Posts

Posted on

Meet Jake!

You can read a little about me in the “Meet The Bloggers” section, but I’ll go in to a little more detail here. My name is Jake Fahlsing and I am one of the new product development engineers here at Corksport. I was born and raised in Minnesota, but have lived in Colorado, Kansas and the UP of Michigan (where I obtained my degrees at Michigan Tech). At 25 I am one of the youngest guys here, but with that comes a fresh mind from a different generation (not saying that anyone here is old).

I was involved in the Formula SAE team at Michigan Tech. For those that don’t know what that is: It is a school sponsored team of students that put their engineering and business skills into a real world application. The FSAE team must design and build a new car for every competition (held in mid May, usually at Michigan International Raceway). Using a Honda CBR F4i engine as our starting point, we designed, tested, manufactured and installed everything from the space frame tube chassis, to the rear diff housing. I was the controls team leader and competition driver of the vehicle. I was in charge of the brakes, throttle, shifting, impact attenuator, and dash along with the people working on those parts. I have personally designed and built several components for the car, but my latest project was a set of lightweight paddle shifters and shift linkage. Once at competition, we competed in several events including 1,000ft acceleration time, brake test, skid pad, an autocross course, and a 22km endurance race (which is also judged on fuel economy, not just time). Also, we were judged by senior level engineers from several Fortune 500 companies on design and sales presentations. With a budget usually around $12,000, it makes for several late nights in the shop and many team members calling around for donated materials and parts. The picture is of the 2008-2009 school year vehicle.

After finishing school (BSME & MBA), Corksport seemed like the perfect fit for me. The innovative design, quality, and attention to detail are what drew me here. As a product development engineer for Corksport, I hope to bring in some new ideas that you will see released in the not too distant future.

I love designing new products and seeing them through to the end. Nothing is more rewarding than having a customer say they loved a product that was something I designed, created, and tested. I have found in previous design projects, that a combination of new age technology (Computer Aided Drafting, Finite Element Analysis, and Computational Fluid Dynamics) combined with old fashion hands on engineering, fabrication, and testing is what makes a product successful.

The best product ideas come from the customer, and without you, we would not be in business. So if you have a good idea for a new product, be sure to go to our main page and click on the product ideas link.

Being new to the area comes with all sorts of little things that I am constantly learning. For example, you can’t pump your own gas in Oregon (I found that out for myself)? And it’s pronounced “Organ” not Oregon? Also, people love their speed bumps. Finally, I will never again leave my sunroof open while going in to a store if even for 5 minutes. The weather here can change from blue skies and sunny, to dark and rainy in seconds. I’m sure I could create an entire post on this, but I’ll leave it at that.

– Jake

Posted on

MazdasNW Meet 4/14

The April monthly meet for the MazdasNW was held at Godfather’s Pizza in Federal Way, Washington on April 14th. This was the first event this year where rain was not a threat. We had a great showing of Mazdas of all types present, Mazda 3s, Mazdaspeed 3s, RX-8s, etc.

The event also had a Mazda travelling flag present. The idea behind it is to take a picture of the flag and pass it along to other Mazda enthusiasts. You can see the first picture below. To see the progress of the flag check out the forum post on Mazdas247.


First stop for the Mazda Flag

One of the local CorkSport customers showed off her custom purple anodized CorkSport Power Series Intake and other components. There was also an FC RX-7 equipped with the CorkSport Power Series Header and Exhaust.


CorkSport Power Series Intake in a custom color


CorkSport Power Series Exhaust

With plenty of Mazdaspeed 3s at the event there was a chance to look at plenty of different cars with various levels of modifications. We took out the CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 to the event. It also has enough cargo space for us to fit an RX-8 bumper which we delivered to a lucky customer.


New and old Mazdaspeed 3s

It was great talking with everyone at the event and catching up on mods people have done to their Mazdas. I look forward to the next event.

– Derrick

Posted on

MazdasNW BBQ

MazdasNW hosted a BBQ in Chehalis Washington on April 3rd. The event was held at Alexander Park which has a covered picnic area and is located on a local river. Being this is the NW there was a few scattered rain showers combined with some wind made the event cold but not unexpected for the location.


CorkSport RX-8 Rolling to the Event up I-5

There were 39 Mazdas which were present at various points during the day with the counts being 10 Mazda 3s, 12 Mazdaspeed 3s, three Mazdaspeed 6s, 12 RX-8s including a 2009 R3 in red, 1 FC RX-7 and one 01-03 Protégé 5. There were plenty of families at the event with people bringing kids and significant others (including a few dogs, more about them later).


Parking Lot Dance for Parking Spots


A Full Parking lot of Mazdas


2009 RX-8 R3

There was a raffle which parts were given away from various vendors including CorkSport. We donated Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 motor mount inserts, along with some t-shirts and decals.

What is an event without a little wrenching. There were several modifications which went down in the parking lot. A Mazda 3 owner changed his rear sway bar end links to Mazdaspeed 3 models which required climbing around under his car in the parking lot.


Upgrading the Mazda 3


New Shoes for the Mazdaspeed 3


Good Food and Great Company

The MazdasNW crew broke out the BBQs and cooked up some good food. I want to give a special thank you for putting on the event and arranging everything. It was a well run event and I look forward to more this summer.

There one was naughty dog at the event who decided to use a Mazdaspeed 3 as a location to take a break. Thankfully someone with a water bottle went to the rescue of the Mazdaspeed 3.


Naughty Dog


The “Victimized” Mazdaspeed 3

See everyone at the next event and don’t forget to say hello if you see me there.

– Derrick

Posted on

CorkSport Goes Autocrossing

Today’s blog entry is written by a guest blogger: Travis! If you’ve ever ordered anything from us then odds are Travis assembled it, packed it, double checked it, triple checked it, sealed it, and shipped it to you!

I checked the online flyer for my local region to find out the weekend schedule for March 27 and 28. You can get on SCCA.com and then search by selecting “Find your region”. The season began with practice on Saturday and Race #1 on Sunday. Our class, DSP, would race in the afternoon both days. There are morning and afternoon sessions, each with 2 run groups (1 group works the track while the other runs and vice versa). We found out that Saturday is open practice, anyone can run morning or afternoon session and everyone gets 6 runs each session. The weather was great Saturday and we learned a lot, since both of us come from Drag Racing backgrounds. Sunday was rainy off and on but tons of fun and the previous days coaching and practice had us off to a good start.

Now before I go on with the weekend recap, I’d like to explain what got Chris and Me to this point. Both of us have raced, mainly drag, and are at least familiar with spirited driving and some technique. A big problem for many people who take up auto racing is that a learning curve can easily resemble a rising cost curve when exploring the possibilities various venues offer. “Pay to Play”, is not an unfamiliar adage, but fun is not always overshadowed by unexpected costs, damage or mental suffering. As some people know Corksport has in the past run a ’99 Protégé at Woodburn and PIR but getting bugs sorted out has been generally been time consuming and occasionally expensive. It was decided that Autocross/Solo was more novice and budget friendly. When things go wrong in Drag Racing it tends to make things explode in a huge, expensive way. I would provide the car, my 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 GT, and CorkSport would contribute some parts, a pair of drivers and entry fees. A perfect match. I’ll give racing costs and car details in a later post.

I signed Chris and I up for SCCA and used the online rule book to find a class the car would fit in. I had read some forum posts in the past and had a pretty good idea what class we would end up in. No surprise, the car would be in DSP (D Street Prepared), not terribly desirable for a couple of novices but oh well, we would not go blindly into this new endeavor. I contacted a friend who has been racing for many years and got him to agree to some personal coaching for the practice day on Saturday. A few extra hours after work to prep the car and Chris and I are ready for the season to begin.

I’ll post details on fees and expenses along with the cars setup and, of course, the results of our first weekend next time.

– Travis

Posted on

How to Modify an FC RX-7 CorkSport Style, Part 1: The Engine

So you have an FC RX-7 and you want to upgrade the car both in engine performance and styling. We have a large range of CorkSport brand products to help you out, along with other products we carry. Today we’ll start with the engine performance modifications, and later on work our way to the exterior.

The example car I will use for the build is my 1987 RX-7 Turbo II, since I am very familiar with it. This build will be written as if the car is stock when we start the project.

The first thing you need to do is get rid of the stock exhaust since it is heavy and fairly restrictive. Since my car is a turbo model I chose the CorkSport 80mm Turbo Back Exhaust or TBE for short. There are several reasons to go with the turbo back system. First, the exhaust looks great and sounds even better. Second, the turbo back exhaust is straight-through and is as free-flowing as you can get (be careful, removing the catalytic converter can violate emissions laws, check your local laws before installing.) Third, the amount of power gained with the exhaust system can be close to 45 wheel horsepower.

With the installation of the exhaust you do need to defeat the over-boost safety device built into the stock computer. This can be done with an HKS Fuel Cut Defender (FCD). What it does is cap the voltage of the pressure sensor so the computer does not think it is boosting higher than stock. Without the FCD the factory computer will cut fuel to the rear engine rotor to try and control what it thinks is over boost. The fuel cut will cause the rear rotor to be lean and can result in detonation and engine damage.

CorkSport RX-7 Turbo Back Exhaust

With the increase in power and boost from the TBE we need to look at addressing the fuel system before we put anymore power out of the engine. Lets face it, the fuel pump has been in the tank for 24 years now and isn’t getting any younger. To keep supporting the power increases an upgraded fuel pump is going to be required. The two options CorkSport offers are the J-Spec Cosmo fuel pump and the Walbro 255lph pump and Screen kit. I personally would use the J-Spec Cosmo pump. It may be more expensive but it was designed to fuel the 20B 3 rotor engine which had six 550cc fuel injectors to feed, which is 1100cc more than the FC RX-7 Turbo has. The pump is a bolt in replacement for the stock fuel pump and it includes a new pickup screen. I also strongly recommend sending your fuel injectors out to be tested and cleaned when you upgrade the fuel pump. There is most likely 24 years of deposits built up in the injectors as well. There are several companies which offer the service, like Witchhunter Performance or Marren for example. Find a place to clean the injectors that is close to you to cut down on shipping time back and forth.

With the fuel injectors pulled out I am sure you noticed that the wiring harness is pretty crunchy and destroyed, especially on the turbocharger side of the engine. The options are to either fix the breaking connectors and splice in new plugs or replace the harness. I would opt for replacing the harness myself so there will be trouble free motoring in the future. The CorkSport Harness is a great setup with all of the short comings of the stock harness addressed and removed in this new part.

We improved the exhaust flow so now it’s time to go work on the intake side. The first part to remove is the stock rubber turbo inlet pipe, which undoubtedly needs attention. The heat from the turbo and time really play hell with the stock part, making it brittle and prone to cracking. The CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe or TIP for short gives you a good looking part which will last much longer and seal better than the stock rubber part. The CorkSport TIP also happens to be $60 less than the stock Mazda part, if you can even find one.

CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe

The second part to the intake side is adding the CorkSport Front Mount Intercooler Kit (FMIC). The stock intercooler is mounted on top of the engine and can get heat soaked easily. For more information on heat soak check out our technical article about upgraded intercoolers. The solution to this is to get the intercooler out of the engine bay and into the air flow of the cooler air coming into the engine bay. The intercooler really helps out with making power consistently, instead of worrying about performance variations because of intercooler temperatures. With a heat soaked stock intercooler you get almost none of the cooling effects and you are just pumping hot air into the engine.

Now that we’ve done a good job of upgrading the power potential of our car, we need to make sure it stays cool. The next item to upgrade then is the old stock radiator in the RX-7, and we have the perfect part or the job. The CorkSport Aluminum Radiator and Fan Shroud are bolt in replacements for the stock radiator and shroud. The reason the new shroud is required is that the thicker radiator places the shroud closer to the stock engine fan. The new fan shroud has extra clearance so the stock fan can still be utilized with the upgraded radiator. The original radiator uses an aluminum core with a plastic fiber end tank design. After heat cycling for 24 years the fiber end tanks get brittle and crack. When this happens it is game over for the stock radiator and your engine if you let the engine overheat. Remember if you hear that annoying buzzer go off, stop your car and check the coolant (let it cool off first). Mazda made it annoying on purpose; rotaries do not handle overheating well.

While we are on the topic of cooling, the stock oil cooler lines are something to look at. The stock parts are a rubber line with a braided cloth outer. The lines will get soft and start to develop leaks or possibly fail over time. This can be the end of your engine if this happens while you are driving and lose oil pressure, which can destroy your motor. The CorkSport Stainless Braided Oil Cooler Lines replace the stock line with completely new and upgraded parts. The lines are a stainless steel braided line which is more durable than the stock oil cooler lines. They are a little more difficult to install because of how tough they are, but the end results and peace of mind you get knowing they won’t fail are well worth it.

That’s all for this time, I will run through the drivetrain, chassis, and styling modifications in future blog posts.

– Derrick