Page 24 - teammishi

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

The results are in and they are exactly what we expected! This cooler provided huge gains in cooling efficiency. Let's take a look at the data we compiled. First up is the core volume comparison.

Core volume comparison

As you can see, the Mishimoto oil cooler provides a huge increase in total core volume. The

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

Time to see if this cooler can make a significant impact on fluid temperatures. As before, we borrowed a test fit vehicle from the folks over at Open Road Tuning. Once we had the car on the lift, we removed the factory cooler lines and spliced our temperature sensors into the stock lines so we could collect inlet and outlet fluid temperatures.

Temperature sensors installed

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

Welcome to our third installment of the build! We are nearing the completion of this project, with only some final test fitting necessary and data collection to ensure that this product performs to our standards. First, take a look at the Mishimoto oil cooler compared to the stock unit.

Mishimoto prototype oil cooler (right) and stock oil cooler (left)

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

Our team now had a functioning oil line adapter to convert from the stock oil filter housing to -AN fittings. Now we would be able to move forward with designing the actual heat exchanger for our kit. We reached out to a few of our local friends and sourced this Oxford green example!

Test vehicle on lift

Our friend Andrew at Open Road Tuning was kind enough to loan his vehicle for a week of development! First we tore off the stock cooler to get a look at what kind of space we had to work with.

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

The BMW S54 won the "International Engine of the Year" award at its inception in 2001 and was consistently on "Ward's 10 Best Engines" list for four years. It's hard to argue against the E46, an 8,000 rpm, 3.2L straight-6 producing over 330 hp and 260 ft-lb of torque, with a competent chassis, an exhaust note that straightens the neck hair of all within earshot, and a body styling that is unmatched in uniqueness. Although my opinion is slightly skewed, being a fan of most BMW products, many would agree that the E46 was a fantastic vehicle for the street and even better for the track. E46 M3 pricing has trickled downward over the past few years, meaning that even those on a tighter budget can find their way into the cockpit of one of BMW's finest. We are seeing these vehicles at track

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Mishimoto Compact Baffled Oil Catch Can

The project is complete! We are very pleased with the outcome, and we expect a ton of positive feedback on this product. In fact, three or four of our employees have already reserved units for their personal vehicles. Speaking of " I should pick up one for my NB Miata!

The production quality catch can is now prepared for your viewing pleasure. Check it out below, starting with the base of the can.

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Mishimoto Compact Baffled Oil Catch Can

The CNC-machined components keep rolling in! Our last prototype has been constructed and is now ready for our final evaluation before beginning mass production of these units. This prototype is a raw aluminum version; our final version will feature a black anodized finish.

The first completed component is the base/can portion of the product. This is a CNC-machined piece with internal threading on the upper portion, a port on the bottom for a drain or valve, and knurling at the bottom for ease of removal.

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Mishimoto Compact Baffled Oil Catch Can

Time to fabricate/prototype our awesome catch can design! We would be using our in-house fabrication equipment and our 3D printer to develop a plastic and metal prototype.

Prototype Fabrication

We began by fabricating the base of the can from aluminum. Dan set to work cutting, welding, and polishing the base you see below.

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Mishimoto Compact Baffled Oil Catch Can

Initial 3D rendering of Mishimoto Compact Baffled Oil Catch Can

So we asked ourselves, what makes a catch can appealing to the masses? In a market swamped with extremely low-priced options, a new product could easily get lost in the mix of products already available. Our team began sifting through forums and asking our contacts at local shops to see exactly what they wanted from a catch can. We also reviewed our current line of products, to see if we could develop a new design