I put on my Spearco Monster way back when I was fresh into modding the car, and I felt a difference in the ol' butt dyno. That was on stock turbo. Now, with all my other go-fast goodies, I'm glad I made the choice of a BFMIC.
So far what I have been able to find it looks like the stock turbo flows about 390 cfm's amd the s3 is at about 500. From what I can find alot of direct fits flow up to 650 cfm. Unfortunately most rate them at "XXX cfm's @ YYY hp" which is just crap cause I would rather have "xxx cfm's at yy psi" to make a better comparison between intercoolers. I would be willing to venture a guess and say that as far as flow goes direct fit and big intercoolers both have more than enough flow for a stock or s3 turbo. The main difference is the temp drop. So I guess now the question is, is a possible 10 to 20 degrees cooler charge worth removing the crash bar.
I think to make this thread more useful if you are going to post benefits/opinions you need list what your mods are, and dont just say they are "in my sig" because those can change list them in the post itself.
we made our own Here is a pic of our FMIC with our home made "Crash" Bar Don't know what it will do in a frontal crash and hope to never find out, but it did stiffen the front end and we use it to strap the car to the trailer and even to winch it up when we broke an axel at the track. It uses the stock crash bar ends for mounting. I have many detailed pics in a zip file if anyone wants to make one. just PM me. Ray
i had a direct fit when i was s2, i saw no real gains from it. when i say no real gains, i'm talking from a cost/benefit perspective. i got maybe 5hp. and for $3xx or so that's just not worth it imo. for some it may be, but for me definetly not. i ended up with a ed beast when i went s3. unfortunetly i do not have before/after with the ic so i don't know how much of a difference it really made in terms of numbers, but i have done things like measured temps on the hot vs cold side of the ic and we see a dramatic difference. so it's not hurting anything and i'm pleased wtih my numbers. in my experience a direct fit is a waste of money. the amount that your spending compared to the gains makes it so. now that's just my opinion because i'm looking for the most gains for the least amount of money. for an extra $100 i'd rather the bigger fmic and see significant improvement. the crash bar for me is not much of a concern because i don't drive my car on the street all that much (it is not my daily driver) so i'm not worried about that. for others i know that is a major concern dealing with crashes, etc. so that's really a decision that each person needs to make for themsevles. what's more important, performance or safety? that's essentially the question that you're asking.
Yes we did. but to be honest I have a mig but had a guy that was good at welding do the welds. I am more experienced at welding so I would also do that now. Thanks
My mod list is fairly big.....and not "in my sig" Besides, I stated it was a benefit on my stock turbo, which should be enough.
Reason i said that was because this has turned into a rather informative thread so we should include all the relative information. :hmm: for example in your case I wouldn't care if you had a bov or CAI but I would care about boost levels, solenoid control or not, which wga you are running, what ecu stage (0-2 since i doubt you're running a stocker on s3) etc.
How useful is the stock crashbar versus say, a Bwoody or even Slowboy crash bar? My only concern is chassis stiffness, but I keep hearing talk about crash worthiness, does it really make that much of a difference? My FMIC is my crash resister... =]
In the event of a front crash you would never hit head on most of the time crashes happen at an angle when some one cuts in front of you, or swerve to miss them, unless you ram some one from behind, you IC wont stop anything it will fold in on its self.
And the crash bar prevents that? How robust is the stocker versus the aftermarket bars? What I'm asking, and I'm really asking not being snide, is how effective is the stock crash bar?
Here is an interesting paper I found on the subject. with a similar shape to our crash bar they were able to absorb 6kJ of energy in the bar alone. http://www0.nsc.co.jp/shinnihon_english/kenkyusho/contenthtml/n95/n9507.pdf The way I see it is in a high speed head on collision you are pretty much f***ed no matter what. The way I see the crash bar being effective is in a 30 to 40 mph crash. I believe that you would end up scrapping the car without it. Edit apparently I was right: Here is a pic I found of an bfmic srt4
just got home and holy crap im glad i threw my crash bar back on. I know that could posibility happen with the type of driving i do.
Ok....pertinant info.... PTP SST on S2 w/toys. I run with 23 psi spike, 21 hold to redline. (on pump) PCM controlled I noticed no boost drop or lag with the installation of the BFMIC, and as I said before, with a 21 psi hold till redline, I think the BFMIC was just the ticket.
