I am going to upgrade to a fmic finally and unsure about going with under routed or over routed piping. I would really love the clean engine bay and shorter air pathway of the under routing, but am curious about how much of a difference it’s going to make? Are the benefits worth the extra pain of installation?
Genpu Speed 3 under route vs. over route Intercooler piping
- Thread starter Jtotheonah
- Start date
Those benefits are up to you to decide, clean bay is nice, hassle of under route piping is harder to check clamp tightness, and sometimes getting the pipes sitting correctly. However if you take the time to do properly the first time you won't be plagued with hassles. Clocking the turbo can be a pain sometimes.
Really it's up to you, people that have it will tell you yes, others will say it was a hassle but they liked it. Some will say they with they didn't. I for one for street use and light track days don't believe FMIC is worth it at all for power goals and will be keeping the TMIC.
If you want it, just go get the HTP under route and enjoy the bay.
Really it's up to you, people that have it will tell you yes, others will say it was a hassle but they liked it. Some will say they with they didn't. I for one for street use and light track days don't believe FMIC is worth it at all for power goals and will be keeping the TMIC.
If you want it, just go get the HTP under route and enjoy the bay.
thought there was a recent one...someone will hopefully learn to search *cough* OP *cough*
Yea I'm definitely a big fan of having a clean engine bay !
Lol. That thread doesn't really answer my question because I'm specifically trying to find out peoples opinions/experiences between under route and over route intercooler piping.
Mauro_Penguin
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Speaking from experience with the HTP kit...
Underengine piping is a pain in the dick to work on. You really have to have skinny arms and small hands to tighten the hot pipe properly since the downpipe will be in the way.
You have to dismantle the cold pipe for several maintenance procedures in the car, then when reassembled you need to do a proper boost leak test because of how much the piping can shift which can potentially leak. I used to religiously boost leak test the car every month and I would constantly find leaks, I even replaced all the tbolt clamps and added support brackets with no improvement.
With the kit, changing plugs and removing the HPFP for cleaning was easy. Yes the cleaner engine bay is nice. Overall the piping is inconvenient. I ended up going back to a TMIC after having the front mount for almost 5 years and I'm much happier now.
If you do have your heart set on a FMIC, I would suggest HTP for the underengine kit, and Cobb for the overengine piping. Both are quality piping that dont crush and they also have the least amount of couplers for less leaks. Stay the fuck away from Treadstone, their piping and tbolt clamps are garbage.
Underengine piping is a pain in the dick to work on. You really have to have skinny arms and small hands to tighten the hot pipe properly since the downpipe will be in the way.
You have to dismantle the cold pipe for several maintenance procedures in the car, then when reassembled you need to do a proper boost leak test because of how much the piping can shift which can potentially leak. I used to religiously boost leak test the car every month and I would constantly find leaks, I even replaced all the tbolt clamps and added support brackets with no improvement.
With the kit, changing plugs and removing the HPFP for cleaning was easy. Yes the cleaner engine bay is nice. Overall the piping is inconvenient. I ended up going back to a TMIC after having the front mount for almost 5 years and I'm much happier now.
If you do have your heart set on a FMIC, I would suggest HTP for the underengine kit, and Cobb for the overengine piping. Both are quality piping that dont crush and they also have the least amount of couplers for less leaks. Stay the fuck away from Treadstone, their piping and tbolt clamps are garbage.
Thanks so much that was very insightful ! My heart is definitely set on the front mount, so it sounds as though overengine piping will be much easier to live with ? That's a relief as I was not very excited about having to clock the turbo
Bro, I made that other post. And I was debating like you going above or below. I ended up using my CX racing pipes I had lying around. I have no complaints. Its super easy to move when you need like changing plugs. I will save under-mount for when I have everything I want and then need to do things I don't really need but want to.
Yea man. I'm not a super experienced wrench and I do plan on stocking my car out when time (eventually) comes to sell. The over mount kit just seems like much less of a hassle. Having a fabricator make me an over mounted kit that runs over the air intake piping along the right-hand side of the engine and then downward so the top of the engine will be easily accessible
