Beat The Heat! Mishimoto Intercooler R&D!

[madfiesta14]

Yeah it takes full advantage of the lower opening.....sic. me wanntyy

 

[forevercasual]

Will it take advantage of extra flow in the corners if you remove the black plastic (corner triangles)?

 

[iX-Grimjow-Xi]

Hope these are ready before march 12

 

[Izzy]

Unfortunately...I cut my bumper cover to expose most of the J-line core. So this stock fit would just show a gap on top of it. Any chance to release the J-Line in gold?

 

[madfiesta14]

Unfortunately...I cut my bumper cover to expose most of the J-line core. So this stock fit would just show a gap on top of it. Any chance to release the J-Line in gold?

J line is still great. I doubt this flows or cools any better

 

[Dgrant1988]

Oh my goodness I can't wait!

 

[mishimoto1]

Well that's just great, now I HAVE to buy this. Please be kind to us Canadians with pricing.. Our dollar sucks right now

Pricing will definitely be carefully determined. Our goal is to provide the best value possible, and we typically achieve that with our new products.

Wow! That fills the lower airdam VERY well. Super excited to see the charge temp and airflow testing data now!

Thanks! Initial testing data will be up early next week.

Yeah it takes full advantage of the lower opening.....sic. me wanntyy

Thanks for taking a look!

Will it take advantage of extra flow in the corners if you remove the black plastic (corner triangles)?

Removing this portion of the grille will indeed reveal more of the intercooler core which will enhance airflow through the fins. If you are seeking optimal airflow this is definitely an option. That being said, our initial results showed intake temperatures near ambient with our prototype coolers. This is without that additional portion of the grille removed.

Hope these are ready before march 12

That will be a tough date for our team to hit. I think our current estimate is more towards the middle of April. Once we have a final core selection we should have a better idea of the timeline.

Unfortunately...I cut my bumper cover to expose most of the J-line core. So this stock fit would just show a gap on top of it. Any chance to release the J-Line in gold?

It’s already available!

http://www.mishimoto.com/mishimoto-universal-intercooler-j-line.html

If you are interested in picking up a gold cooler, be sure to check with our vendors for the best available pricing.

J line is still great. I doubt this flows or cools any better

The J-line is a fantastic cooler and much larger than the prototypes we’ve designed for the Fiesta. The J-line features the volume, thickness, and core design to support around 550 whp. I think this will be far above the goals of most Fiesta owners. In addition, the J-line is likely to produce more airflow blockage to the radiator and will see a larger pressure drop from one side of the core to the other. These were all considerations when we started designing this particular direct-fit unit. This in no way states that the J-line is a poor choice, however our goal with the direct-fit unit was to design the core specifically for the needs of this vehicle. I imagine you are seeing extremely impressive temperature drops with the J-line on the FIST.

Oh my goodness I can't wait!

Thanks!
-John

 

[mishimoto1]

Initial data is up! Check out our progress below.

Beat The Heat! Mishimoto Fiesta ST Intercooler R&D, Part 4: Initial Prototype Testing

The most exciting part of product R&D is always the testing phase. This typically includes setting up some neat sensors, running the car on the dyno or on the street, and crunching our data. We are anxious to see how our first prototype coolers perform on the Fiesta. Let’s jump right into the plans for this first round of testing.

Testing Plans

As mentioned in the previous segment, we will test four different coolers.

• Stock intercooler
• Mishimoto bar-and-plate prototype 1 (larger internal bar height)
• Mishimoto bar-and-plate prototype 2 (smaller internal bar height)
• Mishimoto tube-and-fin prototype

For each cooler we will be collecting data for temperature, pressure, and power output. Each cooler will be tested repeatedly until we have three consistent runs producing data as accurate as possible.

Below is a look at the three different core types that will be tested.

Ford Fiesta ST intercooler prototypes

To collect temperature and pressure data, we installed two sensor bungs in each intercooler boot. This will allow us to evaluate these numbers pre-intercooler and post-intercooler for an accurate comparison.

Fiesta ST performance parts testing sensors

Fiesta ST performance parts testing sensors

Time For Testing

Once we had a plan for the testing process, we set the Fiesta up on our Dynapack™ and prepared our intercoolers.

Ford Fiesta ST intercooler dyno testing

Swapping coolers was a relatively quick process for our team, as we have become adept at bumper removal.

Ford Fiesta ST intercooler dyno testing

Ford Fiesta ST intercooler dyno testing

Pictures can show only so much. How about a video showing a couple pulls?

[video=youtube;OPcfEN4q4cA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPcfEN4q4cA&[/video]

Initial Testing Data

Time to review our findings. Now, our first measure of heat exchanger performance is heat transfer. This will be a comparison of intercooler inlet and outlet temperatures for our four tested intercoolers.

Ford Fiesta ST intercooler temperature data

These data points immediately reveal the inefficiency of the stock intercooler. Inlet temperatures for the stock cooler begin at around 160°F and rise to 225°F. Outlet temperatures at the start of the pull are ambient (62°F) and quickly rise to around 80°F at the end of the run. This is not a massive inefficiency but can certainly be improved.

Now let’s take a look at our prototype coolers. Inlet temperatures sit at around 5–10°F below the stock cooler. The big change here is in outlet temperatures. Despite the rising inlet temperatures during the runs, we recorded ambient outlet temperatures for all three prototype cores. Although this would not be considered a torture test of the coolers, the results do show a big improvement over the stock cooler.

As we’ve noted previously, heat transfer is directly related to internal core flow. Our prototype cores are more restrictive than the stock core, which is how we achieved the temperature drops. We recorded pressure at both the inlets and outlets to compare these values as well.

Fiesta ST performance parts testing data

This is the plot that will have the biggest impact on our decision. The stock intercooler is rather unrestrictive and free flowing. From one side of the cooler to the other, a maximum drop of 0.9 psi was recorded. Again, this explains why the heat transfer is not efficient.

Our very dense bar-and-plate prototype 2 was a serious outlier in this test. Pressure drop numbers exceeded 3 psi, which is quite high for this tiny turbocharger. This particular core was eliminated.

One bar-and-plate prototype and one tube-and-fin unit remained. These cores feature a similar internal fin density despite being different core types. They produced a similar pressure drop, right around 2.5 psi.

In addition to our pressure and temperature data, we also collected our power output data for each core.

Fiesta ST performance parts testing data

Fiesta ST performance parts testing data

Our plots showed gains in the top end of around 5–10 whp and wtq with each of our prototypes. These gains occurred possibly because of the lower intake temperatures.

Coming Up – New Prototype Testing

We are not exactly satisfied with these results. Temperature and power data are great, but we are not pleased with the pressure drop numbers. We are planning to design two more cores with varying internal fins that we hope will produce a better compromise between temperature and pressure.

Our goal is to bring pressure drop closer to the stock cooler while still maintaining efficient heat transfer.

Keep an eye on our blog for other updates on awesome new Fiesta ST performance parts!

Thanks for reading!
-John

 

[gizyuluu]

R&D at its best, getting positive results and not being satisfied. Good work, looking forward to the end results.

 

[commonplatypus]

Great data and a great post! Always looking forward to these. Hopefully other vendors start following similar patterns of posting tons of data in the same manner. I'd really love that! Definitely concerned with these pressure drop numbers in the same vein you guys are and it's awesome to hear you guys are going to keep pushing for better. That's a product I would want to buy! I think if you can get it below a 2.00 psi pressure drop at max flow the product would be just ducky.

Keep up the awesome work and awesome posts!

 

[mishimoto1]

R&D at its best, getting positive results and not being satisfied. Good work, looking forward to the end results.

Great data and a great post! Always looking forward to these. Hopefully other vendors start following similar patterns of posting tons of data in the same manner. I'd really love that! Definitely concerned with these pressure drop numbers in the same vein you guys are and it's awesome to hear you guys are going to keep pushing for better. That's a product I would want to buy! I think if you can get it below a 2.00 psi pressure drop at max flow the product would be just ducky.

Keep up the awesome work and awesome posts!

Thanks for taking a look guys. We want to design this product right the first time. This is why we are continuing R&D in order to find a better blend of the two data points. Our new cores are already complete and we will be welding the end tanks on very soon. Another update will be up within the next couple of weeks.

Thanks
-John

 

[Bluedrank]

In the data above, there appears to be some significant torque and hp drops in the low rpm range on all of the coolers compared to stock. Sure high end is better, but for daily driving and shifting below 3000rpm, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with the loss in low end torque and hp.

 

[commonplatypus]

In the data above, there appears to be some significant torque and hp drops in the low rpm range on all of the coolers compared to stock. Sure high end is better, but for daily driving and shifting below 3000rpm, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with the loss in low end torque and hp.

I imagine that is a symptom of the pressure loss as the turbo struggles to pressurize the core while fighting the resistance to regain lost kinetic energy in the airflow. It should improve with their next core design as they aren't going with these particular ones.

 

[Izzy]

How about doing this testing for all of us who installed the J-Line? I'm really interested in seeing those numbers.

I imagine that is a symptom of the pressure loss as the turbo struggles to pressurize the core while fighting the resistance to regain lost kinetic energy in the airflow. It should improve with their next core design as they aren't going with these particular ones.

 

[commonplatypus]

How about doing this testing for all of us who installed the J-Line? I'm really interested in seeing those numbers.

I gathered some data on that not long ago on it and it doesn't have good airflow at all (It actually flows the worst of any available cooler), but what can you expect for such an inexpensive "universal" cooler that wasn't designed with our car or even our turbo in mind? It does cool well, but it seems to have really bad pressure loss on our cars due to poor laminar flow and a core size that just doesn't fit our needs.

 

[Quasar]

[MENTION=1848]mishimoto[/MENTION] the transparency is much appreciated. You could have just as easily foregone the pressure drop data and put the bar and plate 1 design out for sale. Most other vendors do not post (at least from I have seen) any information about pressure drop, they just speak to how much larger the core is vs. stock and how much better of a job it does at cooling vs. stock. Your aspiration and work ethic is very admirable. You should be proud of yourselves for sharing this with the community and striving for even better results.

 

[commonplatypus]

[MENTION=1848]mishimoto[/MENTION] the transparency is much appreciated. You could have just as easily foregone the pressure drop data and put the bar and plate 1 design out for sale. Most other vendors do not post (at least from I have seen) any information about pressure drop, they just speak to how much larger the core is vs. stock and how much better of a job it does at cooling vs. stock. Your aspiration and work ethic is very admirable. You should be proud of yourselves for sharing this with the community and striving for even better results.

I agree! Even when asked some vendors will just either ignore or dodge your requests for data. This is a very good step in the right direction.

 

[Sekred]

How about doing this testing for all of us who installed the J-Line? I'm really interested in seeing those numbers.

J-Line pressure loss test EFR 6258 Turbo.

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/threads/7722-IC-Test-Pressure-Drop

 

[mishimoto1]

In the data above, there appears to be some significant torque and hp drops in the low rpm range on all of the coolers compared to stock. Sure high end is better, but for daily driving and shifting below 3000rpm, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with the loss in low end torque and hp.

I imagine that is a symptom of the pressure loss as the turbo struggles to pressurize the core while fighting the resistance to regain lost kinetic energy in the airflow. It should improve with their next core design as they aren't going with these particular ones.

Yes, it does appear there is a small blip in power with the stock cooler from 2900-3300 rpm. There are a number of reasons this could be occurring. A lag in boost pressure due to the core density is possible, we can take a closer look at boost/rpm plots to see if this is actually what is happening. We are preparing for the second round of testing and will definitely see what occurs once we bring the pressure drop closer to the stock cooler.

How about doing this testing for all of us who installed the J-Line? I'm really interested in seeing those numbers.

I gathered some data on that not long ago on it and it doesn't have good airflow at all (It actually flows the worst of any available cooler), but what can you expect for such an inexpensive "universal" cooler that wasn't designed with our car or even our turbo in mind? It does cool well, but it seems to have really bad pressure loss on our cars due to poor laminar flow and a core size that just doesn't fit our needs.

The J-line is indeed a very large cooler, it was designed to support vehicles producing up to 550 whp. We are planning to test the j-line on our Fiesta along with our 2 new prototype coolers. Details coming soon!

[MENTION=1848]mishimoto[/MENTION] the transparency is much appreciated. You could have just as easily foregone the pressure drop data and put the bar and plate 1 design out for sale. Most other vendors do not post (at least from I have seen) any information about pressure drop, they just speak to how much larger the core is vs. stock and how much better of a job it does at cooling vs. stock. Your aspiration and work ethic is very admirable. You should be proud of yourselves for sharing this with the community and striving for even better results.

I agree! Even when asked some vendors will just either ignore or dodge your requests for data. This is a very good step in the right direction.

Thanks for the kind words guys! Were doing some neat stuff with this project so we figured those with the vehicle would be pretty interested in the process.

J-Line pressure loss test EFR 6258 Turbo.

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/threads/7722-IC-Test-Pressure-Drop

Thanks for posting this up! We are planning to perform J-line testing of our own soon!

-John

 

[SirSlaughter]

I'm liking how much you guys are putting into this intercooler.

I was looking into the DHM intercooler as it's been more or less proven as one of, if not the best one on the market. However, with how much you guys are putting into this, I might see myself going with your Tube and fin style in that nice gold coat.
I hope your next batch gives positive results.