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Interested in purchasing our Subaru battery tie-down? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru CNC Battery Tie Down

Mishimoto is not only interested in improving the performance, reliability, and power output of your new Subaru, but we also care about aesthetics. Small touches in the engine bay can make a big impact on the overall appearance and also provide a sense of personalization. Our first targeted component is the battery tie-down. The stock tie-down is rather bland, its main purpose being functionality, which is fine for a stock unit. For those looking to upgrade, a stylish aluminum replacement is ideal. In case you haven't yet peered into the engine bay of your "15, here is what the stock tie-down looks like.

Stock 2015 Subaru WRX battery tie-down

Our first task was to design a few prototypes and see what design we thought was most appealing. This is much easier said than done. Check out a few renderings of the design ideas from our team.

Mishimoto

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 2015 STi intake system? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru STI Performance Air Intake

Many of you followed along as our team developed a variety of new products for the 2015 WRX. Recently, we were lucky enough to come into contact with a gracious 2015 STI Launch Edition owner who was willing to lend us his vehicle for a few days of product development, test fitting, and of course dyno testing. Check out a neat gallery of images featuring the vehicle and a video featuring dyno pulls with our prototype performance air intake. More information on our intake design coming soon!

Thanks for reading and taking a look at the images! Check back with us next week for a video overview of some Mishimoto components that carry over from the previous generation as well as a look at projects we are working on for the 2015!

Thanks

Interested in purchasing our 2015 STi intake system? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

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

Interested in purchasing our WRX catch can kit? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Subaru WRX Baffled Oil Catch Can System

The final kit is ready for installation! After months of development and test fitting, we finally had our completed prototype components ready for fitment verification prior to mass production. Check out all of the components below!

First, the passenger side catch can bracket for the PCV system.

Final PCV catch can bracket

Next up is the finished version of our dual port catch can!

Final catch can

A cool shot of the internal components of the catch can.

Final catch can internal components

And finally we have the catch cans and both brackets included in this kit. The black finish is subtle and works well with the WRX engine bay.

Kit catch cans and brackets

We then attached the brackets to the cans in preparation for the full kit installation.

Catch cans with brackets installed

Now that we had all of the components ready to go, we performed one final

Interested in purchasing our 2015 WRX aluminum radiator? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Performance Aluminum Radiator

Now that we had a finalized prototype, it was time to test this component to ensure that our improvements over the stock unit resulted in real-world advantages for our customers. An aluminum radiator provides the instantaneous benefit of increased reliability over the stock plastic unit. Despite this, cooling performance is always our primary goal with a heat exchanger.

Prior to actual road testing, our engineering team put together a few charts illustrating the improvements over the stock radiator.

Comparison of coolant surface area in Mishimoto and stock radiators

Coolant surface area refers to the space occupied by the tubes in the radiator. The amount of coolant surface area affects both fluid capacity and overall heat transfer contact points. A larger coolant surface area results in greater heat transfer and lower temperature.

Interested in purchasing our WRX catch can kit? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Subaru WRX Baffled Oil Catch Can System

Time to start designing brackets! After a quick recap of the project goals, our creative engineering team began brainstorming. First, they selected a location for the catch can on the PCV valve side. It would need body mounting points for the can bracket, and preferably a short route for the hose so as not to complicate the engine bay. Our goal is a clean installation that appears stock-like, not a medusa of hoses routed about the engine bay.

The PCV valve on the 2015 WRX is located under the intercooler toward the rear of the engine block. You can see it in the image below, taken during a later stage of development of this kit.

2015 Subaru WRX PCV valve

We also needed to consider the differences between the RHD and LHD vehicles. In our US spec LHD model, both the brake booster and master cylinder are located on the left side of the engine bay.

Interested in purchasing our 2015 WRX aluminum radiator? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Performance Aluminum Radiator

No need for an introduction, let's check out our second prototype!

Mishimoto prototype 2 radiator

Mishimoto prototype 2 radiator

Mishimoto prototype 2 radiator

So what can we tell from these images? The unit as a whole is very precise, and the TIG-welding is straight and accurate. All mounting points and adjustments to the previous version should make this a drop-in fit. One major difference you will notice from the GR radiator is the lack of an overflow port on the passenger top tank. On the previous generation, this line would run to the expansion tank located on the intake manifold. The FA20 does not utilize such a reservoir, so this port is removed.

Let's take a closer look at the core of this prototype!

Mishimoto prototype 2 radiator core evaluation

Mishimoto prototype 2 radiator core evaluation

The fin height is a touch shorter