My <$200 ebay fmic kit..

I figured that posting this info would help some of you with this kind of kit.
I bought: Ebay Kit (but ordered black couplings with it (free) to stay away from the ricer look) and a map sensor bung
Total cost, right @ $200

I tried to keep the pipe work as simple and as short as possible..



My routing
Install intercooler temporarily with zip ties to crash bar, in/out side up.

1: Take a 90deg bend pipe and trim ~1".
2. Connect 90 degree bend pipe to the pancake pipe (trimmed side goes to intercooler)
3. Trim 180deg bend pipe ~1.3"
4. Install 180 deg bend pipe with cut side facing intercooler. The correct orientation is to have the pipe touching the condensor fitting next to the radiator, a slight modification (ie hammer) will give you enough room for them not to touch.. I also added a rubber pad in case they do)
5. Connect 45 deg bend pipe to 180 degree bend pipe. Correct orientation is for the pipe to be under driver's side fan and in between oil filter & pass side fan. (you will need to move some wires and maybe slighly re-route the coolant pipe coming off the thermostat)
6. Connect 90 degree bend pipe to 45 degree bend pipe.
7. Fabricate some sort of adapter from 2.5" to the factory intake elbow.


MAP Sensor:
A quick fix for the map sensor involves some RTV and zip ties. Works well to 24 PSI. Hasn't leaked in roughly 1 month, probably going to end up welding it to not catch too much flack


Mounting:
Once you are happy with the piping, attach intercooler with hardware, remove piping and spray hair spray on all the connections (trust me on this it helps you from blowing the pipes off down the road) I tightened the clamps as much as they would go with my 1/4" drive ratchet.

It'll take a good bit of trimming to get your bumper fitting nicely.. but it's possible.

Lip modification:
Now you are left with a dilemma regarding your front end.. either you
1. cut your crash bar and swing lower part of your intercooler up (keeping the hoses/connections where they are) Like this
2. hack your factory lip. Like this
3. Install GLI lip
I choose option 3 for looks & safety:

With intake pipes painted black and grill-inserts back on.


Results:
I have yet to see anything north of 105F intake air temps with my current state of tune driving spiritedly. A vast improvement over stock.

Oh and.. make yourself a free 2.5" turbo intake with left over couplings and piping!

Nice job and good writeup Julian. More pics please

Nice one, i am a big fan of saving bucks and making a custom FMIC work.

May i ask how the heck you managed to fit your bumper grilles back in, I decided to use black silicon for my corners rather than alloy tubing, but i still cant get the grilles back in!

Did you trim some off the back of them to fit?

The only comment I have is that Ebay FMICS don't give you much on the end tanks as far as a decent lip/length to get hose/clamps onto.
I had to use some murray constant tension clamps: http://www.murraycorp.com/index.pl/tss_turbo_seal_series.htm

And the basic silicon they give you generally isn't 3-4ply, its lower and more prone to leaks.


Thanks

mrflashy said:

Nice one, i am a big fan of saving bucks and making a custom FMIC work.

May i ask how the heck you managed to fit your bumper grilles back in, I decided to use black silicon for my corners rather than alloy tubing, but i still cant get the grilles back in!

Did you trim some off the back of them to fit?

The only comment I have is that Ebay FMICS don't give you much on the end tanks as far as a decent lip/length to get hose/clamps onto.
I had to use some murray constant tension clamps: http://www.murraycorp.com/index.pl/tss_turbo_seal_series.htm

And the basic silicon they give you generally isn't 3-4ply, its lower and more prone to leaks.


Thanks

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Had to trim my grilles quite a bit to get them to fit, especially the driver's side one. I've had a boost pipe come off twice because I hadn't used hair spray on that connection.

Julien

LiLredTDI said:

Nice job and good writeup Julian. More pics please

Click to expand...

Thanks! more pics later.

if i have grill fogs this won't work on my car will it?

sardo_67 said:

if i have grill fogs this won't work on my car will it?

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No way

take a look at my thread about the same intercooler kit.. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=261920

I can make the fogs fit back in... I did it on Joe's car.. I'm not a huge fan of using the entire 180 in one piece like you did on the driver's side... I tried doing something like that with mine and it just wasn't happening... the bend was too wide and the next pipe hit the starter..

thanks to both of you for posting your installs. I might go ahead get one.

TDIJetta99 said:

take a look at my thread about the same intercooler kit.. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=261920

I can make the fogs fit back in... I did it on Joe's car.. I'm not a huge fan of using the entire 180 in one piece like you did on the driver's side... I tried doing something like that with mine and it just wasn't happening... the bend was too wide and the next pipe hit the starter..

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've seen your thread. I figured I'd post up my routing for people looking for different options. In terms of the 180 deg pipe it is a pita to fit, but I'm fairly happy with it now. I installed all this stuff with a metal saw and normal hand tools so I was looking to install this with very little modification (especially in case I wasn't happy with the final result and wanted to back-track). I also wanted my upper and lower engine covers to still git without massive modification.

Julien

Nice end look! Very finished for not too much $$$!

I've also been looking at various ebay kits for quite some time now. All said and done, they certainly do represent a good value but I wonder if these Chineseum bar-n-plate IC's actually perform worth a bean compared to some of the more 'legitimate' suppliers like Allard and Eurojet. I'm sure they're miles ahead of the OEM SMIC, or hopefully so, but has anyone done any logs, etc. to verify the relative efficiency?

FlyTDI Guy said:

I've also been looking at various ebay kits for quite some time now. All said and done, they certainly do represent a good value but I wonder if these Chineseum bar-n-plate IC's actually perform worth a bean compared to some of the more 'legitimate' suppliers like Allard and Eurojet. I'm sure they're miles ahead of the OEM SMIC, or hopefully so, but has anyone done any logs, etc. to verify the relative efficiency?

Click to expand...

Even the cheap Chinese FMIC performs well. I have done quite a few logs. See my first post.

Got Bearings? said:

Even the cheap Chinese FMIC performs well. I have done quite a few logs. See my first post.

Click to expand...

Nice to see some numbers. Looks like it makes a significant difference. I have the additional issue of emissions testing. In a perfect world, I'd like to be running a passenger-side outlet PD150/130 intake w/functional EGR (for testing purposes) and upper charge tubing on the passenger side. I have some ideas on how to get there but need to just start ordering parts and futzing around with it. Thanks for the link and it certainly appears as though yours is performing well.

I've done a few with mine as well.. the absolute hottest IAT I've ever seen since the install was 140F... That was on a 85 degree day, running the car full throttle up the mountain with a car on a tow dolly...

I haven't really logged IAT's for a worst case scenario but... on some of the hottest days last summer, I was poking around in the engine compartment w/my IR thermometer and was pretty amazed at some of the temps. The worst I got was 170ºF on a few parts. The upper plastic charge tube was pretty hot too, about 150ºF, IIRC. Looks like I have another project to do for sure. When the weather gets nicer, I'll have to do some logs for a baseline.