f-150

Like the Roman hero Hercules, the 2015+ F-150 is capable of other-worldly feats. From the street to the jobsite, and even the dunes or the track, there's little that the F-150 can't conquer. With three available engines producing over 350 lb. ft. of torque, the 2015+ F-150 could probably stop the rotation of the earth. Even with all that power, many of the F-150's on the road will never see Moab or drag a 1,000 lb. log up a mountain. But that doesn't mean your F-150 shouldn't be your everyday Hercules.

Owning an F-150 should mean being confident that you can tackle any task life throws your way, but that confidence may be shaken if your stock cooling system has seen better days. Hercules is nothing without his strength, and if your F-150 is overheating, all the power in the world means little. That's why we here at Mishimoto are developing an all-aluminum radiator to keep your 2015+ F-150 going strong.

The first step in developing our 2015+ F-150 radiator was a familiar one: analyzing the

Who doesn't love a good comeback? Rocky, Hoosiers, Robert Downey Jr., and Lindsey Lohan (kind of) are all prime examples of what makes the comeback story so compelling. The theme behind any good comeback is perseverance - not giving in to the will to stop.

Unrelenting perseverance will lead to beating seemingly impossible odds. It's what led the 2005 Liverpool soccer team to beat the heavily favored AC Milan squad in penalties, and the 1993 Buffalo Bills to defeat the Houston Oilers from 32 points down, overcoming the largest point deficit in the NFL to date. Without perseverance, you won't go very far in whatever it is you do. Our engineers take this idea quite seriously at our R&D headquarters, and while the catch can project for this 2015+ Ford F-150 EcoBoost has been stalled for some time, it never really went away. There have been interesting challenges to get around during our R&D, but we finally have something you're going to love.

Tough Times with the 3.5L

There were a few hurdles

These intercooler pipes are now available!
Click here to buy them from our website!

As the old cliché goes, some things just go together like peas in a pod. Peanut butter and jelly. Cold beer and tailgates. Intercoolers and intercooler pipes; you just can't have one without the other. If you followed along with our 2011-14 F-150 EcoBoost intercooler thread, you've probably been waiting for an update on our intercooler pipes for a while now. Well, the wait is over.

Fabrication

In the last post, fabrication ended for our prototype cold-side pipe. Since then, we've been busy fabricating the hot-side piping and testing. Steve and Mike whipped up a hot-side prototype using the same process as the cold-side piping. Steve started by measuring the stock pipes using our ROMER CMM (coordinate mapping machine). Mike then used those measurements to cut and weld a set of prototype pipes.

The two pipes feeding the intercooler air from the twin-turbos are long and intricate, so proper measurements are

As we approach the holidays, I want to get into the giving spirit by sharing some photos with you of how our final 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost intercooler will look. But first, I'd like to thank you all for your patience. This is a busy time of year, and the R&D for this intercooler has been an iterative one, but quality takes time and we've got a part on our hands that looks fantastic - I'm sure you'll all agree. You can see evidence of this by checking out our 2011-2014 EcoBoost Intercooler!

Last time, we 3D-printed some EcoBoost intercooler end tanks and sized up some foam to represent our intercooler core. For all our projects, this step in the process serves not only to save resources, but also to give us some flexibility in changing our design quickly and experimenting with numerous philosophies. Let's dive into the 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost Intercooler project a little bit to find out why this is important.

Laying the Foundation for LOTS of Testing

With any project, the name of the game during

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the third update on the R&D process for the Mishimoto the 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost intercooler. For those of you joining us now who may not have seen our previous updates, you can check them out on our engineering blog. We reached out to you for some feedback, and decided to move forward with an intercooler that utilizes the factory location. We've shown you the 3D-models on the computer, but recently, we took those digital models and brought them to life with the help of our 3D printer.

Printing Some Parts

Back in one of my friend's school days when he spent a lot of his free time consuming music and movies from various online sources (purely out of curiosity - any lawyers wanna chime in on the relevant statute of limitations, here?), his Mother gave him a stern talking to after having received a notice from the internet service provider about downloading copyrighted content (allegedly). In debating the ethics of such things, the phrase "Would you download

Howdy folks, and welcome to the second installment of Mishimoto's Engineering Blog on the development of our upcoming 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost intercooler. In our first post, we examined the factory intercooler on this truck and took a look at some of its unique features, but since then, we have made a ton of headway on developing our improved version. To learn more about how the system functions, check out that first F-150 EcoBoost intercooler post.

When we first began on this project, we were choosing between a couple of possible design philosophies that Jason, the project engineer, had conceived.  Each had its benefits and drawbacks, but rather than trying to read minds, we decided to reach out to all of you to find out what you wanted for the ideal F-150 EcoBoost intercooler.

You may recall that this truck uses a series of active electronically controlled shutters to modify the aerodynamic profile of the vehicle's front end in order to help with gas mileage. The shutters sit not only

Having already obtained precise dimensions from the factory piping and our test vehicle, our engineering team has begun the arduous, but rewarding process of developing and fabricating intercooler piping for our '11-14 F-150.

Cold-Side Intercooler Pipe Fabrication

Fabricating the cold side appears to be less of a challenge than dealing with the hot side, so we decided to start there to get the ball rolling. Following the path of the factory piping, we began fabrication at the intercooler side of the pipe and worked our way up toward the throttle body.

Ford F-150 EcoBoost intercooler pipe fabrication

Ford F-150 EcoBoost intercooler pipe fabrication

Obtaining the perfect angle required some trial and error, as well as repeated test fitting - as you might imagine, the path of this piping is precise, and we need to be highly accurate in order to ensure fitment will be good among all of the trucks on the road.

After having finished the first portion of our two-piece cold-side pipe, we

Along with creating an awesome intercooler for the EcoBoost (EB), we also want to improve upon the pathways through which air travels to and from the charge air cooler. This will involve replacing factory components that route from the turbocharger to the intercooler and from the intercooler to the throttle body with engineered aluminum pieces.

Factory Ford F-150 EcoBoost Intercooler Piping

The factory piping setup on the F-150 is essentially a rat's nest of molded plastic and rubber couplers that, evident upon removal, is complemented by an internal coating of oil. No wonder catch cans are so popular for these trucks!

Our engineers felt like teenagers again with all of the oil on their skin as they removed the piping in order to inspect each piece, keeping in mind that they would need to replicate all connection points to ensure that our piping is a bolt-on setup.

Check out the cold-side pipe, below.

Factory F-150 intercooler piping

This pipe routes from the single intercooler outlet up