i understand your sleeper aspect, but never sacrifice looks over speed, your going turbo to be faster obviously so i would just get a fmic and get it anodized black

 

show it, let everybody see it

 

Im not trying to be mean, but I dont think you have any idea what youre talking about.

Anyways, Im not really sure how much boost you would be pushing on your tib with the T25, but Im going to assume its less then 15psi which is what my talon is doing with T25 and stock intercooler. So really there is no need to even get a FMIC unless you plan on running a bigger turbo in the future.

 

i knew there'd be one (no offense taken btw)! yeah i'll admit i don't know a whole lot about turbos, but i know a bit. i wonder how a black coating on a fmic does not hinder the cooling effect? i'm gonna look into that (not calling anyone a liar). to clarify my previous post, if your going to hide your turbo and run a sleeper-... having a blow off valve is a great indication that it's turbo'd (unless it's the recirculating type), so whatever you do no RFLBOV!!! as far as the front mount goes-... i don't like them, so if i HAD to have a front mount, yeah i'd paint it black (and put my car up for sale j/k). but can anyone actually say that a fmic is more efficient than a liquid to air intercooler (really i might be wrong)? it just seems wrong to me to flaunt a bare metal fmic on a sleeper. in my opinion if your gonna stick with the sleeper look, go liquid to air, or smic, or black fmic. if you have a bare metal fmic on your car, you're just another turbo'd car.

 

All turbo cars need a BOV. Otherwise the pressure would surge backwards into the turbo. Liquid/air intercoolers work better then air/air but are far more expensive and not practical for something like this. Only thing I can think of that would make a black intercooler not cool as well is if it was sitting in the sun...heatsoak. Otherwise there is no performance loss unless its some really thick paint that effects airflow.

 

^^^ Not true, any time you paint something like that you harm it's ability to radiate heat.

 

Intercooler efficiency and radiating heat don't really fall into play, its the air passing over it that cools down the charge. Much like the air feels colder when your riding a bike then walking. Even then, a LIGHT coat of black paint isn't going to effect radiating the heat much.

And yea, you need a BOV if your running 8psi or more unless your going to be replacing turbos ever so often. Compressor surge sounds sick but isn't a good thing.

 

If an intercooler didn't radiate heat then it wouldn't do anything. The metal of the intercooler radiates the heat from the inside out into the air passing over. If you paint the outside you will inhibit this transfer, and I would imagine it is a measurable difference.

 

Perhaps I worded that wrong, a different try maybe.

Most of the heat transfer as the air goes in through the fins, all of which would not get painted. The outside that would get painted does not get much air contact...

 

whiplash, there is a type of bov that you can't hear. it basically recycles the air that is "blown off" by routing it back into the intake. i believe wrx's come with a recirculating bov, stock. as for the price of a liquid to air intercooler, check ebay they're not that bad (keeping in mind you'd still have to buy electric water pump, resivior unless you convert your wiper fluid resivior, and a heat exchanger). i mean if it's a sleeper-... "a job worth doing, is a job worth doing right"-...liquid to air. if you wanna flaunt, go get a bare metal fmic. either way any kind of intercooler is better than nothing. i'd just figure, if you're gonna spend a bunch of money on turboing it, why not go the extra mile and be that much more efficient.