Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler 2002-2014

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Time to review our data so we can finally put a close on this project. The product development process for this front-mount intercooler has taken months and has also helped refine several of our processes. Before we move into the testing data, our first portion of this post will cover the physical benefits of our intercooler. By providing a more efficient heat exchanger, we can ensure that higher-powered vehicles are not being hindered by debilitating heat-soak and/or inefficiencies with the use of a top-mount intercooler setup.

Our first comparison point is internal flow area. This graph shows the volume of the actual air passages through the intercooler.

Comparison of internal flow area

Internal

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

We are nearing the end of this build. As mentioned in the last post, we wanted to put our core to the test and provide some cooling efficiency data that our customers could use. We decided to modify our 2010 STi to add some heat and power to the CAC system for testing. Information regarding our vehicle is listed below.

2010 Subaru WRX STI

• 6-Speed Manual
• Mishimoto Intake
• Mishimoto Front-Mount Intercooler
• Fuel Line Modification
• 3" Downpipe
• Tune

Check out a few shots of the car on the dyno!

Mishimoto GR STI on the dyno

Mishimoto GR STI on the dyno

As you can see, we have sensors installed on the piping, both the cold- and hot-side of the intercooler. We have pressure and temperature sensors hooked up

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

As promised, we have a couple cool images showing these kits fully installed on our test vehicles. Check them out below!

First, our full kit installed on our shop 2003 WRX Bugeye wagon!

Bugeye wagon with Mishimoto kit fully installed

This intercooler fills out the bumper completely and looks fantastic. Next up, a look at this kit fully installed on the Hawkeye.

Hawkeye with Mishimoto kit fully installed

And a couple shots of our finalized GR STi kit!

GR STi with Mishimoto kit fully installed

GR STi with Mishimoto kit fully installed

Now that we had all of our kits developed, the project is complete, right? Wrong! We haven't tested this intercooler out yet! Now, we have conducted a ton of CFD and core

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Time to weld up some pipes! This would be the more time-consuming portion of this project, as most of these vehicles would require a specific pipe kit. We would not be able to utilize one set of pipes across the model board, as we did with the intercooler. Going in order, we started with our Bugeye. One of our test vehicles featured a reasonably stock engine bay, as shown below.

Stock Bugeye engine bay

After ripping the stock cooler off of both our wagon and sedan test vehicles, we began to fabricate piping. Check out a few shots of what our engineers came up with for routing!

Mishimoto fabricated intercooler pipes on Bugeye

Mishimoto fabricated intercooler pipes on Bugeye

Mishimoto fabricated intercooler

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Time to take a quick look at our cooler and see how it fits with our test vehicles. First, a quick overview of the cooler itself. Check out our first prototype!

Mishimoto prototype intercooler

Mishimoto prototype intercooler

Alright, so here we have our raw prototype. Do note that this unit is a raw component, meaning it has no paint or powder-coat finish. The size of this cooler is extremely impressive, and our goal was to design a core length that would span as much of the front grille area as possible. The more airflow we have moving through the fins, the greater the heat transfer capability. Here are a few basic features of the prototype.

Cast End Tanks

As you can see, we have selected to manufacture

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Time to start designing the basic dimensions of our intercooler! As mentioned in the previous post, this cooler would need to fit with all chassis if possible. Luckily we had a few of these vehicles as shop cars. First up, we pulled our 03 Bugeye Wagon into the shop and began taking a look at the space we had available in order to throw a huge core behind the bumper. Up on the lift she went and the bumper came off to reveal what we were working with.

Bugeye wagon intercooler prototyping and data collection

Bugeye wagon intercooler prototyping and data collection

Bugeye wagon intercooler prototyping

As you can see we have a lot going on in these first few images. The first image shows our Romer arm.

Interested in purchasing our Subaru WRX or STi intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX/STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2001-2007

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Mishimoto Subaru STi Front-Mount Intercooler, 2008-2014

Modifying your Subaru can be quite a slippery slope, especially when this wonderful pastime turns from a hobby to an obsession. Luckily, the enthusiast community is huge and always ready to provide support (or laughter), even when your fully built engine decides it wants nothing to do with a cylinder 3 connecting-rod bearing. As you may be aware, we are huge fans of both Subaru vehicles, and the communities that thrive around them. Our continually growing Subaru product line is about to get much bigger, and our team decided to tackle the development of a new front-mount intercooler for the 2002+ WRX and STi.

I know exactly what you are thinking. Why now? The car is ancient and the market is swamped