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4 minute(s) of a 643 minute read
6-8-2011
Installed the Fast Motorsports Front Mount Intercooler (FMS FMIC) yesterday. Honestly, it was a huge pain in the ass. I expected it wouldn't be a perfect fit (due to what I've read online), but it really took a considerable amount of work to get it on the car. The mounting holes in the core and bumper beam just were not well placed. Had to drill out all 6 mounting holes in the core. Even then it's still not a very good fit, but I did get all the bolts in place. This has been brought up in just about all the reviews of this item, but the bolts are not the right length. You'll have to buy new ones. There is no gasket for the turbo flange adapter. I bought a tube of high temp RTV and made a seal myself. Seems to have worked great. I also noticed that the crash beam had metal debris inside the beam itself. Looked like it was left over from making the mounting holes. I even found part of a broken drill bit inside there!
The piping had one cosmetic flaw in the wrinkle coat. Nothing you can see once installed though. I wanted black couplers, but for some reason I got red. They look OK, but I'd still prefer black. Figuring out all the pipes and couplers is a bit of a PITA without any instructions of any kind, but once you get it together I found the pipes, couplers, and T-bolt clamps to be of high quality and had good fitment. I was actually pretty impressed. Along with all this you do have to cut some of the undertray, and hack up quite a bit of the front bumper. The older models you just had to cut out the unpainted lower grill, but on the 2011's you have to do this as well as cut into the painted bumper about and inch all the way across the bottom. Plus side is that the opening ends up being a lot larger than the older models. Should get more air through the core 
Other than the horrible fit of the core and the bumper beam I do like the kit a lot. Took waaaaay more work than I expected to get it on (plan for a whole day job, this could easily take 8hrs, I did it over 2 days, and it took even more than that). But the finished product is really pretty good. I'm still hoping to get black couplers (no one will sell them to me separately), but other than that I'm very happy with it.
Here are some photos:
Install:
BIG core 
Red pipes and couplers: 
Finished:
Stealthy, but a big opening for the core 
