Page 2 - race

One of the best parts about a small, dynamic company like Mishimoto is that there is never a dull moment around our R&D facility. Change happens frequently, and no two days are the same. At any given time, we've got a solid fleet of engineering vehicles at our disposal that serve as development platforms for our exciting new products, and over time, we become intimately acquainted with each vehicle's characteristics and quirks; each develops a personality and earns its own place on the Mishimoto team. This makes it tough to see them go, but it is always exciting to welcome on a new team member.

This week, it was time for our 2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost to move on to bigger and better things. We had the car around for a decent amount of time and grew quite fond of it, but our engineers could never quite relax in its presence, particularly when they were gathered in large crowds for meetings.

However, the circle of life has done its thing and presented us with our latest team member, and I

In our last post we took a look at our plans for the Mustang radiator and how we were designing it in Solidworks. Thanks to the speedy design, our first functional prototype is complete and ready for some test fitment!

Straight out of the box, it is quite a hefty unit and should provide some much needed cooling for this GT. Check out some installed photos of our functional prototype.

Mustang radiator installed

Mustang radiator installed

Comparison of stock and Mishimoto Mustang radiator

As you can see, the Mishimoto aluminum Mustang radiator is much larger than the stock unit. The end tanks on our Mishimoto unit are around the same width, but we have increased the size of our core to 52mm. This is a significant increase over the stock 25mm as well as the 36mm performance pack.

Mustang radiator installed

There were no issues with clearance, even with our beefy core in place. All Mustang parts, both Mishimoto and stock, fit nicely with our radiator.

Test-fitting Mustang parts

Test-fitting

Putting together our final prototype was a bit easier for this project compared to other front-mount intercooler (FMIC) kits our team has developed. As mentioned in previous segments, we used the crash beam and intercooler from our 2015 WRX kit. Now we've worked up some functional prototype piping for a final test fit.

First, let's take a quick look at each portion of the kit.

Intercooler and Crash Beam

The intercooler core is the key component in any intercooler kit. This core has provided significant air temperature drops during our testing on the WRX, and we expect the same results with the STi.

Mishimoto STi intercooler and crash beam

Mishimoto STi intercooler and crash beam

This core was engineered to provide an ideal balance between heat transfer and airflow.

Silicone Components

Mishimoto 2015 STi front-mount intercooler silicone hoses

Kit Accessories

A few brackets and some hardware help piece this kit together for a solid, durable installation. We are also including a BPV (bypass

With our cold-side piping complete, it was time to focus on the hot side. This portion of the piping system would require a bit more attention, mainly because we were unable to scavenge any existing pipes from our WRX/STI front-mount intercooler kits (as we did with the cold side). Let's get to it!

Piping Fabrication

The hot-side piping will route from the turbocharger compressor outlet, around the driver side of the engine bay, and into the front bumper area to attach to the intercooler.

Here is a look at the turbocharger connection point.

2015 STi front-mount intercooler hot-side pipe turbo connection

A coupler attaches the pipe to the turbocharger.

The end of this pipe must attach to our intercooler, which is mounted within the front bumper area. This requires snaking the piping through the engine bay and locating an ideal spot for the piping to travel outside of the engine compartment.

2015 STi Intercooler pipe connection

We should have no issues routing our pipe between the washer

Our first segment of this STI intercooler project involved the test fitting of our WRX crash beam and intercooler core. We were able to verify fitment of both pieces, which allowed our team to move on to piping fabrication. We are starting this kit with the cold-side pipe, which we've decided to place this on the passenger side of the engine bay to reduce the piping length as much as possible. Following this strategy should help reduce lag seen by the driver.

Pipe Fabrication

The cold-side pipe is a great place to start because we are able to use a portion of one of our existing kits. Because the 2015 model shares the EJ from the 2008+, we will be reusing the pipe that attaches to the throttle body and incorporates the BPV (bypass valve).

2015 STI front-mount intercooler development

This pipe provides optimal clearance through its path within the engine bay. It routes from the throttle body into the portion of the engine bay that previously contained the intake airbox.

2015 STI front-mount

It has been a while since we have updated this project, but we now have something for our WRX community!

The brief data report below shows our gains with this race intake project and our baseline was a fully stock 2015 WRX with no upgrade or aftermarket tune. The numbers are quite high due to the upgrades already installed on the WRX during testing. These upgrades included our Mishimoto:

• Downpipe
• Cat-Back Exhaust
• Front-Mount Intercooler
• Custom Engine tune

WRX intake dyno testing

WRX parts - dyno results

The graph above shows that the race intake coupled with the Mishimoto upgrades netted peak gains of about 77hp with 88ft-lb of torque, and max gains of about 86hp and 98ft-lb of torque against a fully stock WRX. Considering the vehicle's bolt-on additions and custom tune, we were expecting big gains. Of course, such large gains are possible only with the installed upgrades, but our intake and a proper tune contributed as well.

Regardless of any bolt-on upgrades, it is important to note that

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Our idle warmup provided a nice baseline test to evaluate the benefit of the stock liquid-to-liquid oil cooler. From what we saw in the conditions of our first test, warmup is not greatly affected by this component. In this second portion of product testing, we will be evaluating the impact of this heat exchanger on cooling performance. More importantly, we will be evaluating the cooling benefits of our liquid-to-air cooler.

Testing Plans

Variations

• Stock liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger
• Mishimoto oil cooler setup
• Mishimoto oil cooler setup plus stock liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger

By testing the Mishimoto oil cooler both with and without the stock heat exchanger, we can determine if this piece is helping reduce temperatures, or if the coolant temperatures are causing a rise in oil temperatures. This conclusion will allow our team

We've given the 2015 WRX quite a bit of love, mostly due to the introduction of the FA20DIT within the new chassis. Our team developed a ton of awesome components: a downpipe, an intake system, a couple different intercooler options, and various other neat parts. With our WRX projects mostly wrapped up, it's time to turn our attention towards the STi. It still has an EJ engine under the hood, but it is mated to a new chassis that many are taking advantage of in various forms of competitive racing.

So far we have developed an intake and a cat-back exhaust for the STI. Our next target is a bolt-on front-mount intercooler (FMIC) kit for the 2015 STI. The EJ25 is a well-respected engine that can make great power from basic bolt-ons and tuning. In addition, the sky is the limit in terms of power output once engine internals are upgraded and a large snail is bolted up. Greater power means more heat, resulting in the need for a more efficient heat exchanger for the charge-air system. Thus, we

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Functional Prototype

In a short timespan we were able to turn our 3D models into an actual functional prototype. Check out a couple images of our first BMW E46 fan shroud!

Mishimoto prototype E46 parts

Mishimoto prototype E46 parts

As previously noted, we are using our 16" electric slim fan with this kit. This fan produces 1,850 CFM of air and has been used successfully in both our E46 M3 and E36 electric fan kits.

Mishimoto prototype E46 parts

Quite a sleek design!

Product Testing

The at-speed benefits of this shroud are undeniable, but we still need to conduct idle testing to ensure that our electric fan is up to the task of cooling the E46. To do so, we set up a long-duration idle test to evaluate the performance of our electric fan against the stock unit.

Testing Conditions

• Engine at Idle
• Hood closed to replicate on-road conditions