Page 2 - wrx

Interested in picking up our 2008-2014 WRX/STi overflow tank? Check out our discounted pre-sale linked below.

2008-2014 Subaru WRX aluminum overflow tank pre-sale!

If you haven't noticed, the folks here at Mishimoto are not fans of plastic use for cooling system components. A large number of our products provide a more durable material, aluminum, to replace the failure-prone plastic parts, and now we are focusing on another line of products, our aluminum coolant expansion tanks. We offer two different options for the WRX/STI and one for the new Mustang EcoBoost. This article is focused around our newest addition, an aluminum overflow tank for the 2008+ WRX and STI.

Product Design

We won't be making any significant changes to the design of this tank compared to the stock unit, except for the construction material. Enlarging the tank's capacity will

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

Interested in picking up this awesome aluminum expansion tank? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Aluminum Coolant Expansion Tank

Last year we released an aluminum expansion tank for the 2004-2014 STI and 2002-2007 WRX. We received a ton of awesome feedback from customers and enthusiasts regarding this component, as well as recommendations to produce such a tank for 2008-2014 WRX owners.

While we normally highlight our development process in multiple installments, for this Expansion Tank we wanted to give you everything in one quick shot.

Stock Expansion Tank

Although we don't see quite as many failures with the 2008-2014 expansion tank, we can assume it will incur some wear over time. This tank sits relatively close to a very hot turbocharger/exhaust and handles coolant with temperatures

Interested in purchasing our 2015 WRX top-mount intercooler kit? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Performance Top-Mount Intercooler and Charge-Pipe System

As noted in our previous post, we decided to design a shroud that would channel airflow more efficiently through the core of our intercooler. Because our cooler features a larger footprint, the stock air shroud directs flow to only a portion of the core. Opening up this airflow to the entire core should result in even greater temperature reductions than we saw during our first round of testing.

Stock Intercooler Shroud

First, let's take a look at the stock shroud as Steve removes it from our test vehicle. Here is what you will see under the hood of your WRX.

Interested in picking up our 2015 WRX FMIC kit? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler Kit

Time for the fun part of development, product testing! Since this is an intercooler, we would certainly need to put the WRX on the dyno for some pulls and data collection. It would be interesting to see how the installation of a front-mount system has an impact on turbo spool, intake temperatures, and perhaps even power output.

Testing Preparation

The first step toward data collection is to prepare our sensor bungs and install our pressure and temperature sensors. We installed our bungs within the inlet and outlet intercooler couplers.

Interested in purchasing our WRX or STi catch can system? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Subaru WRX Baffled Oil Catch Can System

Subaru STi Baffled Oil Catch Can System

After completing the fabrication of our brackets for this kit and assembling the STI-specific lines, it was time to tackle the WRX. As you may be aware, the stock CCV lines are slightly different on the WRX, which necessitates a separate set of WRX-specific catch can lines.

The Test Subject

After reaching out to local contacts, we found a willing vehicle donor just one state away. We have borrowed this particular vehicle on several occasions for a variety of test fittings. A big "thank you" to the owner for lending his vehicle and his time for the sake of awesome new product development!

Interested in picking up our 2015 WRX FMIC kit? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler Kit

Front-mount intercooler installed

In the last portion of this series we completed the fabrication of our prototype intercooler core and tanks, as well as our new bumper beam. We now had everything in place to construct a piping kit that would route air from the turbocharger to the intercooler and back to the engine.

Hot-Side Piping

We started our piping with the hot-side of the intercooler system. The stock compressor

Interested in picking up our 2015 WRX FMIC kit? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Mishimoto Subaru WRX Front-Mount Intercooler Kit

Crash Beam Fabrication

After an unsuccessful test fit of our existing bumper beam on the 15', we started from scratch to create a beam specific for the 15' chassis. First we hacked off the end tanks of our cooler so we were left with a bare core. This would provide some freedom to design our crash beam and later work on the end tank direction. Next we cut out some new mounting plates and fit them into position.

Intercooler

Interested in purchasing our WRX or STi catch can system? Check out more details on our product pages linked below!

Subaru WRX Baffled Oil Catch Can System

Subaru STi Baffled Oil Catch Can System

Mishimoto 2010 STI

After developing a highly successful, direct-fit catch can setup for the 2015 WRX we turned our attention to the previous generation. Our next target would be the 2008-2014 WRX and STI. At this point, Mishimoto still owned a 2010 STI, and this project would be our last for our shop vehicle.

Catch Can Selection

As with our 2015