Adding a hood scoop won't yield any horsepower increases, but it helps the stock top-mount intercooler to work better. It allows more air to flow over the top-mount intercooler than the stock air ducts and potentially allows it to shed more heat when the car is not moving, which reduces heat soak. However, a front-mount is superior to a top-mount when it comes to reduced heat soak, and the reputable brands' FMICs (Cobb, CP-E, etc.) are more efficient than the stock TMIC anyways. Any change in throttle/boost response from the FMIC's longer piping will be negligible, esp. since if you add an FMIC you'll need to get a tune and/or a fuel pump upgrade to run the car at its best.

 

how expensive is it to convert to FMIC? overall with all the parts and labor roughly?

 

Figure about $1000 - $1300 for the actual intercooler with all the piping then if you're paying someone to do it, labor rate is about $86/hour this is a 2 - 3 hour job. Depending on where you are I'm sure some nice local members might help you out installing it for some beer and pizza

Edit: I recommend this http://www.cp-e.com/content/mazdaspeed3-%CE%B4core%E2%84%A2-front-mount-intercooler

 

actually, direct air to the intercooler via a properly designed hood scoop will yield an increase in power, you're cooling the intercooler down more and quicker, which means it's more efficient. Under the same conditions without a scoop vs with a scoop, a car with a PROPERLY designed scoop should be just a slight bit more powerful. This REALLY helps on hotter days.

 

thanks for the info!

 

the air ducts on the gen 1 do just fine.

 

[quote author=zombie link=topic=183081.msg3876268#msg3876268 date=1291651109]
the air ducts on the gen 1 do just fine.
[/quote]
Was just thinking this as I read through. At speed, the stock air ducts work pretty decent. The difference between a hood with a scoop is mentioned in the second thread. The biggest gain will be heat soak reduction which yields more power only in the event that you have been sitting at idle and take off. Otherwise, no big difference in overall power.

 

There was much to do about this when the new model came out ... fact is the hood scoop only gives an advantage at HIGH speeds ... not at the stop light ... so the Gen 2 has an advantage over Gen 1 when you travel approx 120 - 154 mph ... so for every day driving ... no difference ... the Gen 1 would fizzle out at high speeds while the Gen 2 still had some good influx of available "air" ... forced to some degree ... Mazda flubbed the deal with trying to deal with the torque steer issue so badly with Gen 2 ... the Hood Scoop is far outpaced by the LOSS associated with this issue .... Gen 1 wins ... hands down

 

FMICFTMFW!
:lol: