CorkSport’s New Mazdaspeed Front Lip

This Mazdaspeed with CorkSport's new front lip has style and speed.
Check out this stylish Mazdaspeed.

Hello, CorkSport family! If you haven’t visited our New Products page lately, then you’ve been missing out on some cool product releases. Look at this picture. Can you guess which part I’m referring to?

I’ll give you a hint. It starts with the letter L, and ends with an I and a P. That’s right — the lip!

Why we created a new Mazdaspeed front lip

At CorkSport, we’re committed to supporting the Mazda community and always strive to bring new, cool mods to the table. Mazda decided they’re no longer going to support the Mazdaspeed platform, but as a leader in the Mazda Performance market, we’re doing our part to keep the platform alive. Due to that commitment, we believe it’s up to us to push the platform and make sure we’re the leading competitor in this market. To achieve this, we did some research and found what the market was missing.

Our research and commitment manifested in the creation of a part that increases your Mazdaspeed’s style: our new front lip. In our research, we learned that people have been trying to mold STI lips onto the front of their Mazdaspeed3s, and we knew the direct fitment style CorkSport is known for would not only give us a HUGE edge over eBay components but would allow us to create an incredible part.

The new CorkSport front lip

With a new CorkSport Mazdaspeed front lip, you know your ride is going to look stylish.
Take a look at that sick CorkSport Mazdaspeed Front Lip.

In developing this front lip, our engineer Barrett spent countless hours making sure this part would be a direct fitment for ease of installation and would deliver a clean, sleek look. Molded from 3mm ABS plastic with a black coating, our new front lip is a no-brainer when it comes to adding extra style to your Mazdaspeed. As always, we tested this lip to make sure that it would withstand high winds (around 140mph, to be exact) for all of our “Mexico” racers. Passing this test gave us the confidence we needed to be sure that we could offer a product that not only looked good but could withstand daily driving abuse.

Thinking about purchasing this front lip? Here’s what you need to know:

  1. Two-year warranty from manufacturer defect.
  2. One-hour install time.
  3. With the purchase of the front lip, you get a free CorkSport trucker hat — only available through the purchase of this front lip!

Please note: This lip will not work with the CorkSport aluminum skid tray. The mounting locations do not line up.

Lastly, don’t forget, when you make a purchase with CorkSport you become part of our family. When you invest in us, we invest in you.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news and product updates from CorkSport.

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CorkSport Joins Christmas Toy Drive 2016

A couple of weeks ago, CorkSport was contacted about a toy drive put together by a local car group called Tuner Coalition. They had heard about a group of kids at a local hospital that had hardly ever experienced a true Christmas. CorkSport loves to give back to the community, so we wanted to make some kids super happy this holiday season.

We all know that Christmas is about giving, so that’s what we did. I learned there is no better feeling than knowing your contribution will make a world of difference in someone’s life. That is our main goal here at CorkSport. We strive everyday to help our customers meet their goals and enjoy their modifications. It’s all about bringing happiness to others. And just look at how happy these kids will be.


This was not only a toy drive, but also a car meet. I brought my Mazdaspeed, and there was a first generation Mazda 3 that had some cool exterior upgrades. I also had the pleasure of meeting some really cool people. Even though we drove different cars, we were there for the same reason and shared the same passion for cars.

I had the pleasure of talking to a guy that owned an Ecoboost Mustang. He had a lethal performance turbo kit installed on the cusp of making 500whp. Needless to say, his engine bay was really clean; it had been meticulously hydro-dipped by a friend of his. I always liked the Ecoboost Mustang for its indirect relationship with Mazdaspeeds. The car definitely looked cool, and drew a lot of attention. He was a very humble guy and only had nice things to say about the my Mazdaspeed. He saw the front mount intercooler on my car and instantly had to know what was under the hood.

CorkSport loves to be a part of these types of events, and we encourage anyone to participate as well. We are here to help our community in any way possible. We would love to hear about some of your holiday car meets, and any kind of fundraisers you may have attended this holiday season! Get in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter to share your mods and stories.

Cheers,

Luke

CorkSport’s Last-Minute Holiday Gift Guide

You’re busy. We get it. You’ve got a Mazda to mod, places to drive your sweet ride, a job to do, and you’ve got to carve out a little time for that special someone. Who’s got time for holiday shopping? The lines are long, the mall is packed, and the weather — and how poorly most people drive in it — isn’t helping things. If you’re like us, you probably haven’t even started shopping yet. Which is why we’re here to help.

Whether you need to get your buddy a knockout gift for your car club’s Secret Santa or your mom’s blowing up your phone looking to add items to your list, check out our suggestions. It’s the best way to make sure grandma doesn’t get you an ugly sweater, again!

CorkSport Turbocharged T-shirt

CorkSport Turbo T-Shirt

Sure your car looks good, but how do you look? Nothing undercuts the envy you’ve generated when you pull up in your dope Mazda more than a holey old shirt. Suit up with our Turbocharged T-shirt and you can look as fly as your ride. Make sure to check out the rest of our merch as well. Your modded Mazda isn’t complete without a sticker or license plate frame letting the world know you’re rocking some of the best hardware on the planet under your hood.

CorkSport Max Flow Fuel Pump Internals

CorkSport HPFP Internals Fuel Pump

Looking to optimize your stock fuel system and protect your engine? These are the parts you’re looking for! It took us over two years of research to innovate this high-pressure fuel pump for your Mazdaspeed. Always a flawless fit and incredibly high efficiency, CorkSport’s MZR DISI Max Flow Fuel Pump Internals are precision machined, then treated, coated, and machined again. Who wouldn’t want to find more horsepower under the tree this year?

Limited Edition “Fast & Furious” 1–7 Collection

We don’t really need to explain this suggestion, right? Even if you have the 1–6 box set, it’s time for an upgrade. What would Dom do? Whether you receive it or gift it, a limited edition box set of, arguably, the greatest car guy movie franchise of all time is sure to be a hit.

CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve

BPV700W

Gifting one of our newer parts is always a surefire way to deliver a great holiday treat. An awesome addition to a turbo-charged engine bay, the CorkSport Mazdaspeed MZR Bypass Valve is a smaller piece that offers the same amount of force, so it increases turbo life while putting an end to premature wear-and-tear. It’s the gift that keeps on giving: a high-performance valve that stands the test of time.

Black & Decker Corded Flexi Automotive Vacuum

Granted, it’s not the sexiest gift, but sometimes functionality is what counts. You want to keep your ride spotless and this Black & Decker car vacuum will be invaluable in that regard. Save money on trips to the car wash and keep that interior detailing tight. It’s not the size of the vacuum, it’s how you use it!

The Ultimate Mazda Performance Guide

Mazda performance guide book

This is the perfect stocking stuffer for a Mazda Performance maniac. Our “Ultimate Mazda Performance Guide”, written by CorkSport’s own Derrick Ambrose, is a great guide for beginner and intermediate modders, and a good resource for expert-level enthusiasts looking for a refresher course. With over 160 pages of detailed info and full color photos, it’s the one stop shop for ways to get the best performance out of your Mazda.

Mazdaspeed 3 Turbo Upgrade

CorkSport Mazdaspeed3 Replacement Turbo

Go big or go home this holiday season! Sure the price tag on this turbo upgrade is on the higher end, but it’s a joy to receive or give, especially if you or your special someone need a worn out or smoking turbo. And installation is a cinch. It easily bolts into your Mazdaspeed with no mechanical modifications to replace an undersized OEM turbo and supports a range of 250–450 horsepower. You’ll come in first place this holiday season if you splurge on this gift. And hell, if you don’t get it, this is as good a place as any to cash in those checks from your aunts and uncles.

ZeroEdge Full HD 1080p Car Dashboard Camera Bundle

While we don’t recommend driving as recklessly as they do in most of those Russian dashcam videos, it’s always fun to revisit your excursions with other Mazda owners. Add some new tech to your car to match all the dope hardware under the hood. If you get one, show us where you take it out for a spin on social media. We’d love to see how you’re putting those CorkSport parts to use!

CorkSport Clearance

If your wallet is feeling a little light, but you still want to secure some great gifts, make sure to peruse our clearance section. It’s the perfect place to lock down some excellent parts at low prices that can help you arrive with a sack full of gifts in your sleigh, without demolishing your bank account. Once these parts are gone, they’re gone — so don’t wait too long before looking into this holiday gift option.

Regardless of what you end up buying as a gift or receiving in your stocking this holiday season, make sure to show us your new parts using #CorkSport on social media. Nothing brings us more holiday cheer than seeing the joy new CorkSport parts bring to our customers. Happy holidays!

New Product: Mazdaspeed High Pressure Fuel Line

Mazdaspeed High Pressure Fuel Line

If you are on the forums or Facebook groups, you have probably seen the “I smell gas under the hood of my speed” post by that person trying to troubleshoot their car. Then, 10 minutes later, they post again announcing the stock hardline from the pump to the rail has cracked on their speed. And now they have to visit the dealer to get a new one, which will likely fail in the same manner.

We grew tired of seeing the same thing come up, so we are happy to announce a solution the CorkSport Braided High Pressure Fuel Line.  The line provides a durable and reliable solution to the crack-prone OEM hard line that loves to leave you stranded.

Mazdaspeed High Pressure Fuel Line

We made our line out of 314L stainless steel fittings with a SAE100R14 Stainless Steel Braided PTFE for excellent pressure, corrosion, and temperature limits. The Polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) and Stainless Steel have excellent properties that make our line compatible with gasoline (petrol to our UK friends), ethanol (for all you E85 junkies), methanol, and beer (we do not recommend running your car on beer, but if you need a straw in a pinch…).

High Pressure Fuel Line installed

Our lines were yield tested to 7100psi before a failure occurred in the form of a small leak, which is a safety factor of 3.2 for an OEM fuel system at its limits.

This is one of those parts that is a must buy, not just a nice-to-have. Fuel fires are nothing to mess with.

Derrick Ambrose, CorkSport, Mazda

New Product: Mazdaspeed Camshafts for DISI MZR Motor

Mazdaspeed camshaft

After multiple years of testing, design and research, CorkSport is proud to announce its release of camshafts specifically designed around the MZR DISI platform. This kit is engineered to reliably provide increased power and torque without lower rpm sacrifices.

The turbocharged MZR DISI engine was first introduced in the 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed6 and was later put in the 2007-2013 Mazdaspeed3. This engine has a High-Pressure Fuel Pump (HPFP) that is driven off the intake camshaft. Other MZR engines use different camshafts and don’t have a HPFP lobe to run the fuel pump. This has been a limitation in the market since the engines introduction.

Camshaft Basics

In order to understand the basics you need to know some camshaft terminology. The most common terms are lobe, lift, duration and base circle.

Common Drawing of Camshaft Terminology
Common Drawing of Camshaft Terminology
  • Base Circle – The circle on the backside of the lobe. When the base circle faces the valve the valve is closed.
  • Lobe – The lobe is the portion of the camshaft surface that is not the base circle. This is when the valve is opening or closing.
Camshaft base circle and lobe
  • Lift – The distance between the base circle and the top of the lobe. This will be the amount the valve is allowed to open.
  • Duration – The distance, in degrees, that the camshaft is in the lift section. This controls the time that the valve will be open. This is shown in the diagram from A to B.

MZR Flow Testing

The first thing to do was flow test the head to figure out where restrictions might occur. To flow test, a constant vacuum was applied through the head and while slowly opening the valves. This is similar to what the engine is doing while running.

Intake lift

The factory intake ports do not flow much air above 0.350” of lift on the flow bench. The factory camshaft runs rough at 0.370” of lift. Shown in the graph below, minimal flow was increased between 0.350” and 0.400” on the factory head.

Intake Ports of MZR DISI Head graph
Intake Ports of MZR DISI Head

Porting is the process of modifying the intake and exhaust ports of an internal combustion engine to improve the quality and quantity of the air flow. After porting the head, there were significant increases in flow, but around 0.400” of lift there was again minimal increase in flow, with more lift. Testing suggests a proper maximum lift of 0.390” for the intake camshaft. Factory heads or ones with a large port should show gains from this increase in lift.

Why Stop at 0.390”?

More lift above 0.390” would require very extensive head work to gain much more power. Another downside of going above 0.390” lift is the valves will require stronger valve springs to maintain proper valve operation at high boost or high rpm. Upgraded valve springs should not be required for a factory head with 0.390” of lift camshafts.

Exhaust lift

A similar process to that described during the intake lift process was used on the exhaust ports and an optimal lift of 0.355” was chosen. For comparison, the factory runs 0.321” lift on the camshaft.

Exhaust Ports of MZR DISI Head
Exhaust Ports of MZR DISI Head

Limitations of Existing Options

The factory camshafts were designed around a compromise of performance and emissions; from that design criteria, there is still more power and torque available. The reader can now understand why increased lift and duration can release this power. There are limited options to increase lift and duration on the MZR DISI engine.

Reground Factory Camshafts

In order to increase lift and duration on a reground camshaft, the factory camshaft must be welded and reground to the new profile, but commonly the base circle is reduced. This allows the lift to increase and also the duration to be adjusted.

There are limitations with this approach. When reducing the base circle, many other parts in the head will have to make up for the amount ground away. It is essentially limited to the amount ground away. It is also limited by the duration because the profile must fit within the factory profile design.

In order to regrind a camshaft it must be removed from the engine or a new camshaft must be bought. A used camshaft can have wear that cannot be fixed. Buying new camshafts to send out is expensive and adds to the total cost of installing the camshafts.

Aftermarket Camshafts

The only aftermarket camshafts currently available are not designed for the MZR DISI engine. This means the intake camshaft does not have the ability to run the HPFP.

The existing camshafts for the MZR engine were also designed around naturally aspirated (non-turbocharged) engines, so the duration, lift, and overlap between the intake and exhaust camshafts are not optimal for forced induction applications.

The best option to upgrade camshafts is to buy those designed and made for the MZR DISI engine specifically.

Camshaft Design

In order to start testing camshafts on the car, a blank camshaft is needed. This requires making a mold and casting a generic camshaft from a mold. Then the bearing services were machined to factory specs and after that a few dozen durations, ramp rates, and overlaps based on the engines natural pumping ability were chosen.

Blank Camshaft with Bearing Surfaces Ground
Blank Camshaft with Bearing Surfaces Ground

After carefully grinding all of the blanks, it was time to dyno the engine and determine the difference in power and torque.

An engine is basically a vacuum pump with the camshaft helping determine at what rpm the pump is efficient. Camshafts allow the power under the curve to be manipulated. If you have ever taken a calculus or thermodynamics class you might have flashbacks.

Power/Torque Factory Camshaft vs CorkSport Camshaft
Power/Torque Factory Camshaft vs CorkSport Camshaft

Potential variations in the engine tune, fuel, outside temperature, and other factors were monitored. The result is clear improvements in power and torque throughout the rpm range. The final design was chosen to limit lower rpm power decrease with a large band of power improvement over 4,500 rpm.

Exhaust Camshaft Comparison

Further examination of the exhaust lobe design is a good example of where the power comes from. When looking at the lift versus degrees as the cam spins, the changes to the lobe profile become apparent.

Exhaust Camshaft Design
Exhaust Camshaft Design

This change allows the camshaft to lift the valve more and longer. This allows more air to flow out of the engine.

Intake and Exhaust Relationship

The intake camshaft is electronically controlled. With additional tuning, turbo spool and power can be increased by controlling the overlap between the intake and exhaust camshafts. Overlap is the time when both intake and exhaust are open at the same time. Typically in a turbo car overlap is much smaller than in naturally aspirated cars. Below shows intake and exhaust camshafts placed over each other and the area that would be considered overlap.

Diagram of Overlap
Diagram of Overlap

Fuel Pump Lobe

Recall the intake camshaft drives the mechanical HPFP. In order to allow the end user to have the best camshaft possible and also have reliable fueling and limited wear the fuel pump lobe on the CorkSport intake camshaft is ground to match the factory camshaft lobe and then rechecked to ensure no clearance issues.

Mazdaspeed racing camshaft

Installation:

The installation of camshafts in the Mazda MZR engine is not easy. Camshaft upgrades should be considered by an experienced enthusiast or professional installation is appropriate. To aid an experienced installer, detailed installation instructions are provided. Successful installation is supported in two different ways.

  • Color installation instructions
  • Excel Tappet guide available for download online

The CorkSport Camshafts for DISI MZR feature:

  • Created from brand new castings.
  • Break-In coating included on lobes to extend life of camshaft.
  • Designed exclusively for the MZR DISI engine.

Extensive testing to determine optimal camshaft design then manufactured to exact tolerance.