i saw about 300rpm spool difference with 18g turbo. However, I feel more lag especially at 1st and 2nd gear. you will gain more HP thru bigger turbo than upgrading to fmic.
AIR-TO-WATER INTERCOOLER!!! That is what i run and it is great, the turbo spools very fast & hard because the intake runner from the turbo to the throttle body is only 1 1/2 feet or so. Also the intake temps stay pretty consistant also. NO TURBO LAG!
I'm not try to diss, but if your favorite mod is 19" ICW wheels then I assume you want the bling of the front mount. Performance wise, don't do it. BUt if you want "street cred" then go for it.
You could line the entire intake (from filter to turbo to throttle to manifold) in peltier coolers. That would be extremely unique(you'd be the only 1) and every computer mod'er would be jealous.
I've been fooled a couple of times thinking some Honda's or Celica's had a front mount intercooler on them, but it turned out to be a CAI intake that mounts in front of the radiator. I don't suggest this with the Suby, because it would be like sipping out of a 10ft. straw. Just get the mesh grill insert, it sort of looks like a front mount.
We'd need about 10,000 people posting off topic all day long where every other post is "FTW" or "lol" or "WAPCE" first.
off topic: inter-foolers rule!!!! :ddirty: on topic: I agree with Milo...bigger turbo would be the only thing that would lead me towards a front mount...otherwise it'd probably be too laggy
to answer the question...not much -you may pick up a few horses on the road -you probably will lose alittle responsiveness since you're on the stock turbo -you will like the way it looks -you will have to re-learn the power characteristics of the car. a guy had mahdavi motorsports install the perrin fmic (way to big for a stock td04) on his wrx. he actually came back the same day saying that boost response was weird and had to have sam check to make sure no piping was loose. he said that boost was off and responsiveness was slower.
Yeah... That actually was me. It was a total learning experience. Once I got a Protune from Doug at Topspeed, I became a very happy camper with the FMIC upgrade. 268whp and 264 lbs/ft torque on pump gas with the stock turbo. Very smooth delivery and it never stops coming.