turbo

When we're talking about cooling the charged air in any forced induction vehicle, the intercooler always steals the show. To be fair, it is doing a majority of the work. No matter if you're still running a stock unit or if there's an all-aluminum core seated in the front of your car, it's the star. However, the intercooler would be nothing without the back-up band, the intercooler piping. Putting in all the effort to cool off the charged air would be useless without a method to transfer it to the intake. If the stock intercooler unit had some shortcomings, the piping was bound to end up with some flaws, too.

The safe passage for your charged air is currently left up to the combination of plastic and rubber construction that makes up the factory piping. It might seem that we're prejudice against these building materials, but it's quite the opposite. These materials are great for the mass production of your Golf or GTI, providing an easily produced, lightweight channel for the charged air

Honda might have changed the game in the world of hot-hatches with the latest generation of the Civic Type R, but if you recall from the stock review, the FK8's intercooling system barely met the classification of "gamechanger." We're already well on our way to elevating the Type R's charged air heat exchanger to that level, as we covered in our last post, but what about the piping? After all, the car is an ecosystem and can only be as strong as its weakest component.

Discussing the new piping requires a brief recap of our design plans for the intercooler itself. Specifically, we'll start with the revised end tank design. In the Type R's stock form, the piping was a combination of a rubber hose and a piece of cast aluminum which attached to the inlet and outlet of the core by means of a specific bracket design. Our engineer found that the stock openings on the intercooler were too small and would cause a restriction in airflow if left as is, especially once a tune got involved. The 58mm

This is truly the age of forced induction. A clear indication of the trend came with the release of Honda's 10^th generation Civic. After decades of abstaining from giving the intake manifold any extra assistance, we've been delivered a lifetime of naturally aspirated 4 and 6-cylinder engines, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The turbo-less times lead to some truly remarkable engines from the Japanese giant, but enthusiasts craving the extra boost and whine from a turbo or supercharger were left to their own devices.

While this might not be a 10th Gen, the 8th Gen is a popular platform for aftermarket forced induction kits. Owner Ian Palmeri wanted to ensure that what was going on under the hood matched the outward appearance of his FG2.

Coupled to the K20 is a 1.1l Eaton-style supercharger, bringing this 8th to well over 350 HP and 250 TQ. The 10th Gen's turbo setup might not come with that much power straight off the lot but the L15B7 does have the potential to reach similar numbers

The Europeans have dominated the hot-hatchback market for decades. In fact, the term "hot hatchback" was coined to describe Volkswagen's Mk1 Golf GTI, which was responsible for the leadup to the hot-hatch fever throughout Europe and Asia. Just about every manufacturer began producing hatchbacks with stiff suspensions and a few extra horses under the hood. Even our very own Ford produced cars like the Escort Cosworth, and previous generations of the Focus ST and RS, but then left us here in the States, out to dry, when it came to having fun in a sub-compact. That was up until Mazda had their say.

The combination of comfort, practicality, and speed help the popularity of Mazda's newest fast hatch.

Mazda was more known for their sport coupes, rotary engines, and budget convertibles, rather than their sporty hatchbacks. However, the 2.3L MZR turbo they equipped in the Mazdaspeed 3 put them on the map, and helped to spread the fever across the US. Boasting 60 more horsepower over the MK5 GTI,

It's autumn and, more importantly, it's the start of prime boosting season.  The cool, dense air that's characteristic of the changing seasons is much easier to compress and cram into the cylinders, while the lower ambient temperatures help the intercooler. Even with the stock set up, your tenth generation Civic has a little extra pep in its step. But there's no reason to settle for just a little pep when you can get more.

Our new intercooler design brought to life, and fresh out of the box from our factory.

When it comes to intercoolers, the old saying "bigger is better" almost always rings true, and even with the spatial restrictions we faced during the design process, we were still able to deliver on that mantra. To start, we added three more rows to our cooler to increase the fin surface area by 97%, almost doubling the amount of area being directly exposed to airflow. This might not come as a surprise to those who saw our design in the last update, but we decided the best direction

With the recent release of our Pro Cat-Back Exhaust for the 2016+ Chevy Camaro 2.0T, we have one more variation for you to check out - the Race Axleback.  While it may look like a step down from our Catback, I must say that this exhaust couldn't be any more aggressive.

Even though the cat-back is a full exhaust, it does have two muffling units towards the rear of the system (straight piping from the downpipe would be unbearably loud). This Race Axleback is essentially a full-on straight pipe for the rear section. From the mid-section of the factory exhaust all the way to the end of the rear bumper, there will be absolutely nothing impeding flow or sound, so it turns this mild 2.0T LTG into something completely different. I won't hold anything back here. There was little attempt to tame the sound coming from this exhaust design. This exhaust will crackle, drone, pop, and make surrounding ears curious. See for yourself in our comparison video below!

Again, like our cat-back, this axleback

Engine blow-by is something that affects just about every engine on the road. Though plenty of manufacturers have made leaps and bounds in filtering blow-by from the intake, finding clever ways to keep the carbon deposits from building up on intake valves, blow-by remains an issue. This should come as no surprise if you've spent any time on our blog. Just about every type of car and truck that has made its way into our R&D facility, ranging from BMWs to F-150s, and even the 1.5T found in the base Civics, have all produced varying levels of the murky stuff. The K20C1 is likely to be no exception to this trend. That leaves it up to us at Mishimoto to make sure none of the contaminates in the crankcase gasses make it to your valves.

Our Championship White loaner on the Dynojet for baseline testing.

When we last left off, we were too impatient to wait for a CTR of our own, so we got in contact with a local owner to get a jump on some of the items for the Type R, one of which being a catch can.

Fresh off the assembly line comes our prototype intercooler pipes for the 2013+ Ford Focus ST. In the last update, I reviewed the stock piping, our 3D printed prototypes, and mildly teased what the final version of this kit will look like, so it's time for a full reveal. Let's go through some of the design features and performance numbers that have resulted from this project.

Hot-side intercooler pipes

The hot-side kit will have a solid aluminum center section with silicone couplers attached to the turbo and intercooler outlet. It fits nicely around the engine oil pan and is mounted with brackets to keep it in place. However, a balance between flexibility and rigidity is important, which is why the couplers are long. This is what helps make the fitment accurate and absorb engine movement.

Piping leading to the turbocharger

While the piping diameter has been bumped to 2.5 inches, they still attach to the factory intercooler, so you can still enjoy the benefits if you are not running our

Downpipes are a choke point in many turbocharged vehicles when it comes to exhaust flow. As opposed to naturally aspirated cars, less serious thought needs to go into the size of the exhaust piping. In most cases the system just needs to be bigger in diameter, maximizing what you can within the alotted design space.

The downpipe on the Camaro 2.0T's LTG engine is a restrictive point in the exhaust system, a conclusion brought about by our testing. The point of emphasis is the rate at which exhaust gases are expelled out of the turbocharger. That flow is very important to how well the turbocharger can do its job. If you can flow more exhaust gases, the turbine can spin faster, leading to more boost. It is now time to test the prototype and figure out what our downpipe design can do for this LTG power-plant.

Production sample of our downpipe!

There is a noticeable difference in sound. Even with our catback and intake on the car, you can hear a much throatier and raspier exhaust sound. This

Our engineering department sought to bombard our intercooler with dyno runs, gathering as much data as possible to ensure that it could stand up to the abuse and intensity you plan to put it through. Due to the fact that this intercooler is sandwiched between the radiator and air conditioning condenser, we had to be sure that our core could effectively combat the effects of heat-soak while performing at maximum efficiency. First, we had to start with size. If the intercooler was going to be an effective modification, it had to be bigger. In case you guys need a refresher from our last update, see below for a size comparison between our core and the factory unit.

Core volume comparison

External fin surface area comparison

We have given the core a boost in several areas, including internal volume by 45%, external fin surface area by a sizeable 239%, and overall core size by 78%. This will allow for much better cooling and heat transfer. While the core is bigger than stock, it will also be