Why install..

using a front mount keep the intercooler away from the engine heat, which inturn results in colder intake charge :)

there are ways to improve the top mount intercooler for quite cheap, it won't be as good as an fmic in terms of cooling, but it will keep lag away.  

the tmic will give you far better response, and will be just fine as long as you're moving.  it's the stop n go traffic that the tmic kinda sucks in.  if you can get your hands on an ARC top mount, its quite good.

you'll just need some sort of heat barrier between the tmic and the motor and the difference will be night and day.

the tmic is also very very easy to remove, like literally under 3 minutes.

if you're going to be running more than 1.2 bar and a turbo thats a 3071 or larger, i'd go fmic or water cooled.
all else a top mount is sufficient with some modification.

what he said :P

there's also less chances of vacuum or boost leak since there's only 2 coupling instead of 5 or more depending on the setup .

lag is the other side .

the chance of breaking a FMIC is higher than a tmic .

Why will it have more lag? and if i dont cut out the bumper will it be worse cooling then having it top mounted?

More lag because the air has to travel further. (Across the from bumper instead of just over the motor)

You don't need to cut your front bumper if the intercooler can fit behind it.

Oh ok. i mean when people cut out the bumper so you can see all of the intercooler. like cutting out a big rectangle in the bumper

Some intercoolers fit behind the bumper and others don't. Sometimes you need to modify the mounting brackets to make it fit behind the bumper

Is there a way you can have two inter coolers? keep the main one on top and get a smaller one for the front bumper?

Actually sunshine, i was thinking the same thing. I'll be designing a pre-charge cooler then a post charge cooler on top. It would be super easy to test with temp sensors and a couple of big fans and maybe a couple of pressure sensors (a la MAF). I also want to put in a separate oil system in for the turbo with it's own cooler. My target is next year...lol

I luckily bought a car with an ARC top mount. Do you think it could have less restriction than stock causing the car to have better throttle response?

yah the arc flows betters than stock for sure

Adding a Pre cooler to your intake track would restrict airflow and cancel any cooling benefits.. basically you would just add a few pounds to the front end and complicate things... unless it was a super efficient design. Keep thhinking outside of the box though that's how innovation happens :)

Spend the time and money making an intake that takes the are right out of the airstream. Unless you use a fogger, or evap cooling system on your precooler, you will never get colder air than ambient anyway.

Or better yet, put that time and money into the best possible aftercooler. That's the air that is going into the engine anyway.