Prozento
Senior Member
- First Name
- Alex
- Joined
- May 7, 2018
- Threads
- 32
- Messages
- 132
- Reaction score
- 37
- Location
- Israel
- Vehicle(s)
- Civic FD
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello pals
After tons of research, I decided to buy the 27won FMIC. Something in their development blog just made me fall in love with the way they do things.
Since one of the forum members already made a great performance review:
https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/27won-front-mount-intercooler-review-with-datalogs.47613/
... I want to focus first on the other side of any purchase we make - customer service.
In this case, customer service wasn't just good... it was more than outstanding.
Really - I met every obstacle I could ever think about on my way to getting this product into my apartment. I missed the pre-order time twice, messed up with shipping, run into a problem with customs, and thought my package lost for a moment (or two). Every time, again and again, Vincent(27WON) was there to answer the phone, provide any papers or information needed, and was always patient for my issues and my half-English.
When we buy a new part for our cars, sometimes we focus on the product only but customer service like that should be never taken for granted. This way of taking care of their customers can show much about how a company cares for its products too.
Unboxing:
Customs in my country made everything they could to destroy the packaging - Took the IC out and put it back like I throw garbage inside my trash can. The same goes for all other parts that were inside the box.
Still, all the parts came to my apartment in good shape so I can say that the packaging is good too.
When you hold the parts in your hands there is only one thing that comes to your head - "wow its a great quality parts"! Everything is perfectly made and looks good. Can't wait to move on to the installation!
Installation and Instructions:
After a few weeks, I finally found time and a good place to make the installation.
On one hand, the installation wasn't "plug&play" at all. On the other hand, I must say that not even for a moment I blame 27WON for some issues or differences. 27WON is a private company that cant own all models from all the regions of the world.
Instructions:
The installation instructions that 27WON provide are clear and really make sense. If you follow all the steps exactly you will be fine and won't have moments asking yourself like "what I am missing here?"
Installation:
When I tried to place the 27WON FMIC at its place I found the first issue.
1. FK7 doesn't use this big collision bar like on SI - Honda uses just a few connected brackets as you can see in photo 1. On the bottom and the top(you can see the top on photo 1), it has 2 small 4-5mm pins that come out and make it impossible to place the FMIC to its place. The solution was pretty straight forward - cut it out.
Photo 1
Photo 2 (Bottom pin, car passenger side)
2. After I have done with that, I met another obstacle, maybe the only one that 27WON can easily fix - there is an additional hose hole on the 27WON cold pipe. It comes with a built-in ready to use connector for the hose but unfortunately, my FK7 doesn't have this hose. I tried to find something to close it but ended up just finding a welder to close it forever. You can see the pipe after the job done on the following photo.
3. Another thing that required some thinking was the plastic part that separates the Intercooler place to the upper radiator area. You can see this plastic part on this photo:
There is almost no clearance to put it back so I ended up only using only part of it and cut all the other parts. Secured to place with 6 elastic bands.
4. There are 3 places where pipes are rubbing a little:
- Water tank (EU tank is bigger so it has small to no clearance at all)
- Airbox (I guess this is my installation fault but couldn't make it clear)
- Big plastic part that you can see on the Photo 1 that shows all the installation area.
Basically I just added some heat resistant foam to the 2 places and left the Airbox untouched (This this is plastic on band that sits on silicone I guess this will be OK)
You can see all the things on the following photos.
5. Last but not least - After the installation, daily driving temperatures went up a little because most of the new FMIC was blocked by this stupid EU license plate frame. More than that - FK7 has some holes in the FMIC mesh closed. I opened them all and moved the License plate up a little without the frame. Check the photos for "before and after".
And this is how it looks without the bumper:
To sum up...
As you can see, besides the additional hose hole that I think can be fixed easily for EU/FK7 customers, all the issues I had were Region/Model differences. The parts and the instruction are perfect and connected to wonderful customer support this FMIC kit is just amazing.
Coming soon...
Gains and car feedback:...
Sincerely
Prozento
After tons of research, I decided to buy the 27won FMIC. Something in their development blog just made me fall in love with the way they do things.
Since one of the forum members already made a great performance review:
https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/27won-front-mount-intercooler-review-with-datalogs.47613/
... I want to focus first on the other side of any purchase we make - customer service.
In this case, customer service wasn't just good... it was more than outstanding.
Really - I met every obstacle I could ever think about on my way to getting this product into my apartment. I missed the pre-order time twice, messed up with shipping, run into a problem with customs, and thought my package lost for a moment (or two). Every time, again and again, Vincent(27WON) was there to answer the phone, provide any papers or information needed, and was always patient for my issues and my half-English.
When we buy a new part for our cars, sometimes we focus on the product only but customer service like that should be never taken for granted. This way of taking care of their customers can show much about how a company cares for its products too.
Unboxing:
Customs in my country made everything they could to destroy the packaging - Took the IC out and put it back like I throw garbage inside my trash can. The same goes for all other parts that were inside the box.
Still, all the parts came to my apartment in good shape so I can say that the packaging is good too.
When you hold the parts in your hands there is only one thing that comes to your head - "wow its a great quality parts"! Everything is perfectly made and looks good. Can't wait to move on to the installation!
Installation and Instructions:
After a few weeks, I finally found time and a good place to make the installation.
On one hand, the installation wasn't "plug&play" at all. On the other hand, I must say that not even for a moment I blame 27WON for some issues or differences. 27WON is a private company that cant own all models from all the regions of the world.
Instructions:
The installation instructions that 27WON provide are clear and really make sense. If you follow all the steps exactly you will be fine and won't have moments asking yourself like "what I am missing here?"
Installation:
When I tried to place the 27WON FMIC at its place I found the first issue.
1. FK7 doesn't use this big collision bar like on SI - Honda uses just a few connected brackets as you can see in photo 1. On the bottom and the top(you can see the top on photo 1), it has 2 small 4-5mm pins that come out and make it impossible to place the FMIC to its place. The solution was pretty straight forward - cut it out.
Photo 1
Photo 2 (Bottom pin, car passenger side)
2. After I have done with that, I met another obstacle, maybe the only one that 27WON can easily fix - there is an additional hose hole on the 27WON cold pipe. It comes with a built-in ready to use connector for the hose but unfortunately, my FK7 doesn't have this hose. I tried to find something to close it but ended up just finding a welder to close it forever. You can see the pipe after the job done on the following photo.
3. Another thing that required some thinking was the plastic part that separates the Intercooler place to the upper radiator area. You can see this plastic part on this photo:
There is almost no clearance to put it back so I ended up only using only part of it and cut all the other parts. Secured to place with 6 elastic bands.
4. There are 3 places where pipes are rubbing a little:
- Water tank (EU tank is bigger so it has small to no clearance at all)
- Airbox (I guess this is my installation fault but couldn't make it clear)
- Big plastic part that you can see on the Photo 1 that shows all the installation area.
Basically I just added some heat resistant foam to the 2 places and left the Airbox untouched (This this is plastic on band that sits on silicone I guess this will be OK)
You can see all the things on the following photos.
5. Last but not least - After the installation, daily driving temperatures went up a little because most of the new FMIC was blocked by this stupid EU license plate frame. More than that - FK7 has some holes in the FMIC mesh closed. I opened them all and moved the License plate up a little without the frame. Check the photos for "before and after".
And this is how it looks without the bumper:
To sum up...
As you can see, besides the additional hose hole that I think can be fixed easily for EU/FK7 customers, all the issues I had were Region/Model differences. The parts and the instruction are perfect and connected to wonderful customer support this FMIC kit is just amazing.
Coming soon...
Gains and car feedback:...
Sincerely
Prozento
Last edited: