Similar to the walnut blasting thread, there are a lot of walk throughs out there that are excellent. I won't waste your time and bandwidth with unnecessary pics. That said, there are a few things that would make life easier were I to repeat the process.
1: Hand saw and/or portable (small) circular saw. The dremel is for patient people and small cuts. To make the 7" FMIC fit you're removing a LOT of the shroud. Don't be shy. I wasted 2 hours making sure I understood things correctly before ripping and snorting stuff off.
2: 8 & 10 mm racheting and flexible wrenches are (obviously in addition to a regular socket set) important for making things go easy.
3: FMIC clamps are, as always, a PITA. Just take your time. You'll probaby end up removing the FMIC at least once after you put it in b/c a clamp/connector doesn't line up as well as you thought, and you're trying to hurry but not so much that you want a good 'ole P30FF.
4: Things always come up. This is part of life and pretty much any time you do anything to your car. In my case, the FMIC was damaged in shipping. Now, I could have emailed Tiago and I'm sure he would have cut me a deal or shipped me a new one, but seeing as I have some level of pride in myself as an engineer, a man, and it's a waste of time/money to ship something across the US for a minor issue, I opted to resolve the problem on my own.
Pictures 1 through 6 show what the issue was. The FMIC outlet shifted in shipping and was damaged, a flat spot on the side. Doubtless UPS had fun kicking it from MA to AZ. Regardless, while this isn't a big deal, I feel that boost leaks because of uneven clamping are right up there with burnt nachos and aids as far as things that suck.
I got a similar, but smaller, sized pipe that would fit in the FMIC piping. I purchased 2" diameter 5" long section at home depot for $6.50. I used a scrap piece of 2x6 and cut out a rough shape of the piping, with a VEE notch under where the dent was, inserted the steel pipe in the FMIC, put the assembly on top of the 2x6 (had a friend hold it steady), and tapped the steel pipe downward (toward the dent) with a hammer a few times until it looked good. Just passing it on to you guys in the unhappy event that the same thing happens to you and you want to learn a little trick to make stuff better.
Pictures 7-9 show the shroud. For the VRSF 7", don't do what I did and dick around. Cut it off. You can see the shroud pretty clearly in pic 7. In pic 8, where I'm pointing, basically saw down through all that stuff. Actual saw point, IIRC was maybe another inch or so wider. You'll be able to tell when you put the FMIC up for fitment. Pic 9 shows some mounting screws which you may be wondering what you'll do with. Nothing. They go away. Don't worry about it.
Pic 10 shows it installed, straight, no gap to speak of, no problems. Charge air temps appear to be substantially lower than the OEM FMIC. I've been monitoring my charge air temps and they've consistantly been 20* above ambient, at speed on the highway. Under boost or idle or stop and go traffic, 30-40*+ above ambient. A quick drive around after idling for a while showed 15* above ambient. I'll update this better when I can make a more positive statement.
Hope it's helpful to some of you.
1: Hand saw and/or portable (small) circular saw. The dremel is for patient people and small cuts. To make the 7" FMIC fit you're removing a LOT of the shroud. Don't be shy. I wasted 2 hours making sure I understood things correctly before ripping and snorting stuff off.
2: 8 & 10 mm racheting and flexible wrenches are (obviously in addition to a regular socket set) important for making things go easy.
3: FMIC clamps are, as always, a PITA. Just take your time. You'll probaby end up removing the FMIC at least once after you put it in b/c a clamp/connector doesn't line up as well as you thought, and you're trying to hurry but not so much that you want a good 'ole P30FF.
4: Things always come up. This is part of life and pretty much any time you do anything to your car. In my case, the FMIC was damaged in shipping. Now, I could have emailed Tiago and I'm sure he would have cut me a deal or shipped me a new one, but seeing as I have some level of pride in myself as an engineer, a man, and it's a waste of time/money to ship something across the US for a minor issue, I opted to resolve the problem on my own.
Pictures 1 through 6 show what the issue was. The FMIC outlet shifted in shipping and was damaged, a flat spot on the side. Doubtless UPS had fun kicking it from MA to AZ. Regardless, while this isn't a big deal, I feel that boost leaks because of uneven clamping are right up there with burnt nachos and aids as far as things that suck.
I got a similar, but smaller, sized pipe that would fit in the FMIC piping. I purchased 2" diameter 5" long section at home depot for $6.50. I used a scrap piece of 2x6 and cut out a rough shape of the piping, with a VEE notch under where the dent was, inserted the steel pipe in the FMIC, put the assembly on top of the 2x6 (had a friend hold it steady), and tapped the steel pipe downward (toward the dent) with a hammer a few times until it looked good. Just passing it on to you guys in the unhappy event that the same thing happens to you and you want to learn a little trick to make stuff better.
Pictures 7-9 show the shroud. For the VRSF 7", don't do what I did and dick around. Cut it off. You can see the shroud pretty clearly in pic 7. In pic 8, where I'm pointing, basically saw down through all that stuff. Actual saw point, IIRC was maybe another inch or so wider. You'll be able to tell when you put the FMIC up for fitment. Pic 9 shows some mounting screws which you may be wondering what you'll do with. Nothing. They go away. Don't worry about it.
Pic 10 shows it installed, straight, no gap to speak of, no problems. Charge air temps appear to be substantially lower than the OEM FMIC. I've been monitoring my charge air temps and they've consistantly been 20* above ambient, at speed on the highway. Under boost or idle or stop and go traffic, 30-40*+ above ambient. A quick drive around after idling for a while showed 15* above ambient. I'll update this better when I can make a more positive statement.
Hope it's helpful to some of you.