PRL Intercooler (FMIC V2) with Vargas Turbocharger Technologies charge pipes for Civic SI (my experience)

[Gandalf]

Installed the V2 PRL FMIC with VTT silicone charge pipes yesterday and figured I'd share my experience and some notes in general. I've noticed a lack of information regarding the VTT pipes so thought I would chime in. Let's start with a few questions that may pop up:

1. Why did you choose VTT charge pipes? Because I like to party.... no seriously I purchased these as a combo from the forum classifieds for a decent deal.
2. How does this set up compare to {insert brand/combo here}? I have no idea, this is my first ever intercooler and charge pipe install and my first turbo vehicle.
3. Where did you find the VTT pipe install instructions? I didn't. Emailed Vargas for some but they apparently don't have any
4. Why upgrade the pipes if you don't have a turbo to take advantage of them? GC+ to be installed in the future
5. How can I help your channel....? Like, comment, subscribe, and SMASH that bell icon to.... wait this isn't a channel
6. Seriously though, if you're reading this I'd venture to bet you're tuned/will be tuned, so do the community a favor and add your tuned car to gtman's tuned reliability thread.

This write up will not have much information regarding the PRL FMIC, there are plenty of resources and reviews out there about that product, nor will this be a comprehensive install guide. Lets start with some comparison shots of the intercooler piping.

Cold side (Driver side):

Hot side (Passenger side):

Cold side with sensors installed:

As you can tell from the photos, when I installed the sensors I did have some concerns about the fitment/clearance for them. The MAP sensor (middle) doesn't have too much room for clearance given the orientation. The inlets for the sensors do wiggle a bit so they can be worked with. My 2 cents here, install the sensors after the piping is in the vehicle. I luckily didn't damage them (as far as I know) by installing them before I put the pipes in the car.


Here are some photos of the cold side (driver) piping in the car. The one piece design is great in theory but an absolute PITA to install. I was not sure how much leeway I had to bend the piping in place.

Showing what I removed to do the cold side install:

After the install:

After plugging in the sensors I had more concerns regarding this layout. The IAT sensor pigtail is very tight, I do not like this. I will not be surprised if it did end up snapping or breaking in the future, I'm currently researching ways to make it longer/free up a few inches of wire to relieve the pressure. Another install note, plug in the sensors after everything is installed. I had to do some wiggling on the intercooler side to make that connection and ended up unplugging the sensors to avoid wire damage due to them being very tight.

The MAP sensor has very little room as well but the pigtail isn't concerningly tight so I don't foresee any issues with it.

Next let's have some photos of the hot side (passenger) piping installed. There were no issues here and the one piece design was easy to work with so not too much to see here:

On to the Intercooler side of the connections. My VTT pipes also came with the VTT billet adapters (apologies, forgot to get photos of them not installed in the piping). I emailed Vargas to ask if the adapters needed to be used with the PRL stock pipe adapters that come with the FMIC, they said no the VTT adapters bolt straight to the intercooler, this is INCORRECT. Maybe this were true with V1 PRL FMIC or whichever intercooler they used in development, but for the PRL FMIC V2, I had to use the PRL adapter plates. Order is: FMIC -> PRL stock adapter plates -> VTT adapters -> Charge pipes

It was late and my body was not happy with the extended/weird angles it'd been asked to assume so I forgot to take some photos of the adapters by themselves without piping. Here are some photos of the adapters in the piping:

Hot side (passenger):

From the photos above you can the the alignment between the VTT adapter (black) is slightly off center from the PRL adapter (silver). The fit is close enough and given the flow of air, I doubt it will be an issue/create much if any turbulence. I was able to use the hardware from the PRL kit to get this connection 100% mounted/fastened.


The cold side (driver) connection was a little bit trickier. The main issue was I did not have hardware that I was comfortable with to make the connection. The PRL adapter plate is milled to use M6 Socket Head cap screws. The connection from the PRL adapter to the VTT adapter was longer than the PRL hardware had (it worked but lacked about 10mm of thread engagement), so I purchased some M6X30mm socket head cap screws to make the connection (would have been great with 28mm). The alignment between adapters on this side was pretty good so no worries here.

Here are photos of the cold side (driver) adapters fitment:

After sorting out the adapter hardware I made and tightened the final connections. Note, all cold side connections were made with the hardware going in from the front.



Hot side fully connected:

I did not get a photo of the cold side buttoned up unfortunately.

Because I wanted to get the 30mm screws for the cold side I made temporary connections and made a 9:30pm run to Home Depot hot boi style (sans bumper). This unfortunately led me to sacrificing the driver side fog light connector to the install gods. The wires are intact but the connector shroud was pulled off by the tire because I failed to secure the pigtail. If anyone knows the part number for that please let me know (I have a 2020 so these are LED).

Before and after photos:

Engine bay ready to go:

Noteworthy PITA moments:

1. Removal of vacuum (not sure what line it actually is) rubber line from factory cold side charge pipe
2. Installing hot side (passenger) FMIC support bracket, dropped the nut under the radiator so many times. Tip, don't be lazy, remove the horn for more room
3. Maneuvering the cold side VTT charge pipe into place while trying to be gentle
4. Solo bumper re-install, aligning it was a pain, but not too terrible though
5. The stupid push clips/rivets broke several but luckily some of the factory air ducting that was removed had some to replace with. Don't be cheap, buy some replacements to have on deck

Final thoughts. The VTT products seem to be good quality so I have no complaints here. I do have complaints about the lack of install instructions and the incorrect answer from VTT product support (again who knows if they had any experience with this combo, but could have at least said so rather than giving false info). I also am not super happy about the sensor location/orientation on the cold side pipe, I will definitely be figuring out how to get more length for the IAT sensor pigtail. None of these comments are meant to bash VTT as a company, they are just made so that everything regarding my experiences during this process is documents/transparent. The PRL FMIC kit is great and should do it's job very well.

As of now I am satisfied with my install. I've not seen any boost leaks or issues while reviewing my K-Tuner logs. Can't speak to actual performance yet as I have not really put it through the paces with extended testing, just done a few quick pulls to ensure there are no leaks. I did not make a blood sacrifice for this install so I guess the fog light connector was what was required.

Burning question, would I purchase VTT pipes for this set up again? No I would not. This is strictly based on how the fitment for the sensors on the cold side charge pipes is. Ideally I would get the PRL specific pipes to go with the intercooler, but again these came packaged with my intercooler and I think they should do the job well (I really like the blue color and the theory behind the one piece design though). Thanks for reading, I hope this helps someone who has questions regarding these products.

 

[gtman]

Thanks for documenting all that. Impressive.

 

[86salmon]

Thanks for the comprehensive write up! Good

 

[Chris_19Si]

@Gandalf, I know you saw that I just installed my PRL intercooler last weekend as well. I used the PRL pipes and thought the install went pretty good. What boost pressure have you seen? I was tooling around on my first checkout drive and blew a hose connection. Just had to tighten one connection so far and hit 26psi a few times on later drives and everything seems tight for now. I want to get a little closer to home with a warm engine and hit boost a few more times to be sure all of my connections are holding. I had to use a wrench on my hose clamps to get them tight enough. The only one I did with a stubby screwdriver (right behind the radiator) was the one that blew. I also used starter fluid to check for leaks, and found none.

Have you noticed quicker spool on the turbo? I sure did. I was going to wait to buy an intercooler, but came across one with charge pipes for $600. Everything looked new. Couldn't pass it up. Phearable just sent me their tune revision for adding the intercooler. $99 for the revision seems like a good deal. I'll data log some pulls on the way home today and log some more after the tune upgrade to see if the difference shows up in the logs.

What tune do you have and are there revisions available for hardware changes?? I'll let you know if revising the tune does anything on my setup.

Chris

 

[DadBodMod17]

Same setup I’m running (black FMiC though). I’ve been very happy with it and love the little pop of color coming out then “horn hole” on the bumper

 

[Neddih]

Looks good! In my mind i worry more about the extra slack and ability to wiggle and move constantly (my maf sensor connection and the main harness bundle near the battery) are unsupported for the most part. When it comes to wiring the one thing i do know is as things get brittle over time, and move more they are more likely to break, i doubt you need to worry about a tight connection moving enough to rip anything outside of a collision probably.

Another way to look at it anyway lol let us know how it feels as you get to drive it since install.

 

[Gandalf]

@Gandalf, I know you saw that I just installed my PRL intercooler last weekend as well. I used the PRL pipes and thought the install went pretty good. What boost pressure have you seen? I was tooling around on my first checkout drive and blew a hose connection. Just had to tighten one connection so far and hit 26psi a few times on later drives and everything seems tight for now. I want to get a little closer to home with a warm engine and hit boost a few more times to be sure all of my connections are holding. I had to use a wrench on my hose clamps to get them tight enough. The only one I did with a stubby screwdriver (right behind the radiator) was the one that blew. I also used starter fluid to check for leaks, and found none.

Have you noticed quicker spool on the turbo? I sure did. I was going to wait to buy an intercooler, but came across one with charge pipes for $600. Everything looked new. Couldn't pass it up. Phearable just sent me their tune revision for adding the intercooler. $99 for the revision seems like a good deal. I'll data log some pulls on the way home today and log some more after the tune upgrade to see if the difference shows up in the logs.

What tune do you have and are there revisions available for hardware changes?? I'll let you know if revising the tune does anything on my setup.

Chris

Thanks for checking this thread out. I did watch your video with the post install drive, I really enjoyed it.

As for boost pressures the highest I've seen is 26.3 which is the same as what I had with the stock pipes. I am on Phearable 1.5R tune, 26 is the target for map 3, so I'm good there. I've not noticed any quicker spool but I have not been looking for it either. I don't have upgraded clutch or gears yet so I don't exactly "romp" on it a lot or very hard. From my datalogging most of the time when I'm getting in to heavy boost I'm doing so at around 70% throttle, I'm rarely WOT. Maybe I would notice a bigger difference if I were a little more aggressive with it.

As for revisions, since you're on Phearable I'm in the same boat with the availability of the $99 tune. I've not done it as it's not required with the FMIC and charge pipes. I will be going GC+ turbo in the next few months so I will likely get their OTS GC+ flex fuel tune (have PRL FF kit ready to go as well). When ordering the tune they ask what your supporting mods are so I'm not sure if they tailor the OTS to work with these or not.

Overall, I'm happy with the parts so far and luckily didn't run into any boost leak issues. Done around four 30+ minutes data logs and seen nothing of concern. I've not seen really any difference in IAT temps but I'm also likely not getting into boost enough for it to make too big of a difference. I am in the hot south GA summer so I'm sure my car will appreciate this mod.

 

[Gandalf]

Same setup I’m running (black FMiC though). I’ve been very happy with it and love the little pop of color coming out then “horn hole” on the bumper

What color charge pipes did you get? Is your IAT sensor pigtail really tight as well? If so, have you done anything to alleviate the tension?

 

[Gandalf]

Looks good! In my mind i worry more about the extra slack and ability to wiggle and move constantly (my maf sensor connection and the main harness bundle near the battery) are unsupported for the most part. When it comes to wiring the one thing i do know is as things get brittle over time, and move more they are more likely to break, i doubt you need to worry about a tight connection moving enough to rip anything outside of a collision probably.

Another way to look at it anyway lol let us know how it feels as you get to drive it since install.

The cover (split loom?) over the IAT sensor wire is grey/white around both ends from being pulled so that's why I'm a bit concerned. And as you said with age, I doubt this will be very good for it. I've tried to open the cover that has all the connectors/splits coming from it that is near HPFP, but it's a PITA and I've been unsuccessful due to not wanting to break anything.

So far I've put close to 200 miles on the setup and enjoyed it. I've not seen, or not really been looking for, the quicker spool Chris mentioned but maybe if I drove it harder I would definitely notice. This is my daily and only vehicle so I try not to beat it too much.

 

[Neddih]

The cover (split loom?) over the IAT sensor wire is grey/white around both ends from being pulled so that's why I'm a bit concerned. And as you said with age, I doubt this will be very good for it. I've tried to open the cover that has all the connectors/splits coming from it that is near HPFP, but it's a PITA and I've been unsuccessful due to not wanting to break anything.

So far I've put close to 200 miles on the setup and enjoyed it. I've not seen, or not really been looking for, the quicker spool Chris mentioned but maybe if I drove it harder I would definitely notice. This is my daily and only vehicle so I try not to beat it too much.

Thats just the outer tubing/shielding stretching a bit, if it concerns you there is cloth automotive tape that you could put a wrap around each end until you change the pipes for something else. Its also not kinked anywhere like right at the connector (like the bypass solenoid) The way it looks in the photo looks ok to me though, opening the plastic harnesses and exposing more wire would likely cause more issues in the end. It still makes sense you dont like it though

 

[Chris_19Si]

As for revisions, since you're on Phearable I'm in the same boat with the availability of the $99 tune. I've not done it as it's not required with the FMIC and charge pipes. I will be going GC+ turbo in the next few months so I will likely get their OTS GC+ flex fuel tune (have PRL FF kit ready to go as well). When ordering the tune they ask what your supporting mods are so I'm not sure if they tailor the OTS to work with these or not.

Man, get that clutch upgraded and some gears and start enjoying your build more. Reliability costs money, and those parts that need replaced are pretty well identified now. Are you tracking the car or just having fun on the street?

 

[Gandalf]

Man, get that clutch upgraded and some gears and start enjoying your build more. Reliability costs money, and those parts that need replaced are pretty well identified now. Are you tracking the car or just having fun on the street?

So far, and for the foreseeable future it's just a fun street build.

I know I need the gears and the clutch. I scored pretty much all my parts from the same person as a bulk deal. Adding power wasn't on my radar, I was going to go handling first, but couldn't pass up the deal I found. With my parts I do have the RV6 retro fly wheel, no clutch yet. The person that sold me the flywheel did have the matching stage 1 clutch to go with it, but after a small amount of research I decided I wanted the stage 0 so I need to order it. With the gears I'll likely go RV6 (3rd & 4th) when I get to that point. I pay a great amount of attention to your threads/comments on the transmissions and find them very interesting, thank you for your continued contributions! If I lived anywhere near you I would likely enlist your help as I see you've kind of turned into a transmission shop

Again this deal came out of nowhere so I wasn't planning on spending the money but did and thus I'm on the slippery slope of mods and still needing to put some more money with it to address the "reliability" aspect. I do have ARP/TSP head studs that will be going in soon as well (will be doing the 1 at a time method), I'm pretty sure you said you did it this way as well.

To complete this power adding adventure I need the following still (probably do it in this order too):

1. Phearable GC+ Flex fuel tune
2. Stage 0 clutch
3. RV6 gears

For items 2 & 3, I'll likely have a shop do these installs so I have to get ready to swallow that labor cost.

 

[Neddih]

So far, and for the foreseeable future it's just a fun street build.

I know I need the gears and the clutch. I scored pretty much all my parts from the same person as a bulk deal. Adding power wasn't on my radar, I was going to go handling first, but couldn't pass up the deal I found. With my parts I do have the RV6 retro fly wheel, no clutch yet. The person that sold me the flywheel did have the matching stage 1 clutch to go with it, but after a small amount of research I decided I wanted the stage 0 so I need to order it. With the gears I'll likely go RV6 (3rd & 4th) when I get to that point. I pay a great amount of attention to your threads/comments on the transmissions and find them very interesting, thank you for your continued contributions! If I lived anywhere near you I would likely enlist your help as I see you've kind of turned into a transmission shop

Again this deal came out of nowhere so I wasn't planning on spending the money but did and thus I'm on the slippery slope of mods and still needing to put some more money with it to address the "reliability" aspect. I do have ARP/TSP head studs that will be going in soon as well (will be doing the 1 at a time method), I'm pretty sure you said you did it this way as well.

To complete this power adding adventure I need the following still (probably do it in this order too):

1. Phearable GC+ Flex fuel tune
2. Stage 0 clutch
3. RV6 gears

For items 2 & 3, I'll likely have a shop do these installs so I have to get ready to swallow that labor cost.

I suggest the clutch before a bigger turbo & ethanol tune, unless you plan on doing the clutch shortly after, that much power is beyond asking the stock to leave this world hah.

 

[DadBodMod17]

What color charge pipes did you get? Is your IAT sensor pigtail really tight as well? If so, have you done anything to alleviate the tension?

Blue and about 10 degrees under ambient on highways. I don’t recall it being too tight but will take a look when i get the chance.

 

[Gandalf]

I suggest the clutch before a bigger turbo & ethanol tune, unless you plan on doing the clutch shortly after, that much power is beyond asking the stock to leave this world hah.

Yeah I understand the stock clutch definitely needs the upgrade and probably should be first on the list. Being the curious person I am, I sort of want to see if I got one of the "lucky" clutches that can actually hold some power. I know it's highly unlikely, and I will need to do the clutch very soon after the power level goes up. Really the only reason the list is in that order is because the parts are already in my possession and I'm itching to put them in, but still waiting on some parts to do so.

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