Delete please

[Nerdy Oreo]

I know about the endless threads on here about "which intercooler is best" or "here's the link to the intercooler test by mygolfmk7(dot)Com" etc. Apologies for bringing this up for whoever is sick of people asking questions about intercoolers. However, I have one question, a simple question, that I haven't found a reliable answer to.

Is there a substantial enough performance difference between a FMIC (like ecs, CTS, etc..) vs a stock mounted upgrade (such as IE V2, DO88, etc...)? Is the difference in cooling ability /performance worth the additional $300-$500? Especially when only upgrading to an is38. I do not plan on going past stage 2 is38. It's my daily and I plan to have this thing through 200k miles if I can (currently at 48k).
I have the supporting mods (DP, Intake, Exhaust, etc...). The last thing I need is the intercooler before I snag the turbo.

 

[jay745]

Either will be fine considering it's a street car and you'll be doing short pulls. Especially since it's not a performance build you're going for using all season tires. On a track a front mount blocks too much air to the radiator and you'll have heat issues.

And this has literally been beaten to a dead horse across many threads. Read those.

 

[Nerdy Oreo]

Either will be fine considering it's a street car and you'll be doing short pulls. Especially since it's not a performance build you're going for using all season tires. On a track a front mount blocks too much air to the radiator and you'll have heat issues.

And this has literally been beaten to a dead horse across many threads. Read those.

I know it's completely beating a dead horse here. However once you get 2 pages in the relevant information disappears. With that said, I know Wagner, IE, and do88 are the top intercoolers overall, but what about FMIC? I was just told ecs is garbage. What about CTS, ARM, etc...?