expansion tank

I have a confession to make. I've never been a fan of American muscle cars. Most of this sentiment can be attributed to my two older brothers, who both molded my young mind to favor BMWs, Audis, and Mini Coopers over the fire breathing V8s of Detroit. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the mighty muscle car. In fact, it's almost a strange concept as an automotive enthusiast not to have a soft spot for engines measured in cubic inches. With a roaring V8 in the front that sends all that power to the rear wheels, creating warp speeds in a straight line and slide happy turns, it's no wonder such qualities would draw in crowds chomping at the bit for the next fast Mopar. Not me, however. I preferred to stay behind the wheel of my tiny hot hatch back. That was, of course, until I drove this Charger.

Luckily for me, and the rest of us here at Mishimoto, my friend Larry has always been a fan of Mopars, and was gracious enough to loan us his modified 2015 Charger R/T in the vibrant B5 

It goes without saying that the cooling system routed throughout the engine bay of any vehicle works best when the coolant stays in the system. It's one of the main design requirements in fact. If that sounds familiar, that's because this same statement was made about the Ford 7.3 Powerstroke's expansion tank, which begs the question, is there a chink in the armor of Ford's self-proclaimed tough built trucks?

While most of the F-150 is "Built Ford Tough" the factory expansion tank doesn't exactly live up to that standard.

Don't get me wrong, the F-150, for the most part, lives up to the widely recognized moniker. Ford designed them specifically to put up with the constant punishment that the pickup truck was originally intended for -- blasting through rugged terrain all with a loaded bed and a trailer in tow. There's a reason why it's been the best-selling pickup truck for the past 40 years. That being said, nobody's perfect. After a little scouring of the internet, it turns out the twelfth-generation

When it comes to the icon of reliability, durability, and longevity in the automotive world, all eyes are on the diesel powertrain. The recognizable chugging sound of a diesel engine has become synonymous with the thought of tractor trailers, incredible fuel economy, and reaching 300,000 miles with ease. "Built Ford Tough" reigns true for all the general features of the diesel platform, the Powerstroke. Giving our loaner F-250 a look over, it's easy to see why. Everything incorporated into the design was done so with the intent to develop an invincible machine. Everything except for the expansion tank, it seems.

Our spare stock tank gets a light coating in preparation for it's 3D scan.

It goes without saying that the cooling system routed throughout the engine bay of your 7.3 Powerstroke works best when the coolant stays in it. In fact, that's one of the main design requirements. Losing coolant pressure, or coolant in general, is already frustrating enough for anyone, but there's no quicker

I told you this project was going to move fast. In the last update, we laid down our design plans for how we will give this RS coolant expansion tank some sprucing up. Not only did we make the tank more pleasing to look at, we also increased the capacity and added a neat sight tube so you can check your levels with ease. You guys have been asking for it, so let's get up close and personal.

The stock unit pales in comparison to the size of the Mishimoto tank.

One of the first things you'll notice with this tank is the capacity increase over the stock unit. We are making this tank to fit both the Focus RS and ST, but that doesn't mean we have to stay within the size parameters of the stock unit. The stock expansion tank holds a maximum of 1.56 liters of fluid. Our design more than doubles that, with a maximum fluid capacity of 3.58 liters. With the increase in capacity comes an increased chance of fluid sloshing inside the tank during hard driving. To combat the extra fluid's movement, we

Anyone with a car older than 15 years or so likely has a coolant expansion tank with the structural integrity of wet toilet paper. These tanks rarely get aesthetic love in the factory vehicle design. They are usually plastic, look weird and can start cracking given enough time. After 20 years, the expansion tank in my 1995 Nissan 240SX project car will literally begin crumbling around your finger if any sort of pressure is applied. We don't want that happening to your RS/ST a decade or two from now, so we decided to design a sweet looking expansion tank that will outlast the car and be a nice addition to your engine bay.

The stock cap on the RS has a pressure limit of 21psi

Factory expansion tank for the ST

There is a lot of focus (I haven't made that pun in a while, give me a break) devoted strictly to improving how this EcoBoost hot-hatch platform performs since it's introduction. This is important, our engineers have that as a clear goal in their minds. For our RS, we've released an