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Whoosh FMIC review

Trader history for TDavis (1)

TDavis

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#1
Thought I'd post up a review of Whoosh's FMIC.

Pros:
-Is a massive upgrade from factory.
-Polished looks pretty
-Looks great once installed
-Great bang for you buck

Cons:
-The silver 'paint' completely chipped off the inner bars that are between the fins on the front when I went to blow any residual debris off the intercooler that might have been from packaging/shipment
-Fitment is VERY tight.


*Note on the cons:

I got a blow tip to blow out/off any type of material that may have accumulated on the cooler in transit/manufacturing. What I thought was metal shavings leaving the intercooler turned out to be the silver paint chipping off the center part of the cooler, where the horizontal bars that go between each row of fins the silver paint was chipping away from just the blow tip which revealed a polished look behind the paint. Me being anal I just blew off all the paint in the center because it would be a major eye sore when I would be looking at the cooler from the front of the car. Nothing major as I could just get silver intercooler paint and repaint it. Nothing deal breaking but it was odd. Plus, its an intercooler thats bound to get hit by rocks n debris.

The fitment isn't really a con. Plus it was said by Ron the manufactures stated that modification/trimming of the undertray might be required, and it was. I have to shave off quite a bit off the center mount thats on the bottom beneath the intercooler so that it would sit vertically flat when looking at it from the side with the bumper off. I went overboard because I'm OCD so I wanted it as best as it could be. Once I did that the two mounting points for the intercooler went right in. Having a second hand helps with that.

You don't really realize how much bigger the intercooler is until you mount it into place and try to put the undertray into place.

The two "straps" that go around the end tanks of the intercooler that are connected to the undertray I didn't bother to attach because the metal J clip and plastic was rubbing severely on the end tanks. I'll probably just end up cutting them off when I take the bumper off again to tidy things up. They're not needed anyway and that undertray is cheap if I need a new one. The three 8mm bolts that are underneath the intercooler where the most PITA to get in. You have to push up with quite the force to get the holes aligned to get the bolts to screw in, air ratchet helped enormously with that.

Once everything was in place and I installed my other Big Mouth it took a LITTLE more massaging to get the bumper on but very minor. When the bumper fully bolted up and on the intercooler fits night a snug in the opening when you step back and look at it. I think the end of the lower grill opening on the bumper do touch the intercooler but I feel they're just ever so slightly resting on it because the holes underneath for the five 7mm bolts on the bottom of the bumper lined up fine.

tl;dr

Its a great intercooler and I would recommend it. Just don't expect installation to be as easy as disassembly.


 


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#2
looks good, this will be one of my next mods for sure.

where did you get the white plugs for the bumper?
 


OP
TDavis

TDavis

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Thread Starter #3
looks good, this will be one of my next mods for sure.

where did you get the white plugs for the bumper?
Haven't found anyone who makes the plugs from the FiST with Platinum White, only Oxford White so I got some of these and had the body shop paint them with my paint code. You might have to get a drill bit thats slightly bigger then the hole to waller out the hole to make them fit. You can get smaller diameter shafts but these have a nice smooth round head that wasn't too big and didn't look stupid.


 


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#4
Nice review. Helped me feel a little better about paying a shop to install mine. I figured it wasn't totally straightforward and I'm no tech and certainly don't have a lift and other fun tools. This would have taken me an entire day if I was lucky. And yep, it totally fills out the space and pushes right up against that lower grill. But looks great!

For your lower grill, did you just cut off the horizontal bars and sand down the nubs?
 


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TDavis

TDavis

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Thread Starter #5
Nice review. Helped me feel a little better about paying a shop to install mine. I figured it wasn't totally straightforward and I'm no tech and certainly don't have a lift and other fun tools. This would have taken me an entire day if I was lucky. And yep, it totally fills out the space and pushes right up against that lower grill. But looks great!

For your lower grill, did you just cut off the horizontal bars and sand down the nubs?
All you need to do to get the look I have in the lower grill is take out the big black piece. Just give it a good tug from one side to the other. Grab the horizontal bars when doing
 


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#6
The bottom center bracket under the intercooler most people (myself included), just remove it as it's not necessary to retain. That makes fitting just about any stock location intercooler far easier. helped out quite a bit with my CP-E.
 


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Haven't found anyone who makes the plugs from the FiST with Platinum White, only Oxford White so I got some of these and had the body shop paint them with my paint code. You might have to get a drill bit thats slightly bigger then the hole to waller out the hole to make them fit. You can get smaller diameter shafts but these have a nice smooth round head that wasn't too big and didn't look stupid.


Buy the plugs directly from bumper plugs or whatever the website is called they have our color.
 


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I would be curious to know how the install of this compares to the Depo Racing intercooler. They are priced similar and seem to be about the same price, so fitment might be the deal breaker. I know the Depo is bar and plate (which i think i would prefer) and I think Whoosh's might be tube and fin? I'm not sure.
 


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TDavis

TDavis

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They do not have Platinum White

I would be curious to know how the install of this compares to the Depo Racing intercooler. They are priced similar and seem to be about the same price, so fitment might be the deal breaker. I know the Depo is bar and plate (which i think i would prefer) and I think Whoosh's might be tube and fin? I'm not sure.
[MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION] would be able to explain that. Or someone that has a DEPO intercooler.
 


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I would be curious to know how the install of this compares to the Depo Racing intercooler. They are priced similar and seem to be about the same price, so fitment might be the deal breaker. I know the Depo is bar and plate (which i think i would prefer) and I think Whoosh's might be tube and fin? I'm not sure.
They actually use the same core, pretty much the same dimensions and same install instructions. Fitment on both can pretty much be expected to be the same. Ron has even stated that his units utilize the same core as Cobb/depo. Whoosh offers a few different customize able options if that's your thing. I have a CP-E and it takes a little adjusting while you're in there installing, but that's going to be the case when fitting as big of an intercooler as possible into the stock location.
 


Bluedrank

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#13
I didn't realize that the silver intercooler was painted silver. Why not just go with a raw unpainted metal? Strange.
 


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TDavis

TDavis

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I would be curious to know how the install of this compares to the Depo Racing intercooler. They are priced similar and seem to be about the same price, so fitment might be the deal breaker. I know the Depo is bar and plate (which i think i would prefer) and I think Whoosh's might be tube and fin? I'm not sure.
White platinum Tricoat worked for me...
Oops, didn't see those. Yeah you could go with that option as well. I got these plugs and got them painted for free.

I didn't realize that the silver intercooler was painted silver. Why not just go with a raw unpainted metal? Strange.
It is polished, the end tanks are polished, besides the horizontal bars that go in between the fins. but its polished underneath. I don't know much about it seeing as this is my first intercooler upgrade.
 


ron@whoosh

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#15
I didn't realize that the silver intercooler was painted silver. Why not just go with a raw unpainted metal? Strange.
There is a light coating of silver sprayed over the center bars for aesthetics, always has been. The end tanks are polished. The paint flaking off so easily is odd. Maybe there was an oily film present prior to the thin layer of paint application at the factory? Not sure. I would have personally shot it with silver again.
As for the install, it would be the same as the other intercooler mentioned.
I'm having my tester put together a step by step with video due to the amount of variances experienced with the install. There are customers that install this using all the factory parts with zero issue then alternatively leave parts off due to non fitment and go through some trimming to get things back in order.
Stay tuned for a thread in my section very soon....
Thanks for the write up TDavis [like]
 


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Looking forward to reading the write up I should be installing my Whoosh intercooler within the next 3-4 weeks.
 


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#17
There is a light coating of silver sprayed over the center bars for aesthetics, always has been. The end tanks are polished. The paint flaking off so easily is odd. Maybe there was an oily film present prior to the thin layer of paint application at the factory? Not sure. I would have personally shot it with silver again.
As for the install, it would be the same as the other intercooler mentioned.
I'm having my tester put together a step by step with video due to the amount of variances experienced with the install. There are customers that install this using all the factory parts with zero issue then alternatively leave parts off due to non fitment and go through some trimming to get things back in order.
Stay tuned for a thread in my section very soon....
Thanks for the write up TDavis [like]
My 2017 needed to trim the two bumps off of the air dam and remove the center air dam mount to fit property.
 


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#19
I didn't catch a picture unfortunately.
IIRC there was a small plastic bump, 2 total, about the size of a matchbox just to the left and right side of the top side of the air dam where it attaches to the center mount.
It was preventing the top side of the air dam from sitting flush with the bottom of the FMIC.
I just took off the bumps off with a hack saw, pretty small amount of cutting did the trick.
If someone can post a picture of the top side of their air dam where it meets the bottom of the FMIC I can point it out.
 


TyphoonFiST

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#20
I would be curious to know how the install of this compares to the Depo Racing intercooler. They are priced similar and seem to be about the same price, so fitment might be the deal breaker. I know the Depo is bar and plate (which i think i would prefer) and I think Whoosh's might be tube and fin? I'm not sure.
It is bar and plate....I have spoken to Ron about this.

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
 


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