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As any traveler can tell you, it is an unparalleled experience to be an American abroad and take in so many of the mesmerizingly different facets of the world. This is to be expected, but one thing that first-time travelers often don't so readily anticipate is the way in which being abroad empowers one as a representative of his home country. (I probably should have expected this; some good friends of mine are Canadians residing stateside, and they are practically walking billboards for Tim Hortons™.) Being a walking window into American culture not only elicits patriotism, but also prompts one to join his international friends in examining the USA from the outside-in.

One pervasive international perception of the US is that of our capitalist ideals and consumerism. This is polarizing stuff, but just about everyone with whom I spoke could agree on at least on one thing: When it comes to being consumers and producers, Americans are damn good at it. We know how to make a product,

Some exciting things are happening for this new Titan! In addition to the projects already planned, we want to develop a performance intake that will squeeze out a bit more power from this 5.0L V8 Cummins Turbo Diesel. We managed to get an accurate dyno reading with a few adjustments, which we know a few folks have been struggling with on this truck, but more on that later - let's dive into the stock intake!

Stock Nissan Titan air intake

Throttle body

We finally have all our prototype 2016 Honda Civic parts together for this kit. Let's briefly examine everything we have so far, starting with the airbox.

Prototype 2016 Honda Civic parts

Prototype 2016 Honda Civic parts

As we discussed in the last post, we wanted to utilize the stock air inlet as much as possible, which is why we kept an opening at the top of the airbox. The remainder of the filter enclosure is protected within the physical box, to help keep

Now that our first prototype design has been finalized in Solidworks, we can begin constructing our first functional prototype to test both performance and fitment.

Let's check out some of the final features of our awesome intercooler design, including the appearance, the updated bracketry, the piping, and our innovative solution to the condensation issue!

F-150 Intercooler 3D Models

We intend to offer this cooler in both a silver and black powdercoat finish, so we will show you a few render images of each. First, a look at the rear of the cooler.

Mishimoto Ford F-150 EcoBoost intercooler prototype

Here we see the two inlets and single quick-disconnect outlet. We also

Our Titan XD has been poked and prodded, and the next upgrade we are working on is a DPF-back exhaust. Before we begin development, we like to take a peek at the stock version to determine which upgrades we can make to the design. Our first observation was that this exhaust is, well, plain. Not to worry; our goal is to spice up the design a bit to give this Titan more to show off.

Stock Titan XD Exhaust

Stock Titan XD Exhaust

You will have to excuse the

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

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 entry, we finished the 3D-printing process for our first prototype intercooler. Our team then started the tedious work of modeling all the features we plan to implement and finalizing the details of our intercooler design. During this process, a new idea emerged that would both improve the performance of our cooler and set our kit apart from others.

Let's dive right in!

F-150 Intercooler Shrouding Fabrication

The footprint of our intercooler core is far larger than that of the stock intercooler. Because of this, it is likely that the airflow supplied by the stock bumper duct is not reaching the entire surface area of our cooler. To combat any issues with loss of airflow, we decided to experiment with some ducting to direct air through the core.

We began the fabrication process with a few old-school techniques; our engineers broke out the template material and a measuring device and started cutting out some ideas.