Monthly Archives: January 2017

  1. Cooling is Coming- Nissan Titan XD Intercooler, Part 2: Final Prototype

    Cooling is Coming- Nissan Titan XD Intercooler, Part 2: Final Prototype

    Preparation is an elusive concept. No matter how much time you spend getting ready, you find yourself at the event remembering everything you did not bring. Perhaps this applies more to me, the least prepared individual of all. I constantly find myself in situations where if I had prepared, I could have been ahead of the eight-ball rather than feeling like it was tumbling down a hill after me. For instance, I once showed up to a track day without a tire pressure gauge, rookie mistake. Since then, I have learned the merits of taking some extra time to be prepared.

    The Titan XD is no different. The truck is relatively new, so many won't choose to modify it just yet, but we have a feeling that the XD has big things in its future. That is why we decided to be prepared with our intercooler.

    Render of Mishimoto's Titan XD intercooler
    Render of Mishimoto's Titan XD intercooler

    Render of Mishimoto's Titan XD intercooler
    Render of Mishimoto's Titan XD intercooler

    Render of Mishimoto's Titan XD intercooler
    Render of Mishimoto's Titan XD intercooler

    In our last post, with the help of our 3-D printed prototype, we confirmed

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  2. A Cold Heart for the Camaro - Oil Cooler R&D - Part 1: Stock Review & Plans

    A Cold Heart for the Camaro - Oil Cooler R&D - Part 1: Stock Review & Plans

    For the past seven years the 5th Gen Camaro SS has been a staple of track days at Willow Springs, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca and just about every other road course in America. Another staple of those track days has been a spike in mild heart attacks as those Camaro SS owners glanced down at their oil temperature gauge to find temps in the 290+°F range.  Even off the track, though, a hot day mixed with a heavy foot can lead to oil temp related heart problems for both you and your Camaro.

    Everything in Balance

    When it comes to modern engines and driving, oil temperatures are a balancing act between hot and cold; thin and thick.  When straight-weight oil, also known as single-weight oil (like SAE 30), is cold, it's thicker and more viscous.  Higher viscosity means that the oil flows slowly and sticks to surfaces longer.  This also means, however, that on cold start-up, it's much harder for the engine to move the oil and thus bearings and wear surfaces don't always get the oiling they

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  3. Mission In-Pipe-Sible - Intercooler Piping R&D, Part 2: The Cold Side

    Mission In-Pipe-Sible - Intercooler Piping R&D, Part 2: The Cold Side

    Our intercooler pipes are on the tail end of our journey to extract some elevated performance out of our 2016 Ford Focus RS. Along with our intercooler project making great strides in development, we have some updates to share with you regarding our intercooler piping. In usual fashion, we plan to make each pipe individually available, as well as having the option to purchase the entire kit (piping and core) as one. We aren't quite there yet, but easy does it. Let's start with the cold side intercooler piping for this RS.

    Cold side intercooler tube
    Cold side intercooler tube

    The cold side here is a standard design, connecting the turbo to the cold side of the intercooler. The unique part, though, is the material we plan on making this product out of. The entire prototype, which is more of a finished production sample at this point, will be constructed from durable, steel reinforced, five-ply silicone. Worried about boost pressure? You won't have to with this one-piece tube. The steel reinforcement makes it highly

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  4. American Workhorse - Part 2: Putting Innovation to the Test

    American Workhorse - Part 2: Putting Innovation to the Test

    Welcome to the second blog post detailing the development of the Mishimoto 6.4L Powerstroke upper radiator support bar. Last time, we looked at why front-end chassis flex in the 6.4 Super Duty has the potential to exceed a safe magnitude, using our advanced American architecture as a comparison. We learned that too much flex spells possible consequences, so we made it our goal to stiffen things up. But how did we do it?

    We did it in the most American way possible - through innovation.

    The Mishimoto 6.4 not only serves as an engineering platform, but also as a useful tool during construction of our new R&D center.
    The Mishimoto 6.4 not only served as a great testing and engineering platform, but also as a useful tool during construction of our new R&D center.

    Our Founding Fathers did not tear everything down and begin anew; they met in Philadelphia, just forty minutes north of the Mishimoto R&D Center, and took their existing European systems of law and order, threw out the things that weren't working, and stuck to the tried-and-true principles as a foundation.

    This same workflow can be found at the beginning of most

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  5. What's Cooler Than Bein' Cool? Intercooler R&D, Part 2: Prototypin'

    What's Cooler Than Bein' Cool? Intercooler R&D, Part 2: Prototypin'

    Some time has passed since the last update for this 2016 Ford Focus RS intercooler project, but that doesn't mean we've forgotten about it! It's all-hands-on-deck to get this project back in the swing of R&D as we are getting close to testing and beginning a huge data push. Let's see what it looks like and quickly go through some of the design specs.

    May I present to you, our prototype intercooler for the Focus RS!
    May I present to you, our prototype intercooler for the Focus RS!

    At the beginning of this project, we knew we'd want to get rid of the plate the stock intercooler has in place to combat the over-efficiency issue a lot of people were experiencing causing condensation inside of the core. Since performance was something we wanted to improve, enlarging the core and external fin capacity was going to be a must. A question that did pop into my head was "Well, won't a higher performing intercooler with a thicker core be more efficient, causing more condensation problems?" It turns out to be a great question.

    There isn't any way to really tell exactly

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  6. All About Options - Silicone Radiator Hose Kit, Pictures and Pre-sale!

    All About Options - Silicone Radiator Hose Kit, Pictures and Pre-sale!

    2017 is going to be the year of the  TurboChevy for Mishimoto. We have several parts for our 2016 Camaro 2.0T scheduled to release in the coming months. I'll start you off with one of the very first items we are about to release for the new year - our new Silicone Radiator Hose Kit.

    As the title states, we are making sure that everyone with a turbocharged, LTG equipped Chevy Camaro has options when it comes to cooling, and those options must look good. We don't take cooling lightly here at Mishimoto. After all, that is what we have built our reputation around. To ensure that you never have to worry about cooling issues due to cracking and leaky radiator hoses, we have developed a full set for both Camaro 2.0Ts that are equipped with the heavy-duty (HD) cooling package as well as the standard cooling package.

    Black silicone radiator hoses for the non HD cooling package
    Black silicone radiator hoses for the non HD cooling package

    Our silicone radiator hoses have much higher durability than the factory rubber hoses equipped on your Camaro. The rubber

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  7. ReSpiration Focal Point - SPECIAL ENTRY!

    ReSpiration Focal Point - SPECIAL ENTRY!

    Boy do we have treat for you.

    Our RS made it to our R&D facility early in the summer last year. We did our research on the car. We knew what color RS we were going to get, what parts we were going to make and just how much fun we were going to have with this little blue hatch. Every now and again, a wild idea is brought to the table that challenges the very fabric of our normal business operations - you are about to witness what happens when Mishimoto decides to take a walk on the wild side.

    If you have been following our updates, you all know and love the intake we have made for this 2016 RS, but we have one more trick up our sleeves. Some of you have been lucky enough to have already seen it. Some of you may have even put yourself down for a presale order. Without further ado, say hello to our first ever, limited color option for our 2016 Ford Focus RS Performance Intake kit - Wrinkle  Nitrous Blue.

    Get your Wrinkle Blue Performance Intake Kit today!

    The Smurfs would be proud
    The Smurfs would be proud

    The final

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  8. American Workhorse - Part 1: Minimizing Chassis Flex

    American Workhorse - Part 1: Minimizing Chassis Flex

    As a proud American company, Mishimoto is dedicated to supporting our workforce and ensuring that, from a vehicular perspective, we've got the best tools possible to stay tough and work hard. That's why we've been hard at work developing a sturdy, heavy-duty upper radiator support bar for the Ford 6.4L Powerstroke truck in hopes that it can still live up to its reputation as the workhorse of America.

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    A View From Above

    Industry, manufacturing, and innovation are the driving forces that made our United States of America so grand. Hard work, great design, and our invaluable freedom to innovate planted the seeds that sprouted into our wonderfully advanced society. There is, perhaps, no better place to observe the fruits of our industrial and technological prowess than from the top of a skyscraper, gazing upon the furthest reaches of our developed urban expanse. These myriad buildings are monuments to the hardworking Americans who built the foundations of our country literally from the ground

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  9. Cooling the American Dream - Radiator R&D, Part 1: Design and Test-fit

    Cooling the American Dream - Radiator R&D, Part 1: Design and Test-fit

    A Car for Drivers

    There are 7 billion people on Earth driving over 1 billion cars. Some of those cars were made for people who spend their Saturdays shopping for houseplants and whose idea of speed is doing 45mph in a 40mph zone. Some of them were made for the passengers of the world, whose perfect car is a silent butler. Then there are the cars made for the select few. For those with fuel in their veins and tire smoke in their lungs. For drivers.

    The fifth-generation Chevy Camaro SS is certainly a driver's car. With a 6.2L V8 capable of 426 horsepower, independent rear suspension, and launch control, the Camaro is not your average run-around. It's raced in touring car championships, NASCAR, and even Formula Drift (piloted by none other than Mishimoto-sponsored driver Ryan Tuerck). The SS's bigger brother, the ZL1, clocked a 7-minute, 41-second Nürburgring lap, keeping pace with Lamborghini, Porsche, and Mercedes. But even Goliath fell to the likes of David.

    The first fifth-generation Camaros

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  10. Catch A Wave (of Blow-By) - Part 5: Wait, How Many Cans?

    Catch A Wave (of Blow-By) - Part 5: Wait, How Many Cans?

    Happy 2017, people! I hope you all had wonderful experiences throughout the holiday season and you welcomed in the New Year with a glass of something delicious. I know I did! Whatever you had, I'm sure you enjoyed it much more than your Camaro 2.0T enjoys drinking blow-by. So to begin the year on the right foot, we're going to give you the opportunity to pick up a Mishimoto 2016+ Camaro 2.0T Catch Can kit.

    In my last post, I gave all of the ATS owners a little love and showed you how we route catch can hoses with our loaner Cadillac. Today, it's time to pivot back and take a look at the final setup as it will appear on the Camaro 2.0T. We've been working on a surprise addition to this design that you might want to check out.

    singlebracket

    Most everything that you read here will also apply to the ATS kit, but, as many have inferred, the Camaro project is a little bit further along in R&D than the Cadillac project (although not by THAT much). The Camaro kit is so close to ready, in fact, that it is now

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