Veloster N Intercooler Kit

The intercooler is fantastic, high quality construction and hardware. Install was a breeze, and looks fantastic. The cardboard template for painting the logo was a really nice touch too.

I have had this FMIC kit installed on my DCT VN for over 9 Months. No issues so far with parts cracking or leaks. For me the install was intermediate difficulty (my first time installing an fmic and by myself) and it took all night, but everything fit in the end.
Can definitely feel that I can do more pulls without any signs of heatsoaking after this install.

I've had this intercooler kit on my DCT Veloster N for a month now, and in that time, I've gone through two hot pipes. Both times, the carbon fiber hot pipe ended up cracking along the seams where both halves are joined, and sliding out of the couplers, introducing a boost leak. After the first pipe cracked, SXTH Element's support was very gracious and replaced it under warranty, and even provided some suggestions to keep this from happening again. I followed their suggestions, I made sure the clamps weren't too tight. I made sure to clamp the pipe behind its raised edges. I made sure both ends of the pipe were deep into the couplers. It made no difference, the pipe actually went and cracked even worse than the first time. I ultimately ended up replacing the hot pipe with a piece of exhaust pipe I had cut at a muffler shop.

Carbon fiber is fantastic about dissipating heat, I can see the appeal in wanting to use it in a hot pipe. But as I've unfortunately discovered, it can be very brittle, especially when dealing with boost pressure. As such. I feel sufficient warning needs to be given of this fact, but no instructions are provided with this kit, nor can any be located on this website. So my question is, what is the expectation here? It felt like there was no winning in this situation. I felt like my options were to either get yet another hot pipe and clamp it so loosely as to not encourage any confidence that it'll be held in place under any significant amount of boost pressure, or to just forgo the provided hot pipe entirely and get a custom pipe made.

Frankly, considering how much this kit costs, I am not satisfied. I will admit, the core looks fantastic, the couplers themselves are of high quality, and in general my IATs are lower (even with the exhaust pipe). But I cannot advocate for the hot pipe. Even if I did have the clamps too tight (which admittedly is possible because as I mentioned, no instructions were provided), for $1,000 I should have the confidence that every component in this kit is durable and capable of taking a beating. The fact that these hot pipes cracked so quickly and easily is extremely concerning and keeps me from wholly being able to recommend this kit.

Easy installation, you do not need to do any cutting aside from bending a tab where the sensor on intercooler sits to make the bigger intercooler fit. Once that is done you can easily bend the tab back and you are good to go... this was my first intercooler upgrade on any car ive owned. First turbo car ive owned as well (v8 truck was my old vehicle). Power was a little noticeable. I do not have tuned my car. Just wanted an upgrade to help my turbo run better on the heat of texas.