# HG Motorsport FMIC Install Photos



## pinky_greeny_tt (Mar 14, 2012)

So after a week of having a large box of shiny bits staring at me, just waiting to go on the TT, I finally had some time to begin the fitting.

The before shot:









First problems.... Foolishly I made the mistake of using the jack that comes with the car to jack her up. First axle stand went in no problem at the correct height, as I was jacking up the other side with the axle stand under the sill on the lowest setting (needed to go on to middle), the jack decides to just tip over in slow motion. Resultant being the axle stand on the side I'm jacking up gets stuck under the sill denting it rather a lot. :x Not a happy bunny. The one saving grace is that the damage isn't visible from the side of the car, just underneath. Still annoying though! Note to self: NEVER EVER use standard scissor jack again.

Moving on... Wheels off and begin the front bumper removal. First time I've done this so didn't appreciate how little room there is due to the standard side intercoolers! Anyway, wheel arch liners, engine under tray and bumper off and I'm left with this:









Begin removing the standard intercooler set up, but decide it is probably easiest if I ditch the headlights as it's only a 5min job, to aid accessibility. So with those removed, off come the intercoolers, air ducts and the associated pipework. The pipework going from one side of the car to the other required a bit of man handling to get out, but got there in the end. Also removed the horns for relocation and the air temperature sensor at this point. Leaving me with this:









At this point I called it quits for the night, with all the new parts ready to go on in the morning!

So this morning started to mock up how everything was going to fit together with the FMIC and pipework. Used some wooden blocks to get the intercooler to the right height and loosely attached the silicone and hard pipes to their respective connecting pipes on the car. 









So with the intercooler in place I drilled through the crash bar and used some M8 threaded bar and some nylock nuts to securely fasten. For reference I used about 130mm of threaded bar for each side of the intercooler. Would have used bolts, but didn't have any to hand! In terms of locating the intercooler I have gone for as far back in the car as possible, only fractionally away from the A/C rad. This is particularly important at the bottom of the intercooler - will get to that later... So with intercooler attached rigidly, attach the pipework on each side.




































All looking good so far...

So with everything on I go for a trial run of putting the bumper on to see what the fit is like. No go. Bottom of the intercooler and the pipework is sticking out too far, primarily on the drivers side. Also, the headlight washers are hitting the hard pipes (I'm sceptical about keeping these anyway as I'm fairly sure there won't be any room and I'm not sure if they are working).

So blocks back under the intercooler, un-do the top mounts and bend them up a bit to get the bottom in a bit.









At the same time it is obvious that one reason the bottom is sticking so far out is because I attached the pipework to the car end first. So undo that and attach to the intercooler (with hindsight I would do this first). With this done, intercooler top mounts are re-tightened and I go about connecting the pipework to the car end. Passenger side is no problem at all, drivers side the hard pipe just doesn't seem like a great fit. All but fouls on the chassis tow point, and is a tight fit around the hose marked 'PE' in the photo below. In the end I released the clamp holding the 'PE' hose in place at the top side (below headlight) and bent it slightly where it goes behind the radiator, this gave a much better fit, although it is still a bit tighter than I would have liked.









So with the pipework sorted, the intercooler sits a lot better, and further back at the bottom.









I do another trial run with the bumper to see what the fit is like, it looks good apart from the headlight washers. I suspect you could make them fit if you persevere, but I was getting annoyed with them. So off with the washers, and bung the hose going to them from the reservoir (just used an M12 bolt with a jubilee clip round it - crude but works).

With that sorted I begin re-assembly. Headlights, engine under tray and front bumper all back on.

I forgot to mention earlier where I re-located the horns and the temperature sensor to. For the temperature sensor I just rotated the bracket 90degrees anti-clockwise and put the sensor in from the other side. It is sitting perhaps a little too close to the bottom surface of the intercooler though. For the horns I used a combination of the original horn mounting brackets and various mounting bolts for the standard intercoolers. Passenger side I removed the angled bit of bracket and mounted the horn off one of the intercooler bolts. You can just about see the horn diagonally to the right above the hard pipe. Fits quite nicely here.









Drivers side i use the whole horn bracket, but changed the orientation of the horn so it fitted nicely, and again mounted it off unused standard intercooler bolts. Horn is shown better in this photo.









A point worth making, with the standard side intercoolers removed, it is lovely how much space there is in front of the wheel on each side. Makes access for removing the bumper very, very easy!

So put the wheel arch liners back in and wheels back on and dropped the car back to the floor. Originally tried with the centre lower grille removed, but i preferred it with the grille in.









Then, the most annoying part of the day. Putting the front engine bay cover panels on, I drop one of my nice countersunk engine bay bling kit washers down in to the engine bay somewhere! :evil: :evil: And am unable to fish it back out. So need to source a new one at some point!

Anyway, car out of the workshop for a quick photo. I'm happy overall with how the intercooler sits and looks, although fitting it was slightly harder and more time consuming than I was expecting. 









   

While the bumper was off I also decided to remove the Quattro badge to tidy up the grille a bit.

Haven't taken the car for much of a test yet, but will do tomorrow, and hopefully I will reap the full benefits of the FMIC when the car eventually gets remapped!

So overall thumbs up for the HG Motorsports FMIC from me, and a big thanks to Rich for organizing the group buy!


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

What a great write up! I am gald you are please I will be following this guide then I come to fit mine.

Well done!


----------



## tonksy26 (Jan 31, 2011)

Yeah exactly how I did mine mate. Interesting that you struggled with the aliens, be interesting to see what other do with them.

Also interested of anyone else Is doing this with a v6 front bumper.


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

tonksy26 said:


> Yeah exactly how I did mine mate. Interesting that you struggled with the aliens, be interesting to see what other do with them.
> 
> Also interested of anyone else Is doing this with a v6 front bumper.


Im gonna try my bed to keep them, but I have the attention span of a nat with these things. I shall be have a couple of trusty persuaders to hand!!

Do you have to prove you own bolts to mount the brackets?


----------



## wireless (Jan 24, 2012)

Looks really nice.

Aliens are an issue so mine were also removed as I doubt we'd get the sort of weather you'd need them for.

Unless you buy a forge Fmic or similar priced one.


----------



## tonksy26 (Jan 31, 2011)

Rich196 said:


> tonksy26 said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah exactly how I did mine mate. Interesting that you struggled with the aliens, be interesting to see what other do with them.
> ...


Yeah own bolts and threaded bar. Can pick them up for a couple of quid from toolstation/screwfix.

The actual Mounting bracket is provided.


----------



## wireless (Jan 24, 2012)

Rich196 said:


> tonksy26 said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah exactly how I did mine mate. Interesting that you struggled with the aliens, be interesting to see what other do with them.
> ...


Try your bed?. :wink:

Btw you'll need Perfecty shaped piping the same as the OE shape to keep the aliens Rich.


----------



## Garth (Feb 7, 2012)

Any of you guys fancy donating your passenger side alien to me then?
I'll swap for an old OEM head unit, forge copy dv, and/or whatever else I have lying around :grin:


----------



## 4ndrew (May 9, 2011)

Garth said:


> Any of you guys fancy donating your passenger side alien to me then?
> I'll swap for an old OEM head unit, forge copy dv, and/or whatever else I have lying around :grin:


And I'm looking for a driver side one. Send a pm my way if you fancy parting ways ;-)


----------



## Mondo (Feb 20, 2009)

Nice write-up. Well done! Sooo glad I didn't attempt to fit my Forge one myself; well beyond my meagre skills.

Oh, and good work on the GB, Richard.

[smiley=thumbsup.gif] 's all round.


----------



## Gforce (May 10, 2011)

Excellent write up mate will be pointing this out to my garage on Thursday when they fit mine


----------



## Saffy (Oct 28, 2008)

Great write up, I have still to do mine with v6 bumper though wont get time for a few weeks though


----------



## Duggy (May 17, 2005)

What a great write up! Going to look at 2 cars this afternoon, so hopefully I can then fit mine 

Is there any problem with mot, if you remove the aliens? I thought they were mandatory with xenons?


----------



## VSeager (Dec 8, 2010)

Nice write up. Am interested to hear your report on performance after a good test drive.

Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Dingabell (Aug 8, 2010)

Great write up mate will be sorting mine out when I get back from my holiday. Just one point though in the first few pics it looks like you have a wet patch on your radiator did you spill some thing on it or has it got a slight leak?

Cheers Colin


----------



## pinky_greeny_tt (Mar 14, 2012)

Afraid I will be keeping the headlight washers in case of any issues with MOT passing (will have to wait and see for that) and also because at some point down the line when I sell the car I will put it all back to standard.

From a brief test drive I would say performance is marginally improved. Unfortunately I don't have Vagcom or a Liquid Gauge to log/monitor anything (yet, at least) so I don't have any quantitive results.



Dingabell said:


> Great write up mate will be sorting mine out when I get back from my holiday. Just one point though in the first few pics it looks like you have a wet patch on your radiator did you spill some thing on it or has it got a slight leak?
> 
> Cheers Colin


With regard to the wet patch I'm not sure if it was the leaky roof of my Grandad's workshop or the rad itself. Hopefully the roof, but that will warrant further investigation.

Something else I noticed during the installation but didn't act on at the time... By removing the side intercoolers, the airflow to the cold air feed on the passenger side is greatly increased, and there is potential that some ducting could possibly be attached directly to the air box, fed from the passenger side front bumper grille. In my opinion this should improve the air flow into the air box significantly as it would take advantage of free flowing air, rather than the more stagnant air that is currently where the air box draws air from.
At some point I will take the wheel arch liner off and get some ducting in place to test this!


----------



## Mondo (Feb 20, 2009)

You're quite right; there's lots of space in there for a cold air feed with the SMICs off: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=185549&hilit=cold+air

Do it; you know it makes sense.


----------



## Love_iTT (Aug 18, 2002)

Your write up is very similar to mine here and it looks like you had as much fun as I did.  The only difference is that I did manage to fit it all together with the aliens working, they were very tight but they do work.

Graham


----------



## SteviedTT (Apr 10, 2009)

If it was one of my kits you had mate, PM me your address, let me know what colour and I'll send one out to you :wink:


----------



## merlin c (Jan 25, 2012)

SteviedTT said:


> If it was one of my kits you had mate, PM me your address, let me know what colour and I'll send one out to you :wink:


PM'd him 30 mins ago because there were 2 in your kit I did not need Steve, told him that mine were the silver ones from you....... [smiley=cheers.gif] ......


----------



## SteviedTT (Apr 10, 2009)

merlin c said:


> SteviedTT said:
> 
> 
> > If it was one of my kits you had mate, PM me your address, let me know what colour and I'll send one out to you :wink:
> ...


Fair enough mate. Which 2 didn't you fit then?


----------



## merlin c (Jan 25, 2012)

SteviedTT said:


> merlin c said:
> 
> 
> > SteviedTT said:
> ...


 Its the two that were provided for the trim in front of the IM as I have a different mod there..


----------



## pinky_greeny_tt (Mar 14, 2012)

Thanks very much for the offers guys, but no longer required! I took the engine under tray out yesterday and was presented with a lonely looking silver counter sunk washer all ready to go back in position!

Again thanks for the offer, appreciate it!!


----------



## TT-TOM (Feb 15, 2012)

Nice job, i really hope i can get the aliens in and working as i want them to stay.


----------



## Charlie (Dec 15, 2006)

I am lining up some time next week to do this, sounds like a bit of a ballache though :-( I definitely want to keep the aliens too as the car will fail an MOT without them since the new regs came in.

Fingers crossed 

Charlie


----------



## young tt driver (Jul 15, 2010)

I fitted mine last weekend! I Lowered the intercooler by about 50mm using spacers underneath the brackets and longer bolts so that there was less obscured by the crash bar! This also helped tuck the bottom of the intercooler In nice and tight to the radiator! When I got round to fitting the bumper It went on easily first time of asking WITH the Aliens in  
Hopefully this may help those who haven't fitted it yet!
Sam


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

young tt driver said:


> I fitted mine last weekend! I Lowered the intercooler by about 50mm using spacers underneath the brackets and longer bolts so that there was less obscured by the crash bar! This also helped tuck the bottom of the intercooler In nice and tight to the radiator! When I got round to fitting the bumper It went on easily first time of asking WITH the Aliens in
> Hopefully this may help those who haven't fitted it yet!
> Sam


photos?


----------



## Adam-tt (Apr 3, 2010)

young tt driver said:


> I fitted mine last weekend! I Lowered the intercooler by about 50mm using spacers underneath the brackets and longer bolts so that there was less obscured by the crash bar! This also helped tuck the bottom of the intercooler In nice and tight to the radiator! When I got round to fitting the bumper It went on easily first time of asking WITH the Aliens in
> Hopefully this may help those who haven't fitted it yet!
> Sam


if I remember right on hg-motorsports website there is a picture of the kit/set up and you can see some spacers that they use 
Maybe this is the right way to do it


----------



## young tt driver (Jul 15, 2010)

Your probably right as the bumper went on with zero effort! Sadly though I was getting a wee bit excited and just wanted to get it all back together so I could take it for a spin that I didn't take a single picture, sorry guys


----------



## pinky_greeny_tt (Mar 14, 2012)

young tt driver said:


> I fitted mine last weekend! I Lowered the intercooler by about 50mm using spacers underneath the brackets and longer bolts so that there was less obscured by the crash bar! This also helped tuck the bottom of the intercooler In nice and tight to the radiator! When I got round to fitting the bumper It went on easily first time of asking WITH the Aliens in
> Hopefully this may help those who haven't fitted it yet!
> Sam


Interesting..... I may have to revisit this when I have some time to work on the car and put some spacers in!


----------



## Duggy (May 17, 2005)

Very interesting, I've just counted the visible channels on the HG site and there is no difference to the pics on this thread, 8 visible on each??

Would love to see some pics 50mm lower

Presumably, you put the spacers between the I/C and the bracket? Any pics would be extremely useful


----------



## tonksy26 (Jan 31, 2011)

Anyone got a pic of the spacers ? Don't remember seeing any spacers.


----------



## Adam-tt (Apr 3, 2010)

tonksy26 said:


> Anyone got a pic of the spacers ? Don't remember seeing any spacers.











Next to the bracket the small tubes are spacers


----------



## Duggy (May 17, 2005)

No spacers in my bag of bits 

I'll knock some up at work, methinks


----------



## TT-TOM (Feb 15, 2012)

No spacers in my bag of bits either, looks like its a good idea though but 50mm seems a lot when the spacers in the kit look like half that length


----------



## Duggy (May 17, 2005)

TT-TOM said:


> No spacers in my bag of bits either, looks like its a good idea though but 50mm seems a lot when the spacers in the kit look like half that length


Must admit they don't look anything near 50mm

Think we need to experiment a bit


----------



## TT-TOM (Feb 15, 2012)

I think i'm going to 'borrow' some stainless pipe from work and cut some various sized spacers out for when i fit mine.


----------



## young tt driver (Jul 15, 2010)

Sorry guys I lied to you all, 50mm was just a figure floating around my head as I couldn't remember the actual measurement but it's completely inaccurate! As I have just recalled that the actual length of the spacer I used was 26mm! So almost half the length! 
I'm known for over exaggerating! Ask my gf lol


----------



## dubberdean (Dec 22, 2011)

Can we find out if its possible to be sent some of the spacers as shown in the pic? Shouldn't cost a lot but would save people making them if there's something designed to do the job?


----------



## rodhotter (Dec 30, 2011)

nice post, if i could fit a "real" cold air intake or even ducting to my mod shack filter i possibly would install a front mount, my car is a USA model left hand drive


----------



## dbbloke (Jan 30, 2012)

Cold air intakes I've heard are a waste of time for amount of effort and any gain. More you think about it how would it make sod all difference. Meth / water seem a better use of time and cash.

On Topic...

These brackets really are not designed well when you look at how Forge did it with their brackets. Anyone got any ideas?
Also, wondering ...
How do you attach to the crash bar seems 130mm of threaded bar and 2 nuts. Is there some way to use a short normal length bolt and get a nyloc or standard nut/washer on.
Seems you need a 25mm drop to get the bumper to fit. So a 45mm allen bolt and a 20mm spacer, where can I get or make such a spacer from hollow bar?
Anyone managed to put a bracket on the bottom yet?
Was thinking, from a crash perspective, won't the insurance company get a little worried, should I not be a little worried about the crash bar deforming correctly. Not had mine off yet BTW, but soon 
Was thinking of spraying the FMIC black as well to fit in behind the grill.


----------



## tonksy26 (Jan 31, 2011)

My bumper came off again this weekend to get resprayed so had a look around on where to fit a cold air feed an there really
Isn't any room what so ever as I wanted to do.

As or the brackets, they have done the job for me. Along with a long threaded bar.


----------



## jamman (May 6, 2002)

tonksy26 said:


> My bumper came off again this weekend to get resprayed so had a look around on where to fit a cold air feed an there really
> Isn't any room what so ever as I wanted to do.
> 
> As or the brackets, they have done the job for me. Along with a long threaded bar.


Same here not had a problem at all but I'm guessing some people just like to moan. :wink:

Cold air fed is a straight forward job but you will have to grind some space on the inner wing, FB Mondo did a how to let me know if you need advice.


----------



## Gforce (May 10, 2011)

There is loads of room for a cold air feed mondo fitted one a while ago here is the link 

viewtopic.php?t=185549


----------



## Saffy (Oct 28, 2008)

I used 130mm m8 bolt from b&q with nylon locking nut ant it worked fine, as for lowering the ic I found the bumper would need too much cut out so on standard brackets only the sides needed cutting.


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

What length of drill did you use?

Richard


----------



## jamman (May 6, 2002)

Gforce said:


> There is loads of room for a cold air feed mondo fitted one a while ago here is the link
> 
> viewtopic.php?t=185549


Not sure I would say loads matey because there isn't any room until you grind the hell out of the inner wing.

But having said that whilst it's a bit daunting at first once you've done it you are left thinking how easy it was.


----------



## Gforce (May 10, 2011)

Fair point jamman


----------



## Saffy (Oct 28, 2008)

9mm Ritch nut


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

Saffy said:


> 9mm Ritch nut


Not diameter!!! length please


----------



## tonksy26 (Jan 31, 2011)

Rich196 said:


> Saffy said:
> 
> 
> > 9mm Ritch nut
> ...


Drill from the top then drill from underneath... Then hope they sort of line up


----------



## Saffy (Oct 28, 2008)

That's what I did drill from top then bottom after measuring and marking


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

tonksy26 said:


> Rich196 said:
> 
> 
> > Saffy said:
> ...


Nightmare! Iv got a 120mm drill and hopefully it will go all the way through!


----------



## Saffy (Oct 28, 2008)

Should go throw no problem just don't put bit to bottom of Chuck


----------



## Mondo (Feb 20, 2009)

jamman said:


> Gforce said:
> 
> 
> > There is loads of room for a cold air feed mondo fitted one a while ago here is the link
> ...


Sorry guys, meant to say earlier. The hole Wak had to cut was because my feed hose, at 70mm, was simply too thick to pass it any other way. If I'd have gone, say, 60mm it would have probably fitted under the headlight. Oh well, HRW* came to the party and sorted it out, in his usual professional way. He also ground out a wee V-shaped nick in the crash bar so the FMIC would fit.

The bit that was 'holed' wasn't structural, so had no qualms about it having a hole in it. And TBH we didn't really have any other options.

Yes, with the SMIC out of the way there's loads of space under there for the hose. You just get fewer options the thicker the hose itself is.

If you've got the bumper off to fit a FMIC it makes sense to do a CAF at the same time, if you can. Unless you like taking your bumper on/off. :wink:

* - His Royal Wakness.


----------



## dbbloke (Jan 30, 2012)

Saffy said:


> I used 130mm m8 bolt from b&q with nylon locking nut ant it worked fine, as for lowering the ic I found the bumper would need too much cut out so on standard brackets only the sides needed cutting.


Cheers, now I know what to look for on flea bay.

From HG website - Funny 
All intercooler kits are concepted for a easy montage by yourself. Delivery with a illustrated instruction and all montage-parts

The bracket really is shit is everyone elses only 3mm! Last time I had 3mm alloy in a car (someone else used) it fatigued / cracked the after about 6 months. Guess it's an affordable startpoint though  already ordered some 5mm stuff.

Forge fitting instrunctions also not so helpful. FFS, I've be pissed if this is all I got for 1100.
http://www.forgemotorsport.com/content. ... ct=FMTT225
Mondos viewtopic.php?f=2&t=191643&p=1937795&hilit=forge+fmic+fitting#p1937795
Grahams more so - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=194502&p=1957269&hilit=hg+motorsport#p1957269


----------



## Matty! (Dec 18, 2011)

Id just like to say thanks to the OP.

I will be buying one of these in the near future and its great to see someone take the time out to show us lot how it goes together!


----------



## tonksy26 (Jan 31, 2011)

Make sure you speak to rich then, as he will be able o sort you and give you a good deal


----------



## Matty! (Dec 18, 2011)

Step ahead of you there! 8)

Anyone got any Vagcom graphs of the gain in Inlet temps ect?


----------



## Rich196 (Mar 31, 2011)

I might be able to dig out a before log, I have an after log, and I'm not seeing intake at anymore that 35, 40 degrees with an ambient for 20. With my fmic I would be seeing towards 70. Those figure are base on 10 of slurred driving! General cruising intake temps are around 7 degrees above ambient

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2


----------



## somnambulist (Feb 2, 2009)

Very good build guide, will be very useful for my FMIC install!

I'm assuming this kit retains the OEM upper boost hoses? So it would still be worth investing in some SFS upper boost hoses too?

Cheers,

Ben


----------



## The Godbarber (Jul 12, 2015)

Excellent write up, headlight washers are mot testable though so have you got them sorted? ?
Cheers
Liam


----------

