Page 5 - intercooler

When I was young, I had a serious tendency to become fixated on a specific item or experience. Starry-eyed and captivated, I'd stubbornly obsess over my desire-du-jour at the expense of appreciating what was going on in the moment - something that was lost on me at the time, but hardly seems unique now, among my generational peers (or even those decades my senior). It's a fault upon which I've improved vastly with age and "wisdom", but I regularly notice reflections of the same tendency beyond the scope of my own experience, even regarding one's attitude to something as simple as Chevy parts.

You see, although this phenomenon tends often to be associated with my generation, I would argue that its application extends much more broadly to human nature.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard my aunts, uncles, and parents rehashing their college days, often followed by "I wish I had taken advantage of X opportunity or done Y thing - I was just too focused on Z!", I'd have enough money to

As a writer, the relationship between words and ideas has always interested me. Often, the same idea, expressed the same way, can have wildly different implications in different contexts.

An idea may be exceptionally positive in one instance, while equally negative in another. For example, let's take the word "quick." I think anyone who ended up on this blog post can agree that a quick Camaro is a good thing, right? But what about a quick job interview? "They must have really loved me!" Maybe"

Let's look at another word, "thin." We love thin phones and tablets; with every Apple keynote, we're once step closer to replacing the phrase "paper cut" with "smartphone cut." But when it comes to intercoolers, thin is generally not ideal. GM's engineers apparently didn't get this memo when they designed the 2016 Camaro 2.0T intercooler, but that's where we come in: We are developing an intercooler to try to squeeze some more power out of that LTG.

We've got numerous ideas on how to improve, but

George R.R. Martin isn't the only author who can write some gripping stuff about the cold. That's right, brace yourselves, winter is coming; and we are jumping into the frigid waters which we know well - improved intercooler performance. The patient going underneath our scalpel for R&D is the 2013+ Ford Focus ST, but per our usual process, let's first take a brief second to examine the stock system.

Our Ford Focus ST intercooler getting inspected

Ford decided to use tube-and-fin construction for this intercooler instead of bar and plate. The difference between the two is pretty simple. Tube-and-fin intercoolers are more commonplace amongst stock applications. They are lighter and promote greater airflow through the core exterior. The trade-offs to these qualities are less heat transfer and more susceptibility to road damage.

Bar-and-plate intercoolers, however, have increased cooling efficiency over a tube-and-fin design. They are physically a stronger intercooler, meaning they can withstand

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

This hot hatch is heating up our headquarters! We have several projects in the works, so if you have not had a chance to check them out, you can do so on the Focus RS section of our engineering blog.

Stock Focus RS intercooler piping

Often, one of the first modifications to turbocharged vehicles is the intercooler. However, this time we wanted to give the spotlight to its lesser known siblings, the intercooler piping. If you have not yet had a chance to take a look under the hood of your Focus RS, we'll save you the trouble; it's tight in there. Not the best news for those of us who aim to squeeze every bit of power out of our RS. Increasing the flow to the turbo via the piping has power potential, after all.

Stock Focus RS intercooler piping

The stock piping is complex in shape and constructed of plastic and rubber couplers. Overall there are eight connection points in this set of piping. The cold-side piping is fairly short, but the hot-side piping is nearly triple the length, extending

Team Mishi is hard at work developing an entire line of cooling upgrades for our RS. Up to bat is one of the more popular modifications for turbo cars: the intercooler.

Stock Focus RS intercooler

The stock Focus RS intercooler is an interesting part of this hot hatch. As soon as images of the striking front end of this car surfaced on the interwebs, many noticed that there was a black plate blocking off a portion of the intercooler, and immediately called it out. Ford explained that the intercooler was too efficient and that, in humid climates, the excess efficiency caused condensation within the intake tract.

Stock Focus RS intercooler

Stock Focus RS intercooler

Although we had been warned, like any horsepower-hungry enthusiast, our first thought was how to get rid of this plate. After having a closer look at the block-off, we found that it is not permanently affixed to the intercooler. It is a small piece of plastic attached to the front of the intercooler with a strong adhesive. It can

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