PW TMIC in the mail: Question for tuners

Ok, I know that when going from TMIC to FMIC some kind of tuning is required for a "rich condition". But when going back to a TMIC (with EVERTHING ELSE remaining the same) do you need to get retuned to compensate for whatever cals were required for a FMIC.

If tuning required (I suspect it is), is the car safe to drive to a tuner for a in-person protune about 25 miles away?

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Just fyi - I'm deciding to go back to a (quality TMIC) to reduce throttle lag and get back to more of the response time of a stock vehicle on surface roads, but albeit, more power than stock. That and a near miss from a front end collision, made me stop and think about potentially totalling the car and insurance being denied for removal of safety equipment (bumper beam). Also, I'm tired of blow offs that occur every so often.

Soes anyone feel that most FMICs are too large for the turbos people tyically run and contribute to lag without any benefit to power except in stop and go traffic when heat soak settles in.

So you are going from FMIC to TMIC? The difference will be negligible and in fact the car should run a little richer under boost due to the warmer air charge, which is fine. Timing may need to be adjusted depending on how the car was tuned with the FMIC. I wouldn't do any WOT pulls until you are logging, but you'll be fine to drive around.

I went FMIC and experience virtually no lag from the FMIC itself but I have a larger turbo to match it and the FMIC core is not enormous (AVO).

this is a highly debated topic on here. Check out the Process West thread in the turbo forum:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea...ic-119336.html

Originally Posted by laff79

this is a highly debated topic on here. Check out the Process West thread in the turbo forum:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea...ic-119336.html

Well, I'm currently back to running a VF48, and I really believe I'm suffering lag because 1) the core is too large for the turbo, and 2) there's like 8 feet
of tubing from the turbo to the throttle body.

I'm willing to be a guine(?) pig and post up my results as to lag and what not. All I know for a fact is that when I was 100% stock, basically I had to sneeze and I was in boost. Not so with this setup... not so by a mile.
If I don't get any appreciable reduction in lag, then I'll be dissapointed. Hell I'm even running the GrimmSpeed bcs which is supposed to increase spool, but I'll be damned if it's doing anything at all with this setup.

Also, I'd feel safer installing my bumper beam again.

I plan on installing the day it arrives.... Yeah I've read through the PW TMIC
thread, but there's no consensus about anything there. Hopefully the kit will arrive by Friday, and install will be no later than saturday morning.

I thought about buying a smallish Mishimoto FMIC core and fabbing it up to the bumper beam, but I just don't have the patience for that while weather is nice. That might be a winter project....

When you do the swap. Get a before and after dyno plot, even if its just virtual dyno. The change between fmic and the pw tmic is what a lot of people probably want but no one has

Originally Posted by cypher0117

When you do the swap. Get a before and after dyno plot, even if its just virtual dyno. The change between fmic and the pw tmic is what a lot of people probably want but no one has

My airboy dyno has me at about 296 with the vf and with the fmic (91 tune but run 93). Low end is a real drag however with the vf + fmic. I'll run another airboy when I get tuned, even if its an e-tune. I'm considering ditching the 3prt bcs for the stocker, and going back to original spec plugs. Even considering throwing the stock airbox on, as I dont think a cai yields too much with the vf turbos. If anything the cai is a hot air intake... drive it in boost and aluminum tubing gets really warm.

How about swapping pills? I switched to a 1mm pill to hit target boost w/the racerX FMIC and my VF40. If keeping the VF40 and switching to a Process West TMIC, do I need to re-install the stock 1.2mm pill?

Originally Posted by scoobydoobie

How about swapping pills? I switched to a 1mm pill to hit target boost w/the racerX FMIC and my VF40. If keeping the VF40 and switching to a Process West TMIC, do I need to re-install the stock 1.2mm pill?

Nope, no pills. Have grimmspeed 3prt bcs. I'm doubtful that the GS bcs actually does anything at all for decreasing "lag". I'll probably throw on the old stocker for when I get tuned along with the stocker hose/pilll assembly.

Anyway, after almost having a front end collision last weekend (ugly brunette in a Liberty), it dawned on me that without a true bumper beam I'm screwed in that type of accident w/o bumper beam. Insurance wouldn't cover it...

Oooh, Top Gear is on, gotta boogey!!!

why would you go back to the stock 2 port BCS? you have a 3 port installed already. keep it.

Originally Posted by TacitBlue

Nope, no pills. Have grimmspeed 3prt bcs. I'm doubtful that the GS bcs actually does anything at all for decreasing "lag". I'll probably throw on the old stocker for when I get tuned along with the stocker hose/pilll assembly.

Anyway, after almost having a front end collision last weekend (ugly brunette in a Liberty), it dawned on me that without a true bumper beam I'm screwed in that type of accident w/o bumper beam. Insurance wouldn't cover it...

Oooh, Top Gear is on, gotta boogey!!!

I was asking for my own knowledge.. am wondering if I need to swap pills back when going from the racerx to PW with a VF40? I have the stock bcs...

you should not be swapping pills without a tune. you should not be swapping bcs without a tune. you should not be swapping actuators without a tune.

I would be getting re-tuned going from a front mount to top mount. It is a simple question regarding the hardware (restrictor pill).

ask your tuner what he recommends. every tuner likely has a different opinion.

Ok, the show is on the road. Installed the PW TMIC, and some observations:

1) The hose clamps SUCK! I broke the one on the throttle body hose while
tightening. Immediately used every t-bolt clamp from the FMIC that fit and used them, along with some more durable worm gear clamps since nobody
around me sells t-bolts... gotta go online.

2) The intercooler core is really high quality.

3) The install is not too bad. The bracket combo on the driver side of the motor is by far the biggest PITA of the install.

4) I'm a little worried about the throttle body hose because after installing the kit, I felt around with my hands and felt the hose is being pressed a little out of shape by one of the water hoses. I was thinking that I'd reinforce that hose with some alumumin tubing of proper OD, but its impossible because of the tube is "bent out of shape" by the water hose.
I'm worried about collapse/blowoff of that hose because of that "fitment issue".

5) Drove the car around the street a few times, and the engine is much "smoother" than after the FMIC. Throttle response is much improved, even in that untuned state.

I've got a base map installed (e-tuning), and haven't driven it yet with that map. That'll be tonight on some deserted industrial roads because one of the logs I'm supposed to run is 2500rpm - 5500rpm 3rd gear WOT pull. I'm using the same tuner that tuned my FMIC setup, so just swapping intercoolers, the tuning should go a lot quicker because injectors and MAF are already scaled, and they already tuned me on the GrimmSpeed BCS.

I've figured out a way to make a heatshield for the turbo side of the intercooler, so I'm going to fab up one, and I dont forsee any heat soak issues.

Except for the clamps and throttle body hose fitment, it's a very good piece of engineering.

tacit blue what year is your leggy? because I have an 08 and had some major difficulty with brackets lining up with the intercooler; especially the damn drivers bracket and brake fluid tank impeding movement to the right. Now the bracket on the driver side is really close to brake fluid tank, and I had to mount the bracket to to tmic on the turbo side and push the unit as far to the left (passenger side) as I could. This barely allowed for installment... Did you have similar issues? and my turbo to IC hose seemed like it may have been the wrong size ie. to small, because I could not move the tmic to the left anymore or that hose would not connect to the turbo. It is a really tight fit now that I am finished. I think PW needs to work on the hoses and bracket sizes some more....

Fortunately for me I had no problems with the throttle body connections that was the easiest part for me, everthing else kicked my ass lol

Rallysport is looking into my issue, I just wanted to see if any other 08 owners had same problem.