Page 5 - ford

While we plan to create an entire line of cooling products for the RS, some require more immediate attention than others. The oil cooler is shaping up to be one of these items. With a stock cooler that's less than adequate, and oil temps on track days that could make Chuck Norris sweat, we have a problem brewing.

Stock System

The stock oil cooler is a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger and therefore relies on the radiator to cool the oil, as well as the coolant. This style of oil cooler also acts as an oil warmer, bringing the oil to operating temperature, which is beneficial for colder climates. I know with the heat wave that is currently engulfing a large portion of the country, not many of us are concerned with the oil reaching temperature; but in the dead of winter, it can certainly be helpful.

This hot hatch is heating up our headquarters! We have several projects in the works, so if you have not had a chance to check them out, you can do so on the Focus RS section of our engineering blog.

Stock Focus RS intercooler piping

Often, one of the first modifications to turbocharged vehicles is the intercooler. However, this time we wanted to give the spotlight to its lesser known siblings, the intercooler piping. If you have not yet had a chance to take a look under the hood of your Focus RS, we'll save you the trouble; it's tight in there. Not the best news for those of us who aim to squeeze every bit of power out of our RS. Increasing the flow to the turbo via the piping has power potential, after all.

Team Mishi is hard at work developing an entire line of cooling upgrades for our RS. Up to bat is one of the more popular modifications for turbo cars: the intercooler.

Stock Focus RS intercooler

The stock Focus RS intercooler is an interesting part of this hot hatch. As soon as images of the striking front end of this car surfaced on the interwebs, many noticed that there was a black plate blocking off a portion of the intercooler, and immediately called it out. Ford explained that the intercooler was too efficient and that, in humid climates, the excess efficiency caused condensation within the intake tract.

We are now one step closer to completing this induction project! The bulk of our testing is just about finished and we have gotten some awesome results. One of our biggest objectives was to increase the internal volume over the stock intake. With more air surging through the hose, the potential for improved power output is increased as well.

Prototype 3D printed 2015+ Mustang parts

The sound imposer is blocked off here, but it will be

Howdy folks, and welcome to the second installment of Mishimoto's Engineering Blog on the development of our upcoming 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost intercooler. In our first post, we examined the factory intercooler on this truck and took a look at some of its unique features, but since then, we have made a ton of headway on developing our improved version. To learn more about how the system functions, check out that first F-150 EcoBoost intercooler post.

When we first began on this project, we were choosing between a couple of possible design philosophies that Jason, the project engineer, had conceived.  Each had its benefits and drawbacks, but rather than trying to read minds, we decided to reach out to all of you to find out what you wanted for the ideal F-150 EcoBoost intercooler.

You may recall

Last time, we took a look at the unique design of the Ford 6.7 secondary Super Duty radiator and its accompanying thermostats. Our last post was only about two weeks ago, but I come bearing some good news - plus, great things come in twos.

Why does my primary rad need a companion?

As a recap, this heat exchanger, found in 2011+ Ford Super Duty trucks, works as an integral part of a mostly independent secondary cooling system that manages many of the truck's auxiliary cooling needs, including those of the liquid-to-liquid charge air cooler. Cooling these engine components more efficiently should not only prolong their useful lives, but also may make for some nice performance benefits if coupled with a tune - who doesn't love colder charge air?

The secondary system allows the primary radiator to more exclusively and efficiently cool the torquey Power Stroke motors found

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

Testing is complete! Although we would still like to be cruising through twisty back roads logging R&D miles, it is time to bring the Focus RS back to the stables to examine our catch can. When we test our catch cans, we try to put a wide variety of miles on the car to best replicate normal driving situations. We send one of our engineers out into the wild to put our development vehicle through its paces and ensure our products are functioning as designed.

Focus RS catch can testing

Blow-by Meets it's Match

Although our compact baffled oil catch can has been tried and tested numerous times, we still want to put it through the ringer to ensure that it functions just as nicely on every application. Just like

It's the year of the horse"power, that is, wherein the land of the aftermarket, power modifications are king. They are the body builders of the modifications stomping around yelling about protein, bro. We all want to beef up our cars and hear them roar in the face of their stock counterparts. Understandably, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of dyno charts and power numbers while overlooking the little guy in the background. This little guy, probably talking about something nerdy, is our good friend the catch can. He doesn't scream horsepower, but instead whispers about carbon buildup on valves. And for this post at least, we are going to hear him out.

If you missed our last post, we discussed the importance of using a catch can on our brand-new Focus RS. If you want to read more about the horrors of blow-by check out  our complete write up on Blow-By

Whether we're talking about turbochargers on an F-150 EcoBoost, V8 engines in an offshore powerboat, drummers in the Allman Brothers Band, or pieces of Carvel™ Ice Cream Cake for dessert on my birthday, sometimes two is a better option than one. This was very much the school of thought that Ford's engineers adopted when designing the cooling system on the 2011+ F-Series Super Duty trucks, including the F-350, F-450, and F-550. These trucks feature two systems that work in parallel to handle all of the cooling needs in your truck, and both are equally important.

Our engineers at Mishimoto also see the value in the "two can be better than one" mindset. When we bought our Mustang GT, we didn't stop there - we bought a turbo model, too. Many of you may know that we have already released a