Page 9 - oil

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Mishimoto Subaru BRZ / Scion FR-S Baffled Oil Catch Can

Why a Catch Can?

Catch cans are used only for turbocharged vehicles, right? This is a question we hear all the time. Yes, a turbocharged vehicle is more likely to produce greater blow-by, resulting in a more prominent collection of debris in the intake manifold and tract. That being said, any engine is certainly susceptible to oil and fuel collection due to the use of PCV and CCV systems, which improve engine efficiency and provide cleaner emissions. Mishimoto has been working on developing several direct-fit oil catch-can systems for a variety of vehicles. So far we have completed kits for the Subaru WRX/STI for 2008-2015. We have also experimented with a kit for the BMW E90, a vehicle that suffers

Interested in purchasing our thermostatic WRX oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Oil Cooler Kit

It was now time to test our components and ensure that they were operating to our standards. Our previous testing showed that oil warmup was rapid enough for use on a daily driven vehicle. Next we had to confirm that temperature improvements compared to the stock cooler setup were efficient.

We used a similar testing practice with the previous version of this kit, which includes the procedures and conditions listed below.

Testing Conditions

• Ambient Temperatures: 70°F-75°F
• Driving Conditions: 6 miles of highway driving at 60 mph
• Sensors: PLX temperature sensor reading 10 times per second

Setups Tested

Interested in purchasing our thermostatic WRX oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Oil Cooler Kit

Our direction with this project is to develop a thermostatic oil cooler solution for the 2015 WRX. Our team decided to eliminate the factory liquid-to-liquid cooler and replace it with one of our thermostatic sandwich plates. By doing so, we could properly regulate fluid temperatures according to the temperature thermostat installed in our sandwich plate. Additionally, we could provide improved cooling efficiency with the use of our liquid-to-air heat exchanger carried over from our non-thermostatic kit.

So why not retain the stock cooler and make the Mishimoto unit thermostatic? We have a few reasons to back up this decision. First is clearance concerns. When adding a sandwich plate to the top of the factory cooler, the filter is raised as well. This provides a

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

The results are in and they are exactly what we expected! This cooler provided huge gains in cooling efficiency. Let's take a look at the data we compiled. First up is the core volume comparison.

Core volume comparison

As you can see, the Mishimoto oil cooler provides a huge increase in total core volume.

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

Time to see if this cooler can make a significant impact on fluid temperatures. As before, we borrowed a test fit vehicle from the folks over at Open Road Tuning. Once we had the car on the lift, we removed the factory cooler lines and spliced our temperature sensors into the stock lines so we could collect inlet and outlet fluid temperatures.

Temperature sensors installed

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

Welcome to our third installment of the build! We are nearing the completion of this project, with only some final test fitting necessary and data collection to ensure that this product performs to our standards. First, take a look at the Mishimoto oil cooler compared to the stock unit.

Mishimoto prototype oil cooler (right) and stock oil cooler (left)

Interested in purchasing our thermostatic WRX oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Oil Cooler Kit

After releasing our most recent direct-fit oil cooler kit for the 2015 Subaru WRX, questions from our fan base and online communities began to fill our inboxes. Our kit included all necessary components for installation and placed a large 19-row oil cooler in the front grille area. We saw huge gains in cooling performance for this particular setup, with decreases of over 25°F. This project was extremely successful and we anticipated that our customers would be very pleased with the performance. The primary concern with a portion of enthusiasts was low fluid temperatures. This kit was designed with a vehicle-specific oil sandwich plate that sat on top of the factory oil cooler/warmer.

This was a truly unique design, however the one feature this component lacked was an

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

Our team now had a functioning oil line adapter to convert from the stock oil filter housing to -AN fittings. Now we would be able to move forward with designing the actual heat exchanger for our kit. We reached out to a few of our local friends and sourced this Oxford green example!

Test vehicle on lift

Our friend Andrew at Open Road Tuning was kind enough to loan his vehicle for a week of development! First we tore off the stock cooler to get a look at what kind of space we had to work with.

Interested in purchasing this E46 oil cooler? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto BMW E46 M3 Oil Cooler Kit

The BMW S54 won the "International Engine of the Year" award at its inception in 2001 and was consistently on "Ward's 10 Best Engines" list for four years. It's hard to argue against the E46, an 8,000 rpm, 3.2L straight-6 producing over 330 hp and 260 ft-lb of torque, with a competent chassis, an exhaust note that straightens the neck hair of all within earshot, and a body styling that is unmatched in uniqueness. Although my opinion is slightly skewed, being a fan of most BMW products, many would agree that the E46 was a fantastic vehicle for the street and even better for the track. E46 M3 pricing has trickled downward over the past few years, meaning that even those on a tighter budget can find their way into the cockpit of one of BMW's finest. We are seeing these vehicles at track

Interested in purchasing this catch can? Check out our product page for more information!

Mishimoto Compact Baffled Oil Catch Can

The project is complete! We are very pleased with the outcome, and we expect a ton of positive feedback on this product. In fact, three or four of our employees have already reserved units for their personal vehicles. Speaking of " I should pick up one for my NB Miata!

The production quality catch can is now prepared for your viewing pleasure. Check it out below, starting with the base of the can.