The time had come to put our engineer's hard work to the test, a bench test to be specific. The bench test determines if our final transmission cooler will be a stacked-plate or tube-and-fin design. Given the fact that our cooler is over double the size of the stock cooler, we're confident that either construction will cool better, but the devil is in the details. Aside from the cooling performance of each construction method, we needed to consider the pressure drop across each. The cooling performance of the stacked-plate cooler might be better than a tube-and-fin cooler, but if the pressure drop is too high, it will all be for nothing. To settle the debate once and for all we set up our bench-test rig and got to work.
You may be wondering why we're bench testing the coolers instead of road testing them. Road testing coolers is great for getting real world data when you can perform
What does Philadelphia Eagles' safety Malcom Jenkins and the B9 Audi S5 have in common? More than you would think, actually. Both are hardened powerhouses of speed and power wrapped up in the soft touch of luxury. I'm not an expert on athleticism (not even close) but it's no secret that Mr. Jenkins has spent countless hours in the gym training to perform on the field, much like the engineers at Audi likely poured over the fine details of the 3.0T that sits under the S5's hood. Both parties also need to be in peak condition to exert themselves to their max over the long haul. Where sickness and injury would slow number 27 down, the illness of blow-by can slow down this mechanical athlete.
Mr. Jenkins takes the stylish athlete one step further. Where his athleticism is an asset to the
"You know cars, right?" I'm sure that's a question that all of us gearheads have been asked before. It's typically the wind up for a pitch to help them find the car that's going to suit every one of their specific needs, which usually looks something like a combination of reliable, fun, and gets good gas mileage. Oh yeah and it snows like once a year so all-wheel-drive is a must. Their budget is around $30k. I know what you're thinking, a 2013 BMW 328i xDrive hits the nail on the head, but I know most of us would point this friend to the obvious choice"the WRX.
Since 1992, the Subaru has made a name for itself by mixing these characteristics into the affordable WRX. Granted, we didn't see this trim until 2000, but it's no surprise why it immediately took off and became a staple in the enthusiast community.
Becoming "the best" is hardly ever an easy task. Neil Armstrong didn't just wake up one morning in his parents' basement and decide to go for a stroll on the moon later that day. Reaching the top requires hard work and perseverance, and for automotive manufacturers it often requires walking a thin line between quality and cost. After all, if you build an incredible vehicle that performs and looks better than the rest, yet nobody can afford it, is it really the best? Over the past 44 years, the F-150 and its creators at Ford have been towing that line well enough to put the F-150 at the top of nearly every list for best truck in the world.
Staying at the top that long isn't an easy feat either. Each year, the F-150 evolves to preserve its top spot in the truck world. But even if you don't own the newest F-150, you can still make it one of the best trucks on the road with quality parts. For the past 4 months, we've been developing a radiator for the 2011-2014 F-150 to help keep these aging
Sometimes the long road is the path we take when we want to slow down, take a deep breath, and enjoy the view. Sometimes the long road is the path we take when we want to do something well. While we love watching the development process unfold, we're taking the long road to our 2018+ Jeep Wrangler JL 2.0T performance intake for the latter reason.
"Quality over speed" is our motto for many of our projects, but in developing complex intakes like the one found on our JL's 2.0L Hurricane engine, it's a requirement. Rushing through a project like this often means fighting check engine lights and poor performance. In the end, rushing takes longer than doing it right the first time.
We've spent the last four months analyzing every detail of the stock Hurricane intake.
What haven't I said about Ford's F-150? It's reliable, affordable, capable, comfortable, and all the other -ables that you'd want from a truck, except for one. It's not invulnerable. Like every vehicle, time takes its toll and something's bound to break. If you're lucky, you have some time before those tolls hit your F-150's cooling system, but it's always a good idea to be prepared. Mishimoto is working on a radiator to allow you to do just that.
Our last look at the 2015+ F-150 revealed that our radiator needed to replace not one, but three different factory radiators. Our goal was to combine the features of the two light-duty radiators and the heavy-duty Raptor radiator into one even better aluminum radiator. To start that process, we measured all three
