have done this to too many cars to mention, its a half day job with a beer in your hand, and i genuinely challenge anyone who has changed to a FMIC to say the tmic was better.
Lag is not noticeable over the TMIC, and the cooling efficiency is much better. The flow of air head on allows the core to work much better, the "used" air then goes to the radiator, and dissapates under the car/some into the engine bay.
The tmic has a small air intake on the bonnet that forces air to change direction to the tmic, and it is also met by all the in engine hot air that is rising, heat sock on all coolers are a constant, the tmic being the worst, it has engine/turbo heat constantly warming it, the fmic only has the radiator.
This is not new info, or groundbreaking, the simple laws of physics dictate the FMIC being better, and for the cost of $5-600, you would be crazy not to do it.
Now the crash bar thing.
i was an assessor for many years with the big insurer, and i know the game, and the rules very well.
Some thoughts
If you remove the crash bar, and installa FMIC, you will be very happy to know you have upgraded your impact protection, a FMIC core is insanely strong and hard to break, it is much stronger then the factory crash bar. true story!
I only insure with shannons these days due to the insane mods lists, and them being quite good to good drivers with a few years on the clock.
Any legal modification you do to the vehicle they will insure, if you read the product disclosure statement there are some exclusions, but nothing that concerns us here.
If you are genuinely worried about removing the crash bar, and installing a fmic, simple, get the car engineered, its cheap, and your then covered.
Now, i want people to take this statement, and not have a go at me, im simply telling you something shpould you have a claim, and it be investigated for the fmic: "IT WAS ON THE CAR WHEN I BOUGHT IT"
Simple, end of story on that one.
i have seen easily 1000's of claims go through with cars that had illegal/non listed modifications, and i have seen some knocked back, however i have ONLY seen mods knocked back for these reasons:
*not listed
*dodgy/illegal installation
A recent example i helped a friend through the process after he crashed his car(his first real accident), long story short, he ran into the car infront of him, and had not updated his policy in 2 years, and he had an insane amount of mods done.
he was lucky they just paid him out, i CANNOT STRESS ENOUIGH list every single modification you do to your car, no joke, evan decals, beacuse if they get damaged in an accident etc, they will not pay for them unless they are stock, my 91 RS liberty has 4 a4 pages of mods, and is comp insured for $27000, and i have listed everything from brembo's to shifter bushings.
I bring this up because i would like people to know there own responsibility, and something that might interest a few, i installed the FMIC on his car, he hit a stationary car doing 60km/h, the fmic hit his tow bar, it didnt go through the fmic, it just bent it, and the whole front got pushed into the engine. this is first hand experience of how strong FMIC's are.
Anyway, i hope some of this has been informative in some way or another. i need coffee....
