Page 64 - Engineering

I have been a big fan of Subaru vehicles for a substantial part of my life, and I have lots of experience with WRXs, but the BRZ (and FR-S) is still very new to me. Not too long ago, one of our engineers had his 2013 Subaru BRZ out in the parking lot, and I asked him to pop the hood so that I might check out the power plant. Have you ever seen an old episode of Scooby-Doo when Shaggy opens a door and jumps about a mile in the air, screaming, having revealed the spooky ghost residing therein? Well, you can call me Shaggy, and here is the ghost:

BRZ Parts (or FR-S Parts)

Like, zoinks! Look at all that hideous white plastic - nobody wants a haunted Toyobaru, but how on earth would one solve this problem? Who ya gonna call?

Greetings everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Cinco de Mayo last week. We celebrated here at the Mishimoto R&D Center with a salsa and dip competition - let me tell you, many of our team members have just as much talent in the kitchen as they do in the design center (and those of us who don't were grateful taste testers).

Though our schedules have been VERY busy with projects, the beginning of show season, and maybe a few siestas here and there (definitely a necessity after all those corn chips!), our engineers have been able to squeeze in some time designing our improved aluminum 2016 Camaro SS radiator. I am here to show you the fruits of their labors! Let's take a peek at what they created.

2016 Camaro radiator - Front View

We've had our Mustang GT for a good while now, and it's time to begin our development of the performance intake. We'll begin by quickly dissecting the stock system and deciding on the direction we'd like to go with our design.

Stock 2015+ Mustang GT intake

The stock intake is fairly standard; from the center-mounted throttle body, the intake tube extends toward the driver side of the engine bay and incorporates the curved design that embodies the style of that classic V8 intake.

Here we have another update for our 2016 Civic intake project. This Civic has finally been put on our dyno to see how our intake performs - and we have some results to share with our Civic community! This car was tricky to dyno properly because of the continuously variable transmission (CVT), but no corners were cut during our testing. Let's jump right in!

2016 Honda Civic parts dyno testing

The CVT

2016 Honda Civic parts dyno testing

After evaluating the factory intercooler, our team was prepared to begin designing an intercooler with even more efficiency. The process started as a simple 3D model that included our primary mounting points. This model was then sent to the 3D printer for some rapid prototyping.

3D printing Cummins intercooler end tank

Once our tanks were complete, we mated the different pieces using adhesive.

3D printing 6.7 Cummins intercooler end tank

For those of you not familiar with the climate here in New Castle, Delaware, let me educate you on our summers; they are hot, and they are HUMID. In the dead of the July heatwave, there is nothing worse than smoldering in an apartment with no AC. I am always very appreciative of the little part of my psyche that drives me, once I can barely stand the heat, to pause Top Gear, get off the couch, and grab a cold, refreshing drink. If I were a car, that little part of my psyche would have a name, and it would be called a thermostat.

2016 Camaro thermostat housing (OEM) next to some of our other 2016 camaro parts

What is a Thermostat, and in what Neighborhood

We are back with more on our Fiesta ST downpipe project. We know you are long overdue for an update, so we'll dive right in. After fabrication, we read that some other aftermarket downpipes for the Fiesta ST weren't as successful at making power as downpipes typically are on other applications. We still wanted to test our downpipe designs to see the data for ourselves, and decide if the downpipe was worth manufacturing for the Fiesta ST.

After testing was completed, the data confirmed our suspicions that the Fiesta ST is pretty darn efficient on its own, and the addition of a downpipe did not show any gains in power. Even still, we have decided to kick this into production for those who want the sound benefit, and for those who have more modified Fiesta STs.

A tune will be required to run this downpipe, and of course actual power gains will depend the tune itself and the supporting modifications to your ST.

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