Now that I’ve been doing more track days, I’ve started coming across some of the limitations of the stock setup. While I’ve addressed things like oil cooling and oil starvation, I hadn’t messed with anything on the intake side, other than having an cone air filter. Actually, when I first got the car, I switched from the AMS intercooler it came with to a stock one, for two reasons: one was for rules, as the car was to run in STU, and the other was for weight savings – the AMS, and bar and plate (most aftermarket) intercoolers weigh around double (25-30lbs) what tube and fin (OEM, rare for aftermarket) intercoolers weigh (~15lbs). Because the cooling efficiency is so much better on bar and plate, that is what most aftermarkets go with. If I were running more power than what I currently am, I may have considered a bar and plate intercooler. Given that I’m relatively low power and only encounter knock when the car heat soaks, I decided to try to find a decent quality tube & fin.

The only one I could really find ended up being the Blitz FMIC. I picked this part up from Nengun Performance. The volume of the Blitz is about 10% larger than the OEM intercooler, while being better designed IMO. Since the FMIC’s main role is to cool air from heat soak, I figured this was good enough for me. It weighs 12lbs, vs the OEM 9.9lbs. The intercooler is longer and shorter, which provides more clearance for the radiator and fan behind it, which is a nice added bonus. Both holes in the Evo’s lower bumper now become “functional,” as both arms of the FMIC now see airflow (more on that later). The build quality on this thing is amazing, and while I don’t think it will get rid of knock per se, I think it’s a great compromise for more cooling without the weight of a bar and plate FMIC.

The other part of this is the LICP. I already had an LICP, a Buschur one I believe, but the design of it is quite outdated. While the LICP fit the OEM intercooler & the AMS older style one, the way it angled up made it incompatible with the Blitz FMIC, and most other FMICs sold today. I needed to get a new LICP, which I only found out after putting everything together. I’ve been getting a lot of stuff from MAPerformance these days, so I reached out to them to see what options they had. There are stainless steel and aluminum variants, and I decided to get their stainless steel LICP, coated with heat coating. I don’t think this will do too much – air passes from the intake to the turbo, and turbo to LICP, then through the FMIC – the LICP’s location shouldn’t really see much heat, aside from general heat radiating from the engine – not to mention the turbo, and the air it generates, already likely sees a good amount of heat. Still, I figured this wouldn’t hurt, so I went ahead and got it. I did have to clean the inside of it, spraying in water, brake cleaner, and more water, as there was a lot of dust in it from the coating process.

It features the straight-out design I needed, and after getting some new clamps (“2.25 inch actually 2.5-2.75” clamps), I was finally able to bolt everything back together. All I’m waiting on now is my rear diff and the car will be ready to race again. I’ve got a new 100 cell (to replace my 200 cell) cat coming, and those will be my preliminary steps to eliminate some of the on-track knock I’m seeing.

Original (OEM) FMIC & New Blitz FMIC, and old LICP:

New LICP:

Some of the fitment for the FMIC was tricky to line up to the UICP, so I used a couple of washers to line it up a little better. Since this is the UICP side, it won’t matter too much:

Everything fully installed, STM crash beam back on, wider fitment and arms now seeing airflow through the two holes in the front bumper, and how everything looks fully installed now: