There’s an old car saying that goes “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”. Mazda has always been dedicated to racing, more so than companies 10 times their size; this weekend at Daytona however, they’ll be putting their money where their mouth is with an oil burner. That’s right, the Mazdas in the Grand-Am class at the 24 Hours of Daytona won’t be rotary coupes; this year everyone will be looking at the taillights of a Mazda 6 with a new Skyactiv diesel. And just like the old saying, much of that engine will be sold here (not on Monday, but soon).
The new cars will use much of the technology in the consumer Skyactiv diesel 2.2L engine that is coming to the states shortly in the 6 and later in the CX5. Mazda will be fielding three cars at Daytona, and there will be no missing them. The #25 Freedom Autosport car will be painted bright green with a giant eagle’s head graphic, the #00 Visit Florida Racing/SpeedSource/Yellow Dragon car will be yellow and orange, and the #70 SpeedSource car will be red and black.
The 24 Hours of Daytona starts January 26th at noon PST. If you want to see the future of racing and Mazda, you won’t want to miss this!!!
Mazda takes the Skyactiv 6 racing January 24th, 2013CorkSport
When most people think about purchasing an intake, they want it for the performance increases. While an intake is probably the best bang-for-the-buck modification you can make to add power and torque to your Mazda, there is another huge but often overlooked benefit, which is the improved gas mileage.
How is that possible?
Most CorkSport intakes use a conical dry flow air filter with 3” outlet that is much less restrictive than the factory filter. This directly translates to better gas mileage. We have also calibrated our precision-machined MAF housings and intakes to exacting tolerances and have designed them to work better and more efficiently than the factory intake system.
Where’s the proof?
We were beginning to get feedback from customers stating that they were seeing improvements in their gas mileage with the addition of the intake.
I have a brand new 2012 Mazdaspeed3 that is stock apart from the intake. With this new intake I have seen my average mpg for the last 12,000 miles of normal break in driving go from 28.4 to 31 miles per gallon while now driving in a much more aggressive manner during the last 1,000 miles. I am thoroughly impressed and I hope that this information can be of use to your company and other customers. – Alex B.
To be sure we needed to control the test conditions and make our own conclusions.
After testing the Skyactiv CX-5 with the factory intake system, we showed an average of 34.0 MPG. After adding the CorkSport Short Ram Intake, we have been showing an average of 38.5 MPG. This is a 13% improvement in fuel mileage just by adding the intake system.
We then went a step further and did extensive in town gas mileage testing. Though the results were not as impressive, they were still substantial. The baseline with the stock intake was 29.3mpg and improved to 31.2 with the CorkSport Short Ram Intake. This is a 6.5% improvement in fuel mileage.
Of course the CX-5 SkyActiv was designed with fuel mileage in mind so getting great MPG’s in this car was not surprising. This is when we decided to take our testing to the next level and see what could be achieved on the Mazdaspeed3.
As it turns out, the Mazdaspeed3 showed similar improvements in gas mileage in the city, but significantly less on the highway. We had a 6.1% improvement in city driving and a 4.4% Improvement on the highway, with a peak of 33.2mpg with the CorkSport Mazdaspeed intake installed.
Some customers have seen additional increases, but the results are generally subject to how a person drives. Remember, with that increase in torque and horsepower, you will be more tempted to have a heavier right foot, too.
What’s the Payoff?
With gas prices yo-yoing over the last couple of years, too, at some points topping $4.00 a gallon here in the Pacific Northwest, we estimate that the intake will be able to pay for itself in around 13,000-16,000 miles. With a national average of around 15,000 miles driven per year, you can expect your intake purchase to pay off quickly and then start getting money back in your pocket from the fuel savings.
Not only does less gas mean more money in your pocket, but fewer emissions as well, so you can tell all your environmentalist friends that you are doing your part!
To recap, better mpg, more money in your pocket and you a decrease in your carbon foot print. This all sounds good to me.
With all the talk of the new Mazda 6 Sky-D being released here in the US and the released Cx5 Sky-D in other markets around the world, I got to thinking about all of the fun modifications you could make to the 2.2 dual turbocharged Sky-D Engine.
If you look at the arrangement of the turbo setup on the Sky-D engine, you can see the whole setup is pretty convoluted to 1) keep costs down and 2) package everything in a tight space so you do not burn the insulation and paint off the firewall.
A more comprehensive view of the set-up shows how large the catalyst is that Mazda used in order to meet the strict emissions for diesels in the European market.
Looking over the setup I can see several improvements which could be made to increase the power output of the engine through work on the exhaust side. If you take a look at the engine Mazda announced with the press release about running in the Grand-am GX class with the Sky-D engine, they simplified the twin turbo setup on the engine by setting the turbo arrangement in a more traditional configuration using one turbo to feed the other unlike the stock setup where both turbos feed a common plenum.
The advantage of the race engine is that you are running an intercooler before the second turbo to make the most of the cooling and then you can run the charge from the second turbo into an additional intercooler from there. While the race setup is nice, it isn’t practical for most people on street driven vehicles. I would look at changing the turbo outlet package with a better and smoother flowing downpipe and integrate the catalyst at an angle which is not 90 degrees to the exhaust entry and exit.
Looking at the production turbo setup that Mazda is showing with the new Mazda 6, there are differences in the packaging of the turbos. You can see that Mazda changed the actuators to be more compact against the back of the engine.
Based on the size of the parts, I bet you can squeeze a Garrett GTX35 on the back of the engine and hit a solid 400 hp and 600 wheel torque with some upgraded injectors and pump. When I get one I will have to try it out and report back on how it goes. Incidentally here is a picture of the production Mazda 6 Skyactiv-D engine I wanted to share.
With that monster catalyst relocated, you get a large empty space on the back of the engine which would be perfect for a large waste gate and all of the needed piping to hit that 400hp number. You can imagine the surprise on someone’s face watching a Cx5 walk all over them on the street or the freeway.
After releasing the CorkSport Mazda 3 SkyActiv Power Series Intake, we received several questions about the differences between the SkyActiv and traditional motors. We are writing this technical post to provide some insights into the differences we have seen while testing and developing new parts for the SkyActiv engine.
SkyActiv engine is a phrase from Mazda that denotes their direct injected, high-compression motors. This is a technology similar to how diesel engines run, in that it is direct injected and one of the many reasons the SkyActiv engine is able to get such high gas mileage.
Your average fuel injected motor runs 10.0:1 compression and fuel pressures of around 45psi whereas the SkyActiv engine runs a very high-compression of 14.0:1 and extremely high fuel pressure of up to 3000psi. Most people will think 3000psi is a typo, but I assure you it is not.
The piston pictured to the right shows how different SkyActiv pistons are compared to a conventional motor. It is a much more complex piston shape that includes a cavity in the center where the spark plug fires to provide a heat-loss reduction. Fuel is sprayed at the piston in order to prevent detonation or “knock”, allowing the engine to run leaner while making more power.
Another big difference is that the fuel is dispersed into the air inside the cylinder. A conventional fuel injected motor will mix the fuel and air in the intake manifold or in the intake manifold runners. Because fuel normally acts as a cleaning agent for the valves, this could be seen as a negative for the SkyActiv engine design.
We have all seen the commercials about how the gas cleans your engine. This is true, but when we move the fuel out of the intake manifold and into the cylinders, this benefit no longer exists making it more critical to maintain the engine. Adding a CorkSport SkyActiv intake will help with this by keeping the engine clean of dust and pollutants and the filter can be reused time and time again.
There are many great benefits to both the design and functionality of Mazda’s new SkyActiv engines. In initial testing our CX-5 saw increased torque and almost 40mpg.
We are looking forward to developing many more aftermarket performance parts to support this new technology!
Mazda has already made the announcement that they intend to begin offering the Mazda SkyActiv-D (diesel engine) on the CX-5 in the US market in 2013 and as a leader in the motorsports arena, it should come as no surprise that the latest announcement surrounding their new SkyActiv diesel technology comes on the racetrack.
Mazda announced that they will be supplying SkyActiv-D engines to the GRAND-AM series GX class. Set to debut in 2013, the rules for the GX class are still being developed, but are expected to showcase the exploration of clean diesels, alternative fuels and even hybrid powertrains.
In press release distributed by Mazda Motorsports, Jay Amestoy, Vice President of Mazda Motorsports, Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) was quoted saying, “This opens a new chapter in racing for us. We’ve won with rotary technology, and now we’re looking to again put our customers in the winner’s circle with what we believe will be the most advanced and cleanest production-based powerplant the sport has ever seen.”
The engine is being jointly developed by Mazda Motor Corporation, Mazda North American Operations, and Speedsource Engineering and will be featuring a 14:1 low compression ratio, new two-stage turbocharger, a 5,200 rpm redline and compared to Mazda’s current-production 2.2L MZR-CD diesel engine, up to 20% reduction in fuel consumption, 20% reduction in internal engine friction and 10% reduction in weight.
On track testing will begin later this year. The actual Mazda model the SkyActiv racing engine will be installed on will be announced after the conclusion of the 2012 Grand-Am racing season. My guess is that we will see it debut on a Mazda 3, but only time will tell.
After releasing the 
Another big difference is that the fuel is dispersed into the air inside the cylinder. A conventional fuel injected motor will mix the fuel and air in the intake manifold or in the intake manifold runners. Because fuel normally acts as a cleaning agent for the valves, this could be seen as a negative for the SkyActiv engine design.
Adding a 