Page 30 - Engineering

When you put your foot down in the Q50, or any car for that matter, the force that shoves you back in the seat isn't just the work of one or two things, but rather the wonderous team effort of hundreds of moving parts. From the gears turning, the crank spinning the pistons, to the coolant gushing through the cooling and intercooling systems, this collaboration results in the harmonious sound of the VR warble and powerful forward thrust.

It's no secret that enthusiasts like us want to pile more on to that acceleration. Once we dug into our donor vehicle, we found that the stock heat exchanger can be the weak link in the chain pulling the Q50 forward, and leaves something more to be desired. After some preliminary R&D, we determined just what needs to be done with the heat exchanger to bring it all together.

It's safe to assume that everyone has that one band, that one artist that they're dying to see live, biding their time for the right lineup at the right venue before treating themselves for those VIP tickets. It's almost the same when it comes to the C7. The constant overheating is like suffering through tours that never come close to home or cancelled shows. But finally, the show is booked, the lineup is solid and that LT4 is ready to sing.

It's been a long enough wait, so let's get straight to the point. When we last left off, our radiator was just the skeleton of a heat exchanger, but it has arrived at the Mishimoto R&D facility for a first look in the, well, metal.

It's the challenges that make life exciting. Doing the same thing over and over gets tedious, but if you seek out challenges, life begins to get interesting. When we last talked about our 2018+ Jeep Wrangler 2.0L intake, things were starting to get very interesting.

The last post saw our prototypes hitting the dyno to see if our efforts had paid off. Despite a 20% increase in flow over the stock intake, there was no massive improvement in power with either prototype. Both prototypes did let out a little more sound from the turbo, however. While the lack of power increase wasn't surprising (as explained in the last post), looking at the resulting dyno graphs did show an unexpected trend. Though peak power didn't increase or decrease compared to the stock intake, it did move later in the RPM range. Much later.

It might be old news by now, but we're all still getting acquainted with the fact that Kia, in tandem with Hyundai (who's also bringing their posh baby cousin Genesis along for the ride), have established a much more respectable position in the automotive community. The launch of the Stinger GT helped Kia break out of its chrysalis state not as a run of the mill butterfly, but more like a mantis that's snatching those fluttering insects out of the sky.

As we went over in the introduction to our Stinger, the secret to this vehicle's success is the silky-smooth Lambda II 3.3T coupled with the intuitive 8-speed automatic transmission. Even given Kia's advancements worthy of contending with those luxurious German counterparts, the Stinger does have some drawbacks that could hinder

What's exploration without a challenge? If you drive the same easy trails or climb the same easy routes over and over again, life becomes boring. The thrill of exploration often hinges on the prospect of the unknown and taking a path without knowing where it will lead you. Without the challenge of the unknown, exploration is just following a map.

When we last saw our 2018+ Jeep Wrangler 2.0L catch can kit, we were still firmly in familiar territory. We installed two catch cans on the Jeep, one for the PCV side of the system and one for the CCV side. These two kits would serve as our proof of concept for each side of the system. At the end of our 1,000-mile test, we'd check the catch cans and see if we needed to build a kit for the CCV side, PCV side, or both. Before we could rack up 1,000 miles, however, an old familiar friend greeted us: the check-engine light (CEL).

No matter how powerful Mother Nature becomes, humans try to control, contain, or harness her. We hold back rivers with dams, suppress ocean waves with dunes, and leash the wind to power our sails and our cities. But even when we think we can control her power, we're often left in awe of Mother Nature's ability to break that control. Nature's strength and freedom are qualities we often admire and try to imitate. We mimic them in our art, our hobbies, and even the cars and trucks we drive.

At Mishimoto, we're not immune to the awe of Mother Nature. That's why we've been working to rival her power with the Jeep JL 2.0T Hurricane engine and our performance intercooler pipe.

Our first post focused on the stock intercooler pipe and all the components that make it unique to the Hurricane engine. We're