Direct injection engines are nothing new… for diesel lovers. The application of direct injection in gasoline engines in large volume is a much newer feat however. As far back as 1902, manufacturers have tried to inject gasoline directly into the cylinder, companies such as: Mercedes, Ford, AMC and many others all tried to perfect the technology. Ironically, the first company to roll out gasoline direct injection cars en mass was Mitsubishi. The long story short version is now most manufacturers offer a direct injection engine or many. The technology is extremely versatile in adding power, improving gas mileage, fine tuning and in many other areas. Who Cares?
So with all the hoopla surrounding direct injection technology why isn’t it in every car? Well, there are a few reasons.
1. Technology is expensive, DI engines require new heads, cams, and many more additional pieces of equipment.
2. The process is proven but un-proven.
3. Change, many auto companies can be slow to adopt newer technology.
With DI engines being the future, why are we talking about them? Well, there are certain problems that many are seeing as a direct result of this technology. The main issue revolves around the intake and the intake valves. In traditional engines, fuel is sprayed outside the combustion chamber into the intake manifold and passes the valves on the way to the chamber. The detergents in modern gasoline help clean the intake tract and the valves and can help prevent deposits left from debris or from the EGR system. With direct injection technology, the injector is directly in the combustion chamber and the gas does nothing but get instantly atomized and ignited. As such, we are seeing common failures in DI engines, there are two key steps you can take to prevent these build ups and increase the power and longevity of your engine.
The first is quality oil. With any modern engine, we recommend a synthetic oil. The benefits far outweigh the costs and in many cases you can actually save money in the long run with longer oil change intervals and fewer mechanical issues as a result of the better protection. Why Oil Matters
All synthetic oils are not created equal. Here in America we are at a disadvantage as to knowing what oils are synthetic and which are not. Due to a loophole in regulations and advertising, companies in America can advertise their group 3 oils (which start life as gasoline and are turned to liquid via hydrocracking) as fully synthetic. Many of these oils such as Royal Purple, Castrol Syntec, Mobil 1 cannot be called synthetic in other parts of the world where these things are taken much more seriously. As such, we recommend group 4 and group 5 oils exclusively. Many oils like Redline, ELF (Total), Amsoil, Torco, and Castrol formulations from Europe are all good examples of this. These oils are so important that every Volkswagen company (VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, etc.) REQUIRE their dealerships to use them exclusively. So when in doubt, you can always have your oil changed at one of those dealerships to make sure you are getting the best quality oil.
What You Can Do
The second way you can care for your direct injected engine is to use an oil catch can. Modern engines have to use EGR systems. EGR stands for exhaust gas recirculation. The basic purpose of EGR is to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions and it works by recirculating a portion of the engines exhaust gas back into the intake to be “burned” again. The unfortunate byproduct of this set up is that many of the things in your exhaust you do not want going in your engine. Unburned gas vapor, burned oil vapor, water contaminated with other different chemical compounds are just a few of the terrible things EGR can introduce back into your engine.
With the installation of an oil catch can, you can capture many of those contaminates and dispose of them before they ever get to the engine you’ve spent so much money on. The gains are easy to see every time you empty it.
So there you have it; to keep your DISI Mazda running strong and trouble free, follow those simple tips and you’ll have a long and happy life together.
The Dangers of Direct Injection February 21st, 2018CorkSport
Wheels Forward
If there is only one feature you can do to your car that helps it stand out the most, it would be your car’s wheels. There are a lot to choose from, so looking for the right ones can be quite a daunting task. Things that you should consider as you choose your wheels are diameter, width, offset (or backspacing for you old hot rod guys), style, wheel mounting style, PCD (also known as bolt spacing), and construction. So, let’s talk about those items in a little more detail.
Diameter
This is the first thing you’ll see and have to think about when you go to look for your next set of rims. While it may not seem like much, this can affect your car in many ways. You can change the acceleration and speed of your car. You can increase or decrease the un-sprung weight (this is the weight of the car that the suspension does not carry), which will also affect the rotational inertia of your wheel. It will also affect the tire availability and sizing choices, as many tires are beginning to be phased out with OEM wheels no longer being made in many cases under 16”. It will also affect what diameter brake rotor and what brake caliper you can use. The smaller the wheel, the smaller the brake package has to be in most cases.
When you go up sizes, it’s simply and usually known as “Plus Sizing.” A +1, for example, would be your OEM or current wheel size plus one inch. You can also “Minus Size,” as a few autocross and road racing cars do to take advantage of the added acceleration a smaller wheel and tire can bring (I’ll detail that in a moment). You have to be careful and factor in tire size as well. If you go too big, your wheel may rub the fender or fender wells as the tire gets larger and moves in turns, bumps, and normal suspension movement. You can compensate for that by decreasing the sidewall, but that brings its own challenges including a rougher ride. As mentioned earlier, you can affect the acceleration and speed your car will actually be capable of. A smaller wheel and tire diameter will give you more acceleration while a taller one will increase your speed. That’s also something to keep in mind if you got a speeding ticket after installing your new wheels and tires.
Width
Width will affect the weight and tire width you can use on your car. Just as increasing the diameter, increasing the width will add more material which adds more weight and rotational mass. This means that you may need more braking power, however if your new wheel is made of lighter materials or a better construction, you don’t have to worry about it. A wider wheel also means a wider tire which can equal more grip, but again, it means more material. However, if you are stretching a tire, you will go with a narrower tire with a wider wheel. This can achieve a unique look and better fitment, but at the risk of a bead blowing out if you go for too much stretch or hit the wrong bump or pothole.
Offset/Backspacing
Offset and Backspacing are the same thing, but just different ways of getting to where your wheel will sit in relation to the hub on your car. Offset, specifically, is the measurement from the center of the wheel to the back of the wheel hub that sits with the brake rotor and is typically measured in metric. A positive (+) offset moves the wheel hub closer to the wheel face, a zero offset is dead center of the wheel, and a negative (-) offset is closer to the brake rotor. You’ll see offset used in describing wheels from countries outside of the United States. Backspacing, specifically, is the measurement from the back of the wheel to the back of the wheel hub and is typically measured in SAE inches. You’ll see backspacing mostly on wheels that are manufactured by companies in the United States. If you go too far, you can cause stress on your wheel bearings and could make them fail.
Style
This is the most subjective part of the wheel, but there are more styles of wheel faces out there than I can count on 10 people’s hands and feet. You can find everything from solid wheels, multiple spokes, wire wheels, and anything in between. There can be some detriment in choosing certain styles of wheel faces, though, in terms of mass and from lack of openings for brake heat to escape. However, there are also certain wheel faces that benefit your aerodynamics, brake heat extraction, and even wheel mass.
Certain types of wheel faces will affect what type of brake package you can use, so be sure to make sure your caliper will clear the face of your wheel choice.
Wheel Mount Style
How the wheel mounts to the hub is critical. Many aftermarket wheels offer the ability to be mounted using a hub centric adapter. This will physically center the wheel by the center of the hub as you mount it to ensure you don’t get wheel wobble as you drive down the road because the wheel is off. Most of the time, this is done by installing a metal or plastic hub centric ring, but there are wheels designed for certain hub centers, too.
There are wheels that are known as lug centric, which means the lug nuts center the wheel rather than the hub. Normally, you can tell the difference by looking at the lug nut itself. Instead of a standard, 60 degree taper where it seats on the wheel, it has a shank with a washer and is known as a “Mag Seat” nut. You cannot use a Mag Seat lug nut on a wheel that is designed for a 60 degree seat and vice versa.
European cars, in most cases, use lug bolts instead of lug nuts and come in two different styles, a 60 degree seat and the ball seat. Just as with the Mag Seat, you cannot use a ball seat on a wheel designed for a 60 degree bolt and vice versa.
PCD
You also need to be careful with the Pitch Center Diameter, PCD or better known as Bolt Spacing. While two wheels may have 5 holes, one may be 5×114.3 and the other may be 5×100. However, going from metric to SAE inch can work in some cases. For example, Ford 4×4.5 bolt spacing will be the same as a Mazda 5×114.3. However, this isn’t always true. A 2012 Chevrolet Camaro and 2012 BMW 3-series both use a 5×120, but the Camaro is .65 mm larger in spacing between the bolts than a similar 3-series. The stud size on the Camaro is also a 14 mm diameter while the 3-series is only a 12 mm .
Wheel Construction
Finally, how the wheel is made is also important in choosing the right set of wheels. Cast wheels offer a much lower price point since the procedure of producing a cast is far less involved than the Forged wheel. However, a forged wheel will be stronger and lighter since it is made out of a single piece of metal. The act of forging actually compresses the metal molecules tighter, resulting in a stronger wheel that isn’t brittle like a heat treated metal would be. This also means that the material will be lighter than cast and far lighter than OEM wheels, while retaining the strength and integrity of the metal.
Wheel Construction is where the majority of the copycat wheels fail at reproducing. They try to reproduce a lightweight wheel by casting a similar shape as the original forged wheel, but not only is the process wrong, the casting material is not usually as a high quality material as better engineered castings. This can be dangerous as they try to even reproduce the weight of forged wheels with inferior casts. If you happen to be buying a wheel used always look for proper marks on the back of the wheel, the right decals, or casting marks on a forged wheel. If you see casting marks on a forged wheel, that will be the most obvious sign of a forgery and avoid it.
If you are buying a wheel new and have doubts, that should be your first sign that you don’t want to buy the wheel from that dealer and walk away. However, if that doesn’t stop you, look at the wheel and make sure to see manufacture logos on the wheel, both forged and cast. Even still, contact the manufacturer or the distributor and find out if the dealer is legitimate before you purchase any wheel. This is especially true on Ebay, Internet Sales, and Craigslist dealer ads since you may not be able to inspect the wheel prior to your purchase. They may end up being forgery wheels and not Forged Wheels.
Final Word
As with any part of your car, always, always do your research before you commit to a purchase. Car parts are far more important considering that not only do they get us from point A to B, but they also have to do so safely and reliably. When it comes to your wheels, tires, brakes, and suspension components this factor doubles, if not triples. These parts stop, turn, and suspend your car and if you have a failure with any of these at any speed, the results are never good. Failure on these parts can lead to injury or death in worst cases.
Don’t take your wheels for granted as they don’t just have to support the weight of the vehicle, but also the loads the vehicle goes through as you drive. If you hit a bump or pothole wrong, it will bend a wheel almost no matter what the material is made of, but inferior cast wheels could crack or even break from normal impacts. Incorrect fitment can cause issues as well, from wheel bearing failure to tire failure from making contact with the suspension and body to even contact with the brakes. It’s just as important that your wheels fit as how they are made.
Finally, make a choice that you like, as premium wheels are going to be something you are going to enjoy for many years. If you get the wheel you like and spend the money on a quality piece; you will be happy the entire life of your wheels. In many cases, you’ll even transfer those wheels to your new car but check if they fit before you install.
-Justin Banner – Mackin Industries
For more on our contributor today, Mackin Industries and thier product line-up, visit their site online at https://www.mackin-ind.com/
Choosing the Right Wheels for Your Ride: By Justin Banner – Mackin Industries September 13th, 2018CorkSport
The Mazdaspeed platform includes a large demographic. From drivers who just got their license to career engineers who personally help to understand the ecu coding.
Today, I will be answering some basic questions about ECU tuning. This will help to explain the benefits of tuning and sort out some jargon and acronyms used for some of the newer people to modding who may be interested in custom maps and tuning.
What is custom tuning/what does ECU remapping do?
Ecu remapping, a.k.a. tuning are terms used to describe the process of making changes to the instructions that a car’s brain (Engine Control Unit) follows.
Remapping / tuning alters the variables that control the way the car behaves under a variety of conditions, including startup, idle, part throttle and WOT (wide open throttle).
To “remap” a car, different platforms use different software to communicate and alter the directions the ecu follows in order to meet the tuner’s goals. The most dominant and reliable software for the Mazdaspeed platform is made by either COBB or Versatune.
Why would you want to tune your vehicle?
When Mazda engineers tuned the factory variables, they were concerned with many more goals than enthusiasts. The engineers at Mazda know that each of the Mazdaspeeds that leave their manufacturing plant will be used in a variety of weather conditions, under a variety of user demands, and must be repaired under warranty if parts prematurely fail. Mazda is also heavily concerned with emissions, gas mileage and tries to balance the stock map they create with performance and reliability.
The enthusiast usually sees performance as the most important goal, while weighting reliability, gas mileage and emissions much lower in terms of importance. If you want to maximize the performance of a car, especially a factory turbocharged vehicle, many “nannies” or electronic performance limitations need to be removed and overly conservative measures taken in a stock map can usually be maximized to make substantial gains in horsepower and torque.
Who should tune their vehicle?
This is an interesting question, because I think I share an opinion with many people familiar with Mazda’s stock mapping that both reliability and performance can be increased with a well thought out tune. In my opinion, if budget allows, anyone who owns a Mazdaspeed can benefit from a custom tune.
What gains can be expected?
While every car is different across the Mazdaspeed platform, in general, if the 93 octane gasoline in your area is of decent quality, a stock Mazdaspeed usually has about 240 hp / 260-280 tq at the wheels. On an OTS (off the shelf map), cars with an upgraded fuel pump and common modifications usually make roughly 270 hp / 300 tq at the wheels.
Custom tuned cars usually dyno in the area of 300 whp, 330-350 tq.
Custom tuned cars running e85 usually make 320-330 whp and 350-375 wtq.
What is the benefit to a custom tune vs. a chip or power programmer?
Much like Mazda engineers, creators of maps included on custom programmers such as hypertech etc. are responsible for making maps that will run well in all weather conditions, at all altitudes and with many different combinations of hard part modifications. A custom tune on the other hand can take full advantage of every condition and every modification that the car will be subject to, as well as allow the owner of the tune to communicate with the tuner his wants.
Custom tuners on the Mazdaspeed platform can tune the car to perform and feel just about any way the owner wants. Boost onset, boost level, boost level per gear, engine idle speed and pedal feel all can be customized per the owner’s preference.
What are the adjustable parameters?
When utilizing the COBB Accessport or Versatune, just about every aspect of the driving experience can be customized.
At present, tuners have access to the necessary tables to customize idle speed, boost levels, drive-by-wire interpretation by the ECU, air fuel ratios, ignition, and variable valve timing… you name it, it likely can be altered from stock form.
Does it have an effect on your warranty/Hidden costs and drawbacks?
This is a fuzzy question in terms of the relationship to reliability and warranty. As discussed above, I’d argue that a well-tuned Mazdaspeed will be more reliable than one that is running the “canned” Mazda map due to the ability of the tuner to customize a map for driving style, altitude, etc., as well as fuel the car with a performance bias vs. fuel economy.
As far as the Mazda warranty is concerned, the tune is not usually the point of contention with Mazda, as most warranty rejection is due to installed hard parts (which can be uninstalled before dealer visits). In short, after returning the stock ROM onto the ecu, Cobb suggests that the Mazda techs can only tell the ecu has been reset if there are a limited number of miles put on the car since the last reflash.
If you are a Mazdaspeed enthusiast in search for more horsepower for your Mazdaspeed, a custom tune will provide excellent gains for your money. Having had many factory turbocharged cars before my Mazdaspeed3, I believe that a custom tune is one of the best bangs for your-buck modification that can be done from a performance-per-dollar standpoint.
I’m forever on msf, so if you have questions, feel free to pm me. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll do my best to help you find it.
As CorkSport works through R&D on any new part we are developing, we always take the time to consider possible failure modes. This ensures the final product has been thoroughly thought out and developed to avoid as many potential failure scenarios as possible.
Failure modes can come in many different forms. There are failure modes brought on by the product that have to be considered, failure modes brought on by assembly and packaging to consider, and failure modes brought about by the installation of the product. Often a failure mode can be a simple issue that may seem trivial until you sit back and consider the potential consequences. For that reason, clamp placement is a critical issue that can be easily overlooked during installation.
The Common Cause of Clamp Failures
When a part is installed that requires clamps, it is easy to consider only the aesthetics of the part. The initial reaction is to want the clamps to be even and silicone to be on properly, but there are a number of other potential hazards that need to be addressed when installing clamps.
The motor itself rocks back and forth which is particularly noticeable on a Mazda where the motor rocks a lot. Because the motor rocks but the engine bay does not, the clamps on your installed parts may move around and come into contact with other parts of the engine bay.
Notice the picture above. Everything looks good until you look closer. The clamp is actually touching the radiator hose which can be a potential failure point with the part. By simply rotating the clamp slightly so the bolt does not come into contact with the radiator hose, you can avoid the contact point and a possible problem with your vehicle.
Clamp placement is critically important with a front mount intercooler install because the clamps have the potential to contact a lot of parts in the engine bay and other pipes. When it comes to intakes, it is also very important to consider clamp placement because they are much closer to critical wiring. Simply flipping the orientation of the clamp can mean the difference between worn plastic and wiring harnesses or trouble free operation for years to come.
Avoiding Clamp Failures
Using the picture below as an example, you can see that the clamp fits well and doesn’t touch anything, but imagine if it was tightened into the stationary object. When it moves back and forth it would eventually rub through the tape and shielding and contact the wires inside. By being aware of this, we can position the clamp so it will never contact. This is something easy to do while you are installing the part, but can be a much bigger headache down the road if it is not considered upfront.
Below is another example of a clamp that is not ideally positioned. We actually have the opposite scenario here to the last example. The clamp is on a pipe that is hard mounted to the frame, while the other pipe is attached to the motor and moves. This will cause the clamp and the pipe to contact and wear against each other over time. Although both are metal, the clamp will eventually work its way through the aluminum pipe and cause a vacuum and boost leak. This means a poor running car and loss of power.
Take Time to Consider Clamp Placement During Install
Take care during your installation and avoid potential pitfalls down the road. By maintaining good clamp placement, not only will you avoid scratching the pipes, but you can avoid other potentially serious issues like boost leaks and unintentional contact with other parts in your engine bay. So remember, always keep your car safe, beautiful, and protected by maintaining good clamp placement.
There are some significant differences about how we designed our turbo inlet pipe compared to the other solutions offered for the DISI engine. We get a couple common questions that we thought would be worth reviewing for our readers about our design vs. the other options on the market today.
The first question we get asked most often is also the most obvious difference, which is why we chose metal over silicone. CorkSport uses a mandrel bent aluminum pipe to replace the factory plastic pipe instead of silicone. The reason we chose metal in place of silicone is to maintain a better flow through a very tight area. Metal cannot distort in shape or size and provides a smooth pipe to flow through that does not have the rougher characteristics associated with the nylon braid used in silicone.
The second question that comes up most frequently is, can a metal turbo inlet pipe transfer heat to the air rushing through the pipe at a rate that would increase the temperature of the air going into the motor? To begin with, the pipe itself is insulated from touching the turbo or block by silicone so the actual heat transferred into it is very low. It is insulated from the bracket that it bolts to by rubber and has no other contact with the engine bay other than through the air. The physical air in the engine bay should be the same no matter what intake you run so the turbo inlet pipe will eventually reach the same temperature.
In order to test this we ran our test car on the same day with less than 10 degrees difference between ambient air temp between tests. We put the car on the dyno and ran the car at the same load from the same rpm range at 20psi. This was about 2500 to 6500rpms. The above graph shows the difference between intake air temp and boost air temp. The intake air temp is basically outside air temp and the boost air temp is the temperature of the air entering the engine. There was basically no difference from metal to plastic telling us that the metal is not able to transfer heat any faster than the plastic to the actual air traveling into the motor.
Bottom line, during testing, the CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe showed a 14% improvement in flow over the stock turbo inlet pipe, resulting in improved boost levels, and customers can rest easy knowing that the aluminum piping will not affect the temperature of the air running to the motor
Brydon-
Turbo Inlet Pipe Differences February 28th, 2018CorkSport
Why Oil Matters
