Page 3 - Technical Articles

Competitive racing can be simplified. It boils down to a very basic question: Who's faster? Where it gets nuanced is when this idea branches off into other areas of competition based on driver preference and customization. We see this from competing companies as they choose different methods of business operations and seeing their way as more efficient. The same goes for popular discussion topics, people aligning themselves with what they find best represents who they are. In fact, my middle school time capsule included a representation of this competition by listing items and companies in the same category and who or what I'd choose over the other. Part of that capsule would have things like this in it:

• Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon
• Sprite or 7Up
• Breakfast or Dinner
• Vanilla or Chocolate
• Biggie or Tupac
• Seinfeld or Friends
• McDonalds or Burger King

So, we were supposed to dig that up in ten years and see how much our

Audiation - the ability to listen to or play music in your head without physically hearing any of it.

Just by reading notes on a page of sheet music, talented musicians can hear the music in their minds. Truly gifted musicians can hear a relatively complex piece of music played once and then repeat it, perfectly, note for note, on their preferred instrument. That's talent. It's hard to teach that to just anyone. This is the concept of audiation.

I bring up this musical analogy to illustrate a point. These skills are engrained and conceptualized deep within their psyche and motor functions just as deep as breathing or walking. We, gearheads, have our own concepts that are as commonly used and seemingly simply as notes on a page. But how often do we think about what they really mean?

Here at Mishimoto, we're all about speed and quality.  Our mission is to provide you with high-quality parts to make your cars better, and we love finding new ways to make those parts and get them to you faster.  Our newest companion in this mission is our FARO Design ScanArm.  FARO is a Florida-based company that specializes in 3D measurement technology.  FARO's products are used by leading corporations across numerous industries, from Aston Martin and BMW to NASA, so we're definitely in good company here at Mishimoto. The FARO Design ScanArm uses a laser, along with an integrated camera system, to map the surface of almost any object.  So how does this help us make parts better and get them to you faster? First, let's take a look at how the system works.

Freakin' Laser Beams

The FARO Design ScanArm works by shining a laser stripe on the surface to be scanned.  An integrated camera then records the

A Sharper Knife

When early man wanted?to cut something, he beat two rocks together until one of them was vaguely pointy and sharp. I imagine there were probably a lot of smashed thumbs and whatever the equivalent of cursing was to a caveman.? Over thousands of years, humans developed new ways of cutting materials (and themselves). The Egyptians created copper saws, early Europeans learned how to harden iron, and the advent of steel led to stronger, more efficient saws.? Then, in the 1880s, George Clemson perfected the hacksaw, and bike thieves all over the world rejoiced.

Water jet cutters have revolutionized the way we cut almost every material

Fast

Introducing Blow-by and the PCV System

Internal combustion engines are essentially controlled bombs; air and fuel combust to drive pistons and crankshafts.  One byproduct of this violence is power, but there are darker horses to contend with.  During combustion, high pressure on the top side of the piston pushes combustion gasses, as well as droplets of oil and fuel, past the piston rings and into the crankcase. This mixture is known as "blow-by."

To keep the crankcase from becoming pressurized, causing issues with oil sealing and robbing the engine of power, blow-by is pulled from the crankcase via the positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) system and routed back into the intake. 

We are always trying out new testing methods and conducting really different kinds of R&D here at Mishimoto. A few weeks back, we performed quite a cool test to evaluate heat transfer on one of our upcoming intercoolers.

What we did!

We have been seeking ways to evaluate the transfer of heat through intercooler cores that we design. Although we have a variety of software programs that can reveal air dispersion and flow, additional data points are always helpful, especially if we can see the changes as they occur.

At some point we stumbled across thermochromic paint additives. This interesting powder has been around for quite some time. It is simply added to a paint clear coat, and it tints the clear to your color choice, in our case, black. Then, once the painted object reaches 86°F, the tint becomes translucent, revealing the base color.

Now, if you are like me, you are already online looking for this paint additive and making plans to