Page 43 - Engineering

Modern society tends to view vanity as an unwanted trait. But, without a certain level of vanity, our lives would be dull, to say the least. People care about how something looks, whether we put a value on that appearance or not. We use our eyes to recognize danger and make critical decisions about our lives. The weight we naturally apply to our vision affects less important decisions, too. We choose our clothing, our food, our homes, largely based on how they look. If it weren't for our natural vanity, nobody would care about Lamborghinis or Ferraris. We'd all drive brown Camrys, wearing brown shirts and brown pants on our way to our brown houses.

We surround ourselves with things that we like to look at, and those things say something about us, which is why the great divide between form and function in the automotive community has always been confusing to me. On one hand, there are enthusiasts who are obsessed with function and only function. It doesn't matter how it looks as long

The Pre-Sale for this 2015-2016 Ford F-150 3.5L EcoBoost Catch Can Kit is now live! Click here to check it out!

Patience is a virtue, but sometimes, it's also a necessity. Progress often moves at its own pace in science and engineering, and all you can do is sit back and wait for a result. In the case of our 2015+ 2.7L EcoBoost catch can, results have been a long time coming.

If you've been following along with this project since the beginning, we hope you've had a great Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas (or Festivus), New Year, birthday, Memorial Day, 4th of July"I think you get the point. It's been a while. In that time, we've battled check engine lights and overflowing catch cans with our 3.5L kit. What was once a humble kit to fit all 2015+ EcoBoost trucks, has become two kits, a brand-new catch can, three brackets and two sets of lines. All the while, our 2.7L kit was staying the course as planned.

What defines a limit? In the English language, a limit is "a restriction on the size or amount of something permissible or possible." In practice, however, limits are not always as rigid. Anybody who's ever mastered a sport or skill will tell you, limits are made to be pushed and broken. A limit is only as defined as one's willingness to accept it. In the automotive industry, limits are often found by exceeding them. We push our cars and trucks until flaws appear, then step back and find a way to make them better.

Physics tells us that almost everything has limits, whether or not we've found them yet. Air at a certain temperature can only absorb so much heat energy, and transmission fluid loses its ability to lubricate beyond a specified temperature. Add a transmission cooler between the two, and you have hundreds of variables that will decide the limits of what's possible for your truck. In the case of the Ford 6.4L Powerstroke, the limits have yet to be defined.

This 2003-2009 Dodge Ram 5.9L/6.7L Cummins Transmission Cooler is now available! Click here to check it out!

From the outside, you wouldn't think that the modern pickup truck is exactly the evolution of Henry Ford's Model T. Under the surface however, you might find that the two are more related than they appear. The Model T was a car, built for the masses, designed to be affordable, approachable, and to get people where they wanted to go.

It didn't take long for Ford and other manufacturers to realize the potential of an affordable utility vehicle. A vehicle that helped them work, so that they could afford to go places in their car. Pickups have grown to sell almost twice as well as cars since the Model T "Runabout" was introduced in 1925, and it's hard to find a vehicle that can do as much as a pickup. For all the development that has happened in nearly a century, the pickup could still use some improvement to make it a better workhorse.

It's been a long time since we saw the first iteration of Mazda's return to hot hatches, over a decade in fact. A lot has changed since then. The first difference you might notice is that the Mazdaspeed division is nowhere to be found, and instead, the MZR Turbo lives on as the Ford EcoBoost. For the MS3's that are still on the road racking up the miles, they might be seeing all sorts of replacement parts, but also a decade's worth of carbon buildup.

If you recall from our last installment, the Speed 3 challenged the seasoned hatchback veteran, VW, with their own version of the turbocharged, direct-injected 4-cylinder that boasts more power and equipment than just about all  its competitors. However, if you are knowledgeable on the first wave of this combination of

As the threads of the last bolt spun their way out, Jason hoisted the stock radiator out of the Ram's engine bay, over his head, and set it on the ground next to his workbench. With the radiator laying next to the truck, it was easy to see why we're making a replacement. The chiseled fenders and snarling grill of the 2017 Ram portray a truck built for power. The anemic core and plastic end tanks of the Ram's radiator, on the other hand, look like they come from a truck built to meet a budget.

Dodge's most popular truck is not just a vehicle to get from point A to point B; it's a tool built to do what any tool does best: work. Like any good tool, much of the Ram's design focuses on reliability and its ability to take abuse day after day. You'd be hard pressed to find an engine more durable than the 6.7L Cummins turbo-diesel found in the 4th generation Ram 2500 and 3500. But despite its legendary reliability, the 6.7 Cummins still relies on some less than bullet-proof support to get