I have no plans of going BT, so my question is stock TMIC, aftermarket TMIC, or FMIC? I also have a CP-E SRI and dont really want to upgrade to a CAI, so with that in mind, what is your take? I love the look of the FMIC, but not sure how it will mate with my SRI or if ill need any other upgrades to make it work.

FMIC is not a bad route, just really depends on how you use the car. The top mount and even upgraded top mounts have serious limits, and you need to upgrade other things- like the fuel system etc- almost at the same time you do the intercooler. Other options are water/meth injection, water-to-air intercoolers, etc.
Again, really depends on your goals.

the car is intended to be my daily driver. Once I buy a new car I want to make it a track car, but thats easily 2-3years down the road.

Scribz wrote:the car is intended to be my daily driver. Once I buy a new car I want to make it a track car, but thats easily 2-3years down the road.

If you are not going BT you can go with a TMIC. You will max out the stock K04 before you see a benefit of going with a FMIC. You will get some heat soak in the summer though. You could just run WMI on the stock intercooler and save some cash. WMI had a bigger effect on BAT's than going FMIC did.

Excessively mod the car, become unhappy, sell/buy another car. Rinse and repeat.

Profit?

If you are sticking with an SRI, you shouldn't have a problem with any IC config. A CAI limits you on what FMIC kit you can use...

ok a better question, budget is 3k, which mods in which order?

Coilovers + FMIC + AccessPort? I don't own a Speed, but I'm guessing those would be some decent mod choices and should keep you under 3k (there are sets of coilovers on StreetUnit for ~$1k, Cobb FMIC for another 1k or so, and then an accessport for $400ish?) Maybe sway bars as well.

Learjet45 wrote:Coilovers + FMIC + AccessPort? I don't own a Speed, but I'm guessing those would be some decent mod choices and should keep you under 3k (there are sets of coilovers on StreetUnit for ~$1k, Cobb FMIC for another 1k or so, and then an accessport for $400ish?) Maybe sway bars as well.

You have never modded a car, so PLEASE do not give advice on doing so. Reading crap on a forum is not the same.

OP- you need to decide what your going to do to your car, and what you want it to do. Honestly, I would tell you to leave it alone and save your money for a dedicated track car or rent time in one of mine.

D Walker wrote:You have never modded a car, so PLEASE do not give advice on doing so. Reading crap on a forum is not the same.

OP- you need to decide what your going to do to your car, and what you want it to do. Honestly, I would tell you to leave it alone and save your money for a dedicated track car or rent time in one of mine.

Ignoring the shamless plug you put in there, so what if I haven't personally modded a car? I get that reading stuff on a forum isn't the same, but still. Get your panties out of a bunch and calm down. It was a suggestion. Based on the idea that an Accessport can provide a bit more power if desired, and the sway bars and coilovers could improve handling. After all, it is FWD. Everyone here seems to be in consensus that the car handles really well, but there's almost always room for improvement. It's a suggestion. I even said I don't have a Speed3 myself and I was just taking a guess.

Because you have no idea what your talking about.

I never said I had any experience with modding or a Speed3. I never pretended I knew even half as much about modding as most people on here do. So just get off your high horse.

Scribz:

for a daily driver my suggestion is to leave it stock, save for: wheels, tires, and brake pads. Obviously cosmetic things as well in accordance with your taste.

Like you said, you are planning a dedicated track car down the road, why put unnecessary money into a street car that could otherwise be put into a trackcar fund??

Also, if you leave it stock you acquire this rare ability to buy good used stock parts for nothing when yours fail, making out of warranty repairs cheaper as long as you can do the repairs yourself.



Lear:
Seriously, shut up. You have no idea what you are talking about. The things you listed are everybody's first considerations, not like you found a gemstone there or anything. 1K coilovers? yeah, at that price they're guaranteed to make your car handle worse than good stock stuff. Swaybars? why? what diameter and why? what will increasing the front one do and why? Don't know? Guess you shouldn't be recommending them then. Accessport? cool to know it's out there, but I hope Scribz knows how to tune or learns fast, else he destroys his engine. (no offense meant in any way to Scribz as I do not know what he can do) So stop posting things you know nothing about. Go find a Honda Forum to play FFF on...

I would like to say that the Stock MS3 suspension kinda sucks. All Mazda did was put stiffer springs with a lower stance on N/A MZ3 shocks. You don't need to do coilovers like I did but upgrading the shocks and springs make a huge difference on this platform. Just don't go crazy and slam it because then it will handle like crap. If there was one mod to pick, I would suggest upgraded the shocks and springs. Go with coilovers if you want the best spring/shock combo but whatever you do, don't cheap out....

Just my $0.02

Learjet45 wrote:I never said I had any experience with modding or a Speed3. I never pretended I knew even half as much about modding as most people on here do. So just get off your high horse.

You don't have any experience with modding ANY car. Reading stuff on a forum and actually having a car that you have modded yourself are two very different things. SecondGenPAt may have been harsher than I would have been, but I have to say he has a point.

As for me, having actually owned a Speed3 and having modded it myself, I can say that I enjoyed my upgraded TMIC and it made a huge difference over the stock one. As long as I was driving down the road my BATs were great and I didn't have problems with heatsoak. I did have problems with heatsoak at the track, however. You spend a lot of time idling while waiting for your next run and the BATs would go sky high. On the highway though I'm sure I got just as much benefit out of my TMIC as anyone with an FMIC.

Really just depends on what you're going to do with the car. For just normal daily driving, you'll probably be happy with the TMIC. If you're stuck in really heavy traffic your BATs will go up, but if you're stuck in traffic you don't have room to be romping on it anyway. And they come back down after a bit of driving. If you're going to be doing a lot of drag racing, for one this is totally the wrong car for it, but if you are, then you might want to look at a front mount. But an FMIC does also have the potential to slightly increase your coolant temps as it partially blocks the radiator.

Others have suggested water/meth injection and that was going to be my next mod before I got a great deal on my Mustang and traded in the MS3. It's only a few hundred extra to do both and then you get the benefit of both ways of cooling down the intake charge. WMI is a bit more complicated to install than just unbolting the stock TMIC and bolting on an aftermarket one, though.