I am waiting on my hrc stage I, and am looking around for an intercooler, smic or fmic..

Which ones are easiest to install? I know the starion is supposedly good, but I cant find any that arent sold already.. there are some 1st or 2nd gen smic's on ebay.. could I use one of those?

Anyone have any suggestions/recommendations?

Go with anything you can physically mount on your car and under your front fascia. I don't have any dimensions handy on me, but it's pretty obvious you can use a stock DSM sidemount and a number of front mounts. Just don't go ridiculous with the dimensions and you'll be fine. Really, the more difficult part of the task is fabricating the intercooler piping.

Personally, if you don't have the cash for a name-brand FMIC (such as HRC, Griffin, Greddy...etc.), I would hold out for a starion. Why? Because you're going to have a lot of trouble fabricating the intercooler piping anyhow, so you might as well make it worth your while with a front mount intercooler. And then it will give you the flexibility in the future to go with something more substantial with the piping already in place. Moreover, I don't think there's anyone on this board that isn't a little vain to enjoy the good looks of a FMIC, since we all own DSM's.

I know the starions are getting more scarce with the popularity of turbocharging imports, but they're still out there. You may have to pay about $150 for one anymore, but relatively speaking, I think it's still a good deal, for a NICE LOOKING front mount, that can cool at least 300HP without heat soak. I can count seven starion IC's available on Ebay right now:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=starion+intercooler&ht=1&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&BasicSearch=

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Jason ESi-T

04' BMW 325Ci
91' Nissan 240SX
98' Eagle Talon ESi (sold)