Mazda 3 Turbo | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

April 14, 2022March 5, 2024

2021-up Mazda 3 Turbo and CX30 Turbo Intake Heat Shield

Have you been waiting for the CorkSport Heat Shield to go along with a CS SRI to snag one? Well you don’t have to wait any longer because the CS heat shield is here! Whether you have the CS SRI already or want to get both at the same time, the CorkSport Heat Shield for both the Mazda 3 and CX-30 with the SkyActiv 2.5T is a great mod to include in your build. Keep on reading to see how the CS Heat Shield is able to achieve lower intake air temps that allow your motor to make power easier.

Mazda 3 turbo engine bay intake heat shield

For the Mazda 3 Turbo Heat Shield our main focus was keeping cool air supplied to the filter. The shield was designed to seal off the intake from as much heat produced from the radiator, engine and transmission as possible. This lead to a multiple piece design that is riveted together which allows us to utilize the OEM air ducting which supplies cooler outside air to the filter. The shield does not fully surround the filter because we have also found that there is cool air that also comes from the area in front of the tire and underneath the headlight while driving, helping to ensure that your intake sees as much cool fresh air as possible.

Mazda Cx30 Performance Intake Heat Shield

Now with all of this cooler air being supplied, how does it help performance? The basic concept is that since cold air is denser than warm air, your engine gets more air per cycle, and thus allows more fuel to be added to make more power. However, when a car is turbocharged, the process is a little more complicated. A turbo compresses and heats up your intake air and then sends it to an intercooler that cools the air back down. What that means is that the “colder air will make more power” generalization may not be as significant, especially with the advancements in modern turbocharged vehicles. Colder intake air does offer a benefit in the form of less stress on your turbo system. This means that your turbo does not have to work as hard to flow the same amount of air at the same boost pressure. Also a reduction in intake air temps can translate to slightly cooler air exiting your turbo compressor, which helps take some stress off the intercooler as well.

Mazda 3 turbo cold air intake heat shield installed

With all of the theory covered, let’s get to the real world results! In daily driving testing we found decreased intake air temps with the CorkSport Heatshield installed. When cruising or when it’s cold outside, we were actually surprised at the low intake temps of the CS SRI alone—there’s actually a surprising amount of fresh air that gets into the engine bay. Where the heatshield really comes into its own is when sitting stationary or driving on a very hot day. That’s when we saw our biggest improvements in intake air temp.

Lastly about the manufacturing, the CorkSport Heat Shield is made out of carbon steel that is laser cut and precision formed. Carbon steel was selected for its strength and lower heat transfer over aluminum. To fight off corrosion, the heatshield is powder coated wrinkle black and gives the heat shield a great look that helps it blend in with the other parts in the engine bay. Both sections of the shield are attached together using stainless steel rivets for corrosion resistance and a nice look. Lastly, we include rubber seals along the top edge of the CS Heat Shield to keep as much heat out as possible, and to prevent any unwanted vibrations or noise.

If you’re looking to complement your CS SRI with some added heat protection or want to pick them up together, check out the product listing for the CorkSport Heat Shield for additional photos and video! Also, feel free to contact us with any questions you might have.

March 24, 2022February 19, 2024

Cold Air Intake Systems Explained for your Naturally Aspirated & Turbo Mazda

Cold air intake systems, are they necessary? Are they worth the extra cost? Does it matter if the engine is turbocharged or not? Will the engine or its performance be hurt without one? We have repeatedly seen these questions on forums and social media groups regarding Mazda’s 3rd and 4th Generation Mazda 3 & 6. To help the Mazda community grow and learn about their cars and what to do with them, we have written a blog that we hope will help shed some light on these questions and others.

Most importantly, you will NOT hurt your engine if you use an SRI only on Turbo or Non-Turbo applications.

What are the typical intake systems available for your Mazda? At CorkSport, we have two primary intake system setups: Short Ram Intake (SRI) System and Cold Air Intake (CAI) System. It is essential to distinguish between the two because you (the Mazda enthusiasts) will ultimately decide which system to use.

Short Ram Intake (SRI) System:

This CorkSport system consists of a filter, billet MAF housing, silicone coupler, a few clamps, and may or may not have a mounting bracket (depending on the application). This system is efficient and straightforward (an unrestricted airflow path increases power). This system removes the factory airbox and snorkel. The cost is very effective for the results and provides excellent induction sounds.

Cold Air Intake (CAI) System:

Mazda 3 Cold Air Box for a complete cold air intake system

CorkSport’s system consists of the SRI (as mentioned above) plus a heat shield or airbox designed to keep the engine bay heat away from the intake system’s inlet and help direct cold air induction. This system removes the factory airbox and may or may not reuse the factory snorkel. The cost will be higher than a short ram intake due to the additional components involved and may muffle some of the induction noises but provide better heat control.

Mazda performance air intake heat shield

OK, is a Cold Air Intake System worth the extra cost and complexity? Does it do anything? Well, in our opinion, yes and no. We have tested this, and we have proven that a heatshield does improve (read reduce) “heat soak” of the intake system, BUT not in the ways most people expect. Below is some data from our 2018 Mazda 6 Turbo SRI and then also with our SRI + Heat Shield:

This first graph shows the vehicle idling for a period of time, much like sitting at a stoplight or in traffic. The red graph shows the short ram intake only, and the blue chart shows the SRI+Heat Shield. It’s pretty apparent the heat shield is helping reduce the amount of engine bay heat being ingested by the intake while the vehicle is sitting. The maximum temperature delta is approximately 15-20deg F. That’s a respectable improvement, and this lower amount of heat soak should, in theory, improve the vehicle’s acceleration from a complete stop. Now let’s look at a graph that combines idling and acceleration up to 50mph

The second graph indicates similar data for the stationary idling period, but more importantly, is what the data tells us once the vehicle starts moving. You see a small spike for both systems (this is due to the engine suddenly ingesting more air), then you see the air temp drop rapidly as the vehicle increases in speed. The vehicle’s forward motion/speed is important because that is how fresh cool ambient air enters the engine bay.

You’ll notice that both the red and blue graphs meet at the same point after the rapid cooling then have a small amount of fluctuation. In a nutshell, both the SRI and SRI+Heat Shield perform about the same once the vehicle is moving. Again, they perform almost identically once the car is rolling.

Mazda Short Ram Intake with Heat Shield Installed

Next question, does it matter if the vehicle is turbocharged or not? Before we answer that, let’s go over the differences between turbocharged and non-turbocharged systems.

Turbocharged:

The engine is equipped with a turbocharger and an intercooler system to cool the boosted air temperatures before entering the engine. The intercooler system is required to negate the by-product of turbocharging an engine (and thus boost), which is heat. The airflow path is intake -> turbo -> intercooler -> engine.

Short ram itnake system with turbo inlet pipe in blue on Mazda

In a turbocharged engine, the need for and use of a Cold Air Intake System is typically not deemed necessary or very useful. The turbocharger superheats the cooler air it receives from the intake before passing it to the intercooler. The boosted air exiting the turbo is substantially hotter than the ambient air temperatures in your engine bay before it enters the intake – especially true while the vehicle is moving.

More focus is placed on performance improvements of the intercooler system because that is the primary method to cool the incoming boosted (read “hot”) airflow before it enters the engine. The use of a cold air intake system has little effect on the resulting boost air temps, so the cost-effectiveness is not great. This is precisely why the Mazdaspeed platform focuses on increasing the intake size (ingesting more air = more power), adding a larger turbo (more boost), and increasing the size of the intercooler (additional surface area for cooling) coupled with a professional tune to maximize power.

Non-Turbocharged:

The engine is not equipped with a turbocharger and, therefore, does not require an intercooler system. The airflow path is more direct and does not have a cooling system built-in; intake -> engine.

Have a Non-Turbo with our SRI – Check out our new 2019+ Mazda 3 Cold Air Box to keep temps cool!

Since there is no intercooler to cool the incoming air (it’s not needed), the best way to improve air density and performance is with cooler air entering the engine directly. So, a cold air intake on a non-turbo engine can be helpful – especially in warmer climates.

Let’s Recap:

In either turbo or non-turbo applications, a heat shield or CAI system will provide varying degrees of benefit in some driving situations. For a turbo application specifically, the usefulness of the CAI system is marginal due to the turbo heating the air it receives from the intake. Instead, investing in a short ram intake and performance intercooler system is a much better plan.

For the non-turbo applications, a cold air intake system is a worthwhile investment because the airflow path is so much more direct, and it’s the only way to help reduce intake air temps and thus increase air density which equals power.

We hope this has been a helpful and educational blog and lends support as you decide the right path for you and your Mazda! Thanks for tuning in!

-Barett @ CS

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March 17, 2022March 5, 2024

2019+ Mazda 3 & 2020+ CX30 – License Plate Relocation Kit is here!

If you’re looking for a quick and easy mod to boost the appearance of your 4^th Gen Mazda 3 and CX-30, the new CorkSport License Plate Relocation Kit is a great place to look. The factory front license plate location is front and center which detracts from the aggressive front grill of the 4^th Gen Mazda 3. The CS relocation kit moves the front license plate out of the center of the grill and over to the side for an overall better look. A comparison between the factory and CS license plate locations can be seen below. The CS relocation kit is also super simple to install and takes only 15-30 minutes to complete. Read on for a detailed look at the components included in the Mazda 3 License Plate Relocation Kit.

First let’s take a look at the tow hook screw that is used to hold the license plate bracket. The tow hook screw is made out of high strength steel and zinc coated so that it will hold up in all types of environments. The tow hook screw also utilizes the factory mounting location to avoid any permanent modifications to the front end of your Mazda. Now onto the main component of the CS kit which is the license plate bracket. Starting out as an 11 gauge 304 stainless steel sheet the bracket is bent to provide quick access to the main mounting bolt and to also flow better with the lines of your front bumper. The license plate bracket includes a quick detach feature so if you ever need to run through a car wash you can quickly loosen the bolt with the provided low profile 19mm wrench and lift it up and off.

We have also positioned the license plate bracket out of the view of the parking sensors so everything continues to work as it should. Finally, all of the hardware included in the kit is stainless steel and we provide tamper resistant screws to hold on your license plate so it’s more difficult if anyone tried to remove it.

Thanks for checking out the CorkSport License Plate Relocation Kit for the 4^th Gen Mazda 3 & CX-30! Be sure to head over to the product page and scoop one of these up if you want an appearance boost for the front of your Mazda.

License Plate Relocation Kit

Get the license plate relocation kit for the 2019+ Mazda 3 & 2020+ CX30

GET THE KIT

License Plate Relocation Kit

Get the license plate relocation kit for the 2019+ Mazda 3 & 2020+ CX30

GET THE KIT

August 3, 2021September 21, 2023

Gen4 Mazda 3 Turbo Performance Lowering Springs

Putting a turbocharged engine in the GEN4 Mazda 3 was a step in the right direction for Mazda but it still misses the mark of a “hot hatch”. Well, that’s where we come in! Introducing the CorkSport Lowering Springs for 2021+ Mazda 3 Turbo. We took what we learned from the naturally aspirated Mazda 3 and applied it to the slightly heftier turbo models. This resulted in a great new ride height and improved handling to push the GEN4 closer to a hot hatch, without ruining the daily driving comfort. Read on for full details and images of the great new look!

Red Mazda 3 Turbo Best Lowering Springs for 2021+ models

Let’s start off with what everyone wants to know: ride height! With only one driveline & transmission option, we could really dial in the ride height for both turbo hatchback and sedan models. The CS lowering springs for the turbo models offer a similar ride height drop to the N/A models. For the turbo hatchback, this means a ride height drop of approximately 1.5” in the front and 1.8” in the rear. For the slightly heavier turbo sedan, expect a drop of 1.5” in the front and 1.9” in the rear. While the sedan is a slightly larger drop in the rear than the hatchback, it still sits level and looks great!

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Red Mazda 3 Turbo with installed lowering springs

This ride height is low enough to look great yet not too low to cause you issues on your daily commute. We found that this ride height can clear most driveways and speed bumps no problem. On really steep driveways, taking it slow and at an angle will help you keep your front bumper safe. We haven’t really found a driveway that was an issue though! One final note: we did test our regular, non-turbo Mazda 3 lowering springs on a turbo car. While they fit, the extra weight from the turbo system had the car sitting way too low in the front & looking ugly. We would not recommend doing this!

CorkSport Best Mazda 3 Turbo Lowering Springs red

Moving on to the next best benefit from lowering springs: handling! The CorkSport lowering springs offer some much needed sharpness to the MZ3-T. By lowering the ride height, you lower the center of gravity of the vehicle. Combining this with stiffer than OEM spring rates, body roll is reduced, which greatly helps driver confidence through the twisties. We carefully chose our upgraded spring rates to also help reduce understeer when at the limit of traction. By increasing the rear spring rate more than the front, your turbo 3 gets better turn in and more neutral handling.

The final spring rate numbers for the Mazda 3 2.5T lowering springs actually surprised us. We tested a few different spring rate combinations to find the best balance of ride and handling. Ultimately, the same spring rates as the naturally aspirated Mazda 3 won out (this was due to both cars using the same suspension design). A 3.4K front spring and a 5.9K rear spring offered a compliant ride for daily driving, yet great handling characteristics on a backroad. The OEM dampers on the turbo models are just a hair stiffer as well, so the increase in spring rate fits fantastic with no bouncy ride!

Front Mazda 3 Turbo with CorkSport Lower Springs

Each set of CorkSport lowering springs for Mazda 3 turbo are made specifically to fit directly in place of the OEM springs. The only small modification that is needed is to trim the bump stops to allow for correct suspension travel before the bump stop is contacted at the new lower ride height. The springs are all made from high-tensile strength spring steel. This ensures a consistently performing spring that will stand the test of time and will not settle. We finish off each spring with a powder coated red finish. We chose red instead of the typical CS blue to help the turbo models stand out and because red things are proven to go faster! We even include a spring silencer on the rear springs to prevent any noise.

That about wraps up the launch of the CorkSport Lowering Springs for Mazda 3 Turbo. Check out the product listing at the link below for more pictures. Be sure to give us a call with any questions you have, we’re happy to help!

P.S. The car in the above images is riding on Advan GT wheels in 19×8.5 +38 size, wrapped in Kumho 235/35 R19 summer tires.

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August 31, 2017April 1, 2022

Turbo Kit in Development for 2014+ Mazda 3 & 2013+ Mazda 6

I am writing this exciting blog because the Mazda SkyActiv-G is getting some CorkSport TURBO LOVE.

Quick note, this kit is releasing in April 2022, take a look at the several videos #1 #2 #3 we have posted up on the kit.

Since 2013 and the loss of the Mazdaspeed 3, Mazda has really left a lot to be desired as far as power goes for its line-up. Don’t get me wrong, we love Mazda here at CorkSport; the interiors and exteriors are on point, they get great gas mileage, and are exciting to drive. We will always continue pushing and developing the platform that Mazda is kicking out, but let’s be real…we love power too much to let this one slide.

Our Decision Process

I’ll admit, we thought long and hard about moving forward with such a large turbo kit for the Mazda 3 and 6. We hoped, we wished, and we dreamed that Mazda would eventually wise up and kick out a GEN3 Mazdaspeed, and we got really excited when we heard about the CX-9 Turbocharged 2.5L engine. Unfortunately, Mazda chose not to go down that path. Once we found out for sure, we decided it was time to pull the trigger on the GEN3 Mazda 3 & 6 Turbo Kit.

Moving forward on a project of this size was not a trivial decision. There were many aspects to consider:

Do we make a complete kit or just design and manufacture difficult components?
What is the right power level to shoot for?
How will the engine and drivetrain hold up to the increased stress of forced induction?
How do we properly tune the engine?

These are all important aspects we had to consider.

The Choices We Made

The most difficult and time-intensive aspect of the kit is designing the physical components that will make up the kit… the entire kit. And yes, we decided that a 100% complete kit was the only way to make this a great setup, so that exactly what we intend to provide.

A complete kit needs to include everything from the air filter to the downpipe, and everything in-between. This includes the intake system, turbocharger, intercooler piping, intercooler, exhaust manifold, downpipe, and all the necessary silicone couplers, hardware, and wiring extensions.

This will be the most complete turbo kit you can purchase for the 2.5L SkyActiv-G powertrain.

Mazda 3 CAD Turbo Kit — CAD Designed Turbo Kit Mock-Up

Right behind developing all the components for the kit comes the tuning. We are working with Versatune to develop the software to control the 2.5L Sky-G engine with forced induction. This portion of the project will be kicked into high gear in the near future once all functional prototypes are on our test car and strapped to the dyno.

The Things We Don’t Know

We’ve got a long way to go with this project, and there are still some uncertainties we will have to address when we get there. We will need to find out if the engine can take the added power, and how much until it goes zoom-zoom-boom!

Time will tell on these questions, but we do have some stuff in the works that will help. While I’m just spit-balling here, something around 280-300whp would be a lot of fun in the Mazda 3 and Mazda 6. Make sure to stay tuned as this project evolves through testing and development in the coming months. I have only skimmed the surface of this project and I could easily write pages and pages if time allowed.

What are your thoughts on this new project? Questions? Leave them in the comments section, we would love to hear from you.

-Barett @ CS

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

License Plate Relocation Kit

License Plate Relocation Kit

Stay Up-to-date with CorkSport

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

Our Decision Process

The Choices We Made

The Things We Don’t Know