bencb44

I've been thinking about either geting a fmic or v-mount when I finally get my new turbos, so I've talking to my dad about it because he's a mechanical engineer, or used to be anyways, and he said he thinks it's a better idea to mount the radiator vertically in the front and then the itercooler behind it. Has anybody tried it and how did it work out?

Fd3BOOST

Yea Mazda mounted it that way stock from the factory. What would be the gain by moving it all a few inches forward? Ducts get the air there already. I don't know but seems pointless to me.

FD3S DRIFT

i dont think the intercooler would work properly. do the stock fans suck air out or push air threw? if it was sucking air out that would be dumb because all that hot *** air would be going into your intercooler.

DUB

how would you get air, that could be ducted, to the IC??



Air intake temps are just as important to a "performance" motor's health as good cooling is.



Mazda did the best they could with the space constaints. Even works well with an upgraded SMIC and a single turbo...



with proper maintanance and cooling upgrades stock radiator location is fine.



my $0.02

DUB

Stock fans suck hot air out of the radiator and blow it on the stock intercooler.

FD3S DRIFT

wow thats retarted. so yeah they would be shooting really hot air into the intercooler with your relatives setup, this is not the best idea

maxcooper

If the same air will be going through the radiator and the IC, you must put the IC first. It only makes heat when you are on boost, where the radiator is always hot. If the water temp is 200F and you have the IC after the radiator, the best air temps you could get will be in the same ballpark (200F), which is way too hot. Any air that goes through both cores must go through the IC first. You can also split the air and have some go through IC only, some through rad only, and/or some through IC and then rad. You can choose any or all of these options to make the system work.



The stock system splits the air and sends some through the IC core (and some of that goes into the intake instead of through the IC) and some through the radiator. The radiator air blows on the IC assembly, but it doesn't blow through the IC core (though when your intake is sucking mad air, apparently it can suck some hot engine bay air backwards through the IC, which prompted Mazda to redesign that setup in later non-U.S. market cars).



-Max

bencb44

Thank you very much. I've been trying to tell him it's a bad idea, but he won't listen. I didn't know why, but I knew there had to be a good reason why noone did that.