Research and Development | CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

October 15, 2013February 28, 2018

Fuel Pump Comparison Part 4 (Bombs Away!)

We know by now that adding power to your Mazda is fairly straightforward up to a certain point. However, sooner or later, that hunger for power means you’re going to need to step up to a new fuel pump that can flow more fuel. By seeing that most of the fuel pumps on the market were largely the same, we decided to see what kind of innovations we could bring to the table. At this point we had learned volumes about the pumps on the market through our research and decided to engineer a new set of pump internals that focused on everything that we had learned.

We know this is possibly the worst kept secret since Area 51, but we started engineering fuel pump internals over 2 years ago and we aim to show you why ours is worth the wait.

We didn’t just set out to make another pump; the market has plenty of those. We set out to make the best Mazda fuel pump upgrade on the market specifically for Mazdas from a company that ONLY makes parts for Mazdas.

We started by researching many different technologies and engineering ideas in the pressure ranges experienced in these fuel pumps. We purchased every kit on the market and a brand new replacement from Mazda to test. The results from some of those tests can be found here (Link to blogs 1,2, and 3). After agreeing that 9.8mm was the maximum size we could attempt for the piston without making the sleeve wall too thin, we could start engineering the rest of the part.

We then built all the internals available in SolidWorks and tested the efficiency of them all for flow design and volume. This was merely the beginning of our design phase but helped us realize many great ideas (as well as a few not so great ones). We ended up with a design unlike any other on the market that, according to the data, would be more efficient than anything on the market.

With the increase in flow and efficiency we knew that our design could also benefit from a stiffer spring rate for the pump. That would enable higher RPM’s and improved cam wear over the life of the pump. Since we would be flowing more, the pressure on the pump would be greater than ever, the stiffer spring was just good insurance to get the power we needed even past the stock redline.

During our testing we also discovered the keeper assembly used by the factory is no accident. Many of the other pumps on the market use a keeper system similar to an intake or exhaust valve. This style does a fantastic job of locking the piston in place, but creates a few issues of its own. Because of the flow of fuel, the piston rides one side of the sleeve more than the other; over time, this will wear more into the piston which will affect clearances and efficiency. To prevent this, the factory style keeper allows the piston to spin as the spring moves up and down. That led us to choose the factory style retainer. We didn’t want to guess on either design without proof of our theory so we produced samples of both styles to prove wear differences and address installation challenges related to both styles.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, we’ll have just one more fuel pump blog next week with a very exciting limited offer. Stay tuned as CorkSport is about to take Mazda performance one step higher!

July 16, 2013

Help Build the Mazdaspeed of Your Dreams

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.

July 10, 2013February 28, 2018

Fuel Pump Comparison Part 3

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 (2^nd 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 4^th 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!!!

July 8, 2013

Inside the upcoming CorkSport Blow Off Valve

When you look at the blow off valves (BOV) and bypass valves (BPV) on the market today you see many examples of the same thing with little to no innovations. For those of you that aren’t aware, BOV’s and BPV’s are valves that vent pressurized air in the tract between the turbo and the throttle body. This prevents the turbo from suddenly stopping or slowing as those can cause unwanted bearing wear on the turbo. A BOV vents this pressurized air into the atmosphere (into the engine bay). A BPV vents that air back into the intake just after the mass air flow (MAF) sensor. Venting back into the intake allows the ECU to correctly meter that air that it has already accounted for. Many times when venting to atmosphere you can get a momentarily rich condition because the ratios are off.

We were talking about innovation though, the last great innovation in valve technology for turbos was probably years ago with pull type valves like the SSQV from HKS. Many years have passed since then and not much has changed, outside of the few valves that partially vent to atmosphere and route the rest back to the intake tract. Typically now you just see one copy after another of someone else’s idea. SURE, it can be hard to innovate in the blow off valve market but we were convinced there was something exciting we could do.

We speak often about your ideas sparking our innovative minds, this project was started by just one of those customer suggestions. We started with a customer submission of using wave springs that led us to design a new valve design to reduce the size and weight of the moving parts.

Key Features of the upcoming patent pending CorkSport Blow Off Valve:

Reduction of spring height

With the use of a wave spring we are able to reduce the spring height by 50%. The traditional spring sits at 40mm and the CS wave spring sits at a 20mm height. These springs both provide the same force and will move the same distance before experiencing coil-bind.

Reduction of piston size

Because the spring is 50% smaller we are able to reduce the piston and still maintain the same amount of movement. As you can see, just changing to the wave spring we were able to decrease the piston by 33%!!!

What does that all mean?

The reduction in mass is all well and good, but just being smaller isn’t the only benefit (even though that is pretty cool). With the force (F) being the same and the mass (m) decreasing by 33% we can see how the mass relates to acceleration (a) in the formula F=ma. Rearranged, this becomes a=F/m. This means we have accelerated the actual speed of the valve, which means the valve is able to react much faster than a larger valve with a traditional spring (33% faster!) Because the blow off valve is a safety feature to protect the turbo from premature wear, this increase in acceleration can help increase the longevity of the turbo and the system as a whole.

What does all this innovation look like?

With the reduction in the size of these key parts, we can reduce the body size. This can be especially helpful in situations with airboxes, custom turbo and intercooler kits or even in universal situations where space is at a premium. Below you can see a comparison of similar BOV’s, the spring chamber on our design is significantly smaller but the function is not lost; in fact, we improved it!

To maximize flow, we pushed the piston area out to ensure a larger venting area, this reduces the time it takes to vent the air and allows larger turbos to vent more efficiently. As a blow off valve, this certainly pushes the envelope, we think we can find even more applications for this kind of innovation. We are very proud to be able to offer things for the Mazda market we helped create and will continue to engineer parts that push the scene for you.

June 25, 2013

My Life as a CorkSporter: A Case Study in Cooperative Product Development

It is a funny thing how fate throws people together; this is my story of the past few years and how being a sponsored driver with CorkSport changed my life. All kidding aside I have been married (blissfully) going on 19 years now and prior to my relationship status change I drove everything from muscle cars to motorcycles and all the way to V-dub campers following the Grateful Dead around or was it the other way around?

In 2010 I was driving a hand me down Audi A4 B5 from my wife and the transfer case blew. So it was time to look for a new ride, I luckily decided upon a MS3 and the moddiction started. A stage two intake from CorkSport was ordered and is still in use on the fastest Pu in the kingdom. I had the pleasure of meeting Derrick and Kelly from CorkSport at the OCC meet in New York in 2011 and a friendship/partnership began. I started buying more parts from CorkSport and the other great vendors that support our platform. CorkSport came out with a front sway bar that I purchased and proceeded to break. They fixed this bar and while they were re-working that part, I was sent a set of lowering springs to test out for them as a gesture of good faith (good business in my opinion) while I waited for the redesign and I did some testing on it. After that I asked if they had a sponsorship program, they said they did so I sent in an application and that is where it all started.

I heard back and was excited to find out I was in! I asked for a suspension focused sponsorship package and received many of the handling parts I wanted and even got a set of the Speed 3 specific coil-overs a full six months before they were released! The relationship has been great being able to give feedback and suggestions that CorkSport actually listens to and incorporates into products that make it to market. Being able to help a company bring new and exciting products to fruition is rewarding and is a symbiotic relationship. As well as being a professional relationship I have become friends with some really cool peeps at Corksport and people in the Mazda community through being a sponsored driver, from Texas with sponsored driver Matt Kellogg at the CorkSport track meet at Harris Hill Raceway to Brock, Dan, Dave and Paul the Canadian boys at the TorontoMazda3 Mazda only Meet.

It is also fun to be in on the stuff that folks outside the fold of sponsorship don’t get to hear about and test. There is a ton of good stuff coming to market soon and some projects still on the drawing board. Getting to test these or just having advance knowledge of them keeps me fresh and wanting more. Being a sponsored driver is a working relationship though so you need to be prepared to work. You don’t get something for nothing they say; you are in essence part of their marketing team and with that comes responsibilities both to your sponsor and to your fellow platform mates be it in giving some support to someone doing an install on a weekend when CS can’t be reached to talking or going on Skype to help out a mate in Australia or the UK or driving over to someone’s place to help extract and install a downpipe. Being a Nator member this comes naturally though. I’ve let folks drive both my cars to feel how the suspension upgrades performed and what they could look forward to with CorkSport parts on my car. My good friend from Mexico, Luis Herrera aka Ganque on MSF, loved the ride when he was up for a visit in April. So if you aspire to be a sponsored driver for CorkSport or another supporter of our platform be prepared to bring something to the table as being an ambassador is fun but hard work too. At the end of the day, being a sponsored driver for CorkSport is very rewarding though.

Respectfully,

Steven Kritzberg