Page 2 - awd

The RS has gotten a lot of attention the past few weeks, especially with the ball in our court. Need I remind you of our awesome stock dyno clip?

But somethin's-a-brewin with one of our most recent projects, the performance intake we are developing for this hot hatch. We mentioned earlier that the development of this intake kit is not completely uncharted territory, considering that we made one for the 2013-2014 Focus ST. However, as we dived further into this project, we uncovered the true complexities of this design compared with our ST intake kit.

Intake Construction

The progress on our intake system is coming along nicely for this Forester XT. We have created a pipe that will fit well with our airbox design and filter selection. Remember, our pipe is within the acceptable pipe diameter to run this system with a stock tune.

The Fabricated Prototype

Below are some shots of the system we plan to put on an FXT for testing. The routing for this tube will follow a more direct path from filter to turbo. This is especially helpful for when the car is sitting at idle with ambient air around the box. With a shorter pipe distance, it will take less time for fresher, cooler air to get to the engine upon acceleration over stock. Check out images of the initial design below!

Prototype Subaru Forester parts

Exciting things are happening in the induction world here at Mishimoto. We have a 2014 Subaru Forester XT in for intake R&D. This AWD turbo Subaru comes with a 2.0L power-plant, giving an output of 253 hp from factory. It shares the same FA20 heart with its 2015+ WRX counterpart, so there are some similarities between the two.

Subaru forester parts under analysis

Stock System Review

The stock Forester XT intake system is somewhat similar to the stock WRX intake system, yet featured some differences in shape and size. With both systems, the airbox is tucked away in the engine bay. To an untrained eye, it can be easy to miss upon first glance.

The airbox mounting points on the vehicle are also quite different

It has been a while since we have updated this project, but we now have something for our WRX community!

The brief data report below shows our gains with this race intake project and our baseline was a fully stock 2015 WRX with no upgrade or aftermarket tune. The numbers are quite high due to the upgrades already installed on the WRX during testing. These upgrades included our Mishimoto:

• Downpipe
• Cat-Back Exhaust
• Front-Mount Intercooler
• Custom Engine tune

WRX intake dyno testing

Team Mishi likes to look out for our Subaru community. If you have been following our engineering blog, then you'll notice that we have been rolling out a slew of high quality 2015+ parts WRX. One of the biggest products we launched was our bolt-on intake system. Not only did we provide easy power gains, but our system greatly improved sound, and created a large group of very pleased customers. The gains we produced were a result of reduced restrictions compared to the factory system. A great product that supports stock and mildly modified examples. We are now turning our attention to an even less restrictive iteration that will be designed to support vehicles necessitating maximum airflow.

Our race-inspired design for this WRX intake will take the more aggressive route of obtaining the maximum power potential an intake can deliver to this FA series motor. Keep in mind, this secondary "Race" design will require tuning for safe operation.

It is important to understand that this

What does one do with a blown Subaru EJ20? We asked this question on one of our social media outlets and had a ton of responses. This included a coffee table, flower pot, speaker system, stove, and even a boat anchor. After spinning a few rod bearings during some dyno testing (this WRX led a pretty rough life), we decided it was time to get creative with the remains. With an upcoming open-house event, we were determined to turn this grimy, beaten engine into a display unit for our Subaru product line.

With little time before the event, we set one of our engineers to the task of disassembling and refinishing this filthy engine. Our goal was to have a mobile display unit that could be used as a great conversation starter at events we attend. The entirety of our product line would be used to provide a neat glance at what we offer for the Subaru WRX/STI. Check out the build process below!

After a few hours in the shop, the engine was finally out and ready for disassembly.