Professional racer Kenton Koch doesn’t think so. Kenton burst onto the racing scene a few years ago and has rapidly made a name for himself as one of the top young drivers in America. As a Mazda enthusiast, Kenton chose a few CorkSport parts and is now one of our greatest supporters. Recently, Kenton got himself a Mazdaspeed 3 and decided after a lot of research that he wanted no other exhaust than the CorkSport Power Series cat back exhaust. As an accomplished professional race car driver who is on the rise, Autobytel performed an interview about his newest purchase. We’re honored to be mentioned and can’t wait to see what else Kenton has in store for his car, and for this race season!
Here is the exhaust (cleaner) than on Kentons:
Is There a Better Exhaust for your Mazdaspeed than CorkSport??? August 12th, 2024CorkSport
“Which intercooler should I get?” At Corksport, we get this question almost every day. The debate of top mount intercooler vs. front mount intercooler has been one that has raged on in the forums for years. Just looking around you will see both options on all sorts of cars. So what is the answer?
The Mazdaspeed 3 and Mazdaspeed 6 both come with a top mount intercooler (TMIC) from the factory. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that it is much cheaper to manufacture and install. A top-mounted intercooler can be installed directly into the engine at the factory so it is ready to drop into the car, saving both time and money.
Pros of the TMIC
The upside of the TMIC is that it uses the shortest possible path from the turbo to the engine. This reduces the amount of time it takes for the car to accelerate, this feeling can be amplified between shifts when the power comes back on very quickly. The TMIC is also very simple and compact, with very few connections and possible places for air leaks. A TMIC will also weigh very little compared to a FMIC setup and usually is in a place with very good airflow. With our TMIC, it’s a simple replacement as it fits like OEM. Generally, it is more affordable than an FMIC. So, if you’re on a budget, the TMIC may be what you want.
Cons of the TMIC
The downside of TMICs is that they are generally limited in size by the design of the car. Often times they are much smaller than most FMICs. They are typically placed very high in the engine bay, raising the car’s center of gravity. Most importantly, the biggest downside of the TMIC is that it sits in a hot engine bay. Just by sitting on top of the motor, the TMIC can soak up heat, thereby decreasing its effectiveness in cooling the air compressed by your turbo.
Pros of an FMIC
The principles are mostly the same for the pros and cons of the FMIC. The core of an FMIC can be much larger and, in the case of a properly designed system, can cool temperatures much more effectively. Being placed further away from the engine and out into the stream of air of your car can make the FMIC much cooler and, more importantly, more consistent. One last reason that many people love FMIC’s is the look, nothing says I mean business more than a massive bar and plate core smiling in your rear view.
Cons of an FMIC
The biggest downside of an FMIC is that the installation process is much longer, requiring your car to be out while you do the work. Another downside of an FMIC can be the much longer piping needed to route compressed air to them. This piping can increase turbo lag and usually has many couplers that may cause the potential for air leaks or other issues.
So what does CorkSport say? As a general rule, we would say that if you don’t plan to add more than 50-100 horsepower, a top mount intercooler will work just fine and be much easier on your plans and wallet. If you eventually want to go wild with your car and build it up much higher than stock, you will want to seriously consider a front mount intercooler. Our advice would be to try to plan in advance what you want out of the car so that you only have to buy parts once.
You may remember that we had to get a new shop testing vehicle after our last Mazdaspeed 3’s untimely demise See here; but what you may not know is how much time and effort was put into that car. Building a rolling showcase isn’t easy, cheap or quick. We were sad to see it go but now have a brand new canvas to start over on.
With our new speed we decided to go white, with that pearly white paint job we wanted to go towards a “panda” style going forward, mixing white and black parts in our build. We have started with a few small black and white things (intake, BOV, etc.). We’re really looking for input from you to really make this car unforgettable.
We’re looking at every detail to try to make an overall car that hasn’t been seen before that goes deeper than just bolting things on. We want to try new things, make combinations that have never been seen before and really try to make something that you would want if you never had to make a compromise.
Check us out on Facebook and let us know what you think we should add to this car to make it really unique.
Help Build the Mazdaspeed of Your Dreams July 16th, 2013CorkSport
Welcome back to the Fuel Pump Comparison, Part 3. If you haven’t been following along with us feel free to read Part 1 and Part 2.
Now that we have a good understanding of the basics for these high pressure fuel pumps we can start to really dig deeper into the specifications. One of the items we were really curious about were the materials used in the construction of these pumps. We decided to have the hardness tested and ascertain the materials used. The factory pump internals do not use any coating, the hardness test showed us that the internals went through a hardening process as the core was significantly softer than the surface. Because of these hardness requirements, many other aftermarket internals use a coating of some sort to decrease friction between the piston and the sleeve. As for what the stock internals are made from, we answered that. Except for the hardening procedure, according to their chemical breakdown, they match a common die steel, so nothing too fancy.
We now understand why it is so common to hear that the factory pumps are machined to such tight tolerances. At high rates of speed and pressure with a hardened material, you could easily have failures if tolerances were not correct.
When testing the fuel pumps on the dyno, we chose a Mazdaspeed 3 (2nd gen) with bolt-ons and a stock turbo. The factory boost levels we maintained 1700psi all the way to redline with no issues. As soon as we raised the boost slightly, the fuel pump began to drop pressure. With a Cobb AccessPort and a stage 2 reflash, the pressure of the pump would drop under 1000psi by 5000rpms. If you’re going to turn up the boost or run a reflash, an upgraded fuel pump is a must.
Our dyno is able to adjust load, so in our testing we chose a load value typical of 4th gear on the street and tested all pumps with the same load on the same day, only hours apart from each other. All the pumps tested performed very similar for power but the stock pump actually ran a lower air/fuel ratio. This is because all of the pumps were tested with no tune. When we changed to the Cobb stage 2 map, the power levels increased but we could not complete the test with the stock pump as it just could not keep up with the demand. With the stage 2 tune, we found the air/fuel ratios to be very, very rich and had a very real possibility for causing high load misfires. We actually experienced that several times on colder days. With no tune, this does not happen but the car did still run very rich in boost with all the aftermarket fuel pumps. With a custom tune though, there should be no difference between the pumps and you can raise the boost without worry of running low on pressure.
Now that you have read Part 3, see Part 1 and Part 2.
Stay tuned for part 4 in our fuel pump comparison series, things are about to really heat up!!!
Fuel Pump Comparison Part 3 February 28th, 2018CorkSport
In part 1 we discussed fuel pumps, their uses and what’s inside them. Now we can talk a little about what goes into making them and what the differences are.
Does size matter? When looking at the stock piston on the factory fuel pump you can sure say that it does matter. If you increase the piston diameter you increase the flow of the pump. We have decided to compare the similar internals first and then compare the APR pump afterwards. The Autotech/KMD internals use the same diameter piston head. At 9.8mm compared to the factory 8.0mm. When comparing the volume area they are both about 50% improvement with the KMD edging out the Autotech by a marginal amount. This slight edge comes from the shape of the end of the shaft being slightly different. The Autotech looks more like a piston from an internal combustion engine where the KMD is very similar to the factory design at the end. Because these are the older version of the KMD internals they are coated differently. They look to be a TiCN coating but we can’t say for sure. The Autotech internals are listed as a DLC coating which stands for Diamond Like Carbon. The newer KMDs are now PVD coated (Physical Vapor Deposition).
When we start comparing the sleeves that the piston rides in we notice they are all similar in shape and size. The Autotech has a coated sleeve that appears to be some sort of tool steel. The factory is uncoated and appears to be tool steel. The KMD is uncoated and appears to be stainless of some variety. Internally there is a relief cut that is ~3 times larger on the aftermarket internals which should help with the 50% improvement in flow. The sleeve shows the constraints for why you can not go much larger than the 9.8mm piston. The end that fits in the factory pump can only be so large and the wall thickness must maintain a certain size or failure will be imminent.
For a long time the CP-E pump was rumored to be made by APR. The CP-E pump we ordered actually came with an APR sticker on the side of it. Oops. We quickly disassembled it and documented the findings. The pump uses a 9.5mm piston which is smaller then the two internal only options. APR claims 40% improvement and we calculated about a 41% improvement so no issues there. They also chose a Stainless steel sleeve and DLC coating on the piston. The big difference comes when you look in the cap. They machine in an extra Seal to help with the oil deposit issue. Is this needed? We aren’t sure yet but it is an interesting addition.
Now for the one big addition that only one manufacturer saw fit to think about. APR added a spring that increases the ability to return the piston. This can be very important for wear on the cam shaft if you get any float from the spring at higher RPM’s; the more the pump worked, the more important this would be. Remember that the cam has three lobes on it so even though the cams spin at half the speed of the crank the pump spins at three times that of the cam. This makes a 1.5 times the crank difference. So what ever the RPM you are at the pump is at 1.5 times that. At a 8000rpm redline the pump is going 12000rpms. The pump also has to draw in 40-50% more fluid so a return spring plays apart in that as well.
Next time we will get these pumps on the dyno and check out how the hold pressures at the same load. Luckily we have an in house dyno that can vary load and the ability to log pressures.
Fuel Pump Comparison Part 2 February 28th, 2018CorkSport
