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As they explained, it's a recirculation valve. It is the typical factory application for turbo'd vehicles and in the aftermarket performance side of things, is often replaced by a blow-off valve. The primary difference is what happens with the excess pressure. Just about everyone, car guys and otherwise, know the blow-off sound, that whistle when the throttle is released, that so many covet. That sound is all of that excess pressure being "blown off" or vented to atmosphere. In the factory application, it vents into a pipe, which recirculates the excess pressure back into the intake track between the air filters and the turbo. As for pros and cons, and why recirculation valves are basically always the manufacturer's stock setup, there's more in depth theory to be discussed, which I'm sure many would be more than willing to explain, myself included, but we can keep this thread focused on the great product to come haha
Hey Yonash, thanks for contributing this great explanation! I definitely would classify myself as one who loves the sound of a blow-off valve.
Will this be a stepped intercooler at all like ATM's for the 2.3EB Mustang?
We'll have some more details on our design and its construction in the not too distant future! I'll post on that as soon as that information is available to me.
Just in case you didn't get a chance to check it out, we are conducting a poll on intercooler placement in this thread, and I'd love to hear some feedback from you.
Check it out and drop a comment in the thread, HERE.
We'll have some more content on this in the near future, but in the meantime, I want to let you all know that after polling in numerous places, we have gotten feedback that is overwhelmingly in favor of retaining use of the stock location for the Mishimoto intercooler, so we will be proceeding using that design.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments, and check back soon for some updates.
Even F-150’n Cooler – 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost Intercooler R&D, Part 2: 3D Models
Howdy folks, and welcome to the second installment of Mishimoto’s Engineering Blog on the development of our upcoming 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost intercooler. In our first post, we examined the factory intercooler on this truck and took a look at some of its unique features, but since then, we have made a ton of headway on developing our improved version. To learn more about how the system functions, check out that first F-150 EcoBoost intercooler post.
When we first began on this project, we were choosing between a couple of possible design philosophies that Jason, the project engineer, had conceived. Each had its benefits and drawbacks, but rather than trying to read minds, we decided to reach out to all of you to find out what you wanted for the ideal F-150 EcoBoost intercooler.
You may recall that this truck uses a series of active electronically controlled shutters to modify the aerodynamic profile of the vehicle’s front end in order to help with gas mileage. The shutters sit not only in front of the F-150 EcoBoost intercooler’s mounting location, but also in front of the radiator and main grille. As a refresher, this is how the shutters function:
The active shutter system that sits in front of the radiator. Another sits in front of the F-150 EcoBoost Intercooler.
Making the Right Call
We conducted a poll on some popular forums wherein we detailed both options and asked for your opinions. As a recap, the first option was to simply reuse the location behind the bumper where the factory F-150 EcoBoost intercooler resides. The second, more complex (and expensive) option was to design our intercooler to sit behind the primary grille. This design would necessitate not only additional piping, but also the deletion of both active shutter systems. The only benefit of this setup would be to leave the front bumper location open to allow for winch mounts or other Ford F-150 performance parts that might inhibit airflow to the factory location. You all contributed your thoughts and opinions, and we listened!
Making the Models
The overwhelming majority of you wanted to keep things as factory as possible, so that’s the direction in which we are proceeding. Jason has moved forward with the design, and has come up with something that really maximizes the limitations of the space and also looks pretty bad-*** while doing it (if we may say so ourselves).
Check out some views of the models:
Making the Next Move
Jason has already sent the design to the 3D printer, so I should have an update for you shortly. Next time, I will detail the test fitment of the 3D printed prototype and show you how this thing will look sitting in your trucks.
I noticed this morning that the pictures that I had intended to include with Friday's update somehow didn't quite make it into the post. Just wanted to let you all know that I've uploaded them and updated the post to include them - check them out above!
Incredibly F-150’n Cool Fitment – 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost Intercooler R&D, Part 3: 3D Printed Test Fit
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the third update on the R&D process for the Mishimoto 2015+ F-150 EcoBoost intercooler. For those of you joining us now who may not have seen our previous updates, you can check them out on our engineering blog. We reached out to you for some feedback, and decided to move forward with an intercooler that utilizes the factory location. We’ve shown you the 3D-models on the computer, but recently, we took those digital models and brought them to life with the help of our 3D printer.
Printing Some Parts
Back in one of my friend’s school days when he spent a lot of his free time consuming music and movies from various online sources (purely out of curiosity – any lawyers wanna chime in on the relevant statute of limitations, here?), his Mother gave him a stern talking to after having received a notice from the internet service provider about downloading copyrighted content (allegedly). In debating the ethics of such things, the phrase “Would you download a car?” was certainly uttered, and regardless of the response*, the point was moot, because in what reality can you print a car? Well, in this one, as it turns out! Or at least you can print the parts… Take a look.
*The response: “Depends on what kind of car I could find!”
In the beginning of a print job, the part often looks indiscernible due to the jungle of structural reinforcement added into the model.
A 3D printer slowly constructs an ABS plastic model by using a computer to digitally “slice” a 3D CAD model into layers. It then prints those two-dimensional cutaways on top of one another, one at a time in succession, until the model is complete. This process often takes hours, but provides us with an excellent means of bringing our digital creations to life to test them on our vehicles. It is standard practice around here to load up a file, hit “go”, and then take off for the evening, only to return to work in the morning to find a finished print. If only everything were that easy!
Towards the end of the process, the end-tank really starts to take shape.
Once the complex parts like the end-tank are printed, we typically use foam or another material to represent the more generic cubic shapes. For this 2015+ Ford EcoBoost intercooler, we measured and cut a piece of insulating foam.
Fitting those F’150ers On the Truck!
With a good physical representation of our product in hand, it was time to check fitment on the truck. This form of prototyping is a valuable process for us, because it allows us to make any changes to our models at relatively low expense and with little turn-around time. This way, once we get to the aluminum prototyping phase, the kinks are all ironed out, generally eliminating possible fitment issues – that way, we can focus on functionality.
For this particular project, our engineer, Jason, did a damn good job the first time around with some spot-on fitment. Check out some photos of our test fit.
The truck is parked in a lift space, but Jason takes no shortcuts.
Installation is pretty easy on this one, and fitment was on point. I had Jason pull back the shrouding on top to give you a view of how it fits behind the bumper.
The final iteration of this intercooler will feature weather stripping along the top and sides to seal the core to the shrouding behind the front bumper in order to ensure maximum efficiency. You can see a this mocked-up in the above photo.
Here’s a close-up of where the end-tank mounts to the truck.
Finally, here’s a shot through the front bumper shutters of how the core will sit.
Next Up…
Aluminum prototypes are already in the works, so progress from here on out should be pretty swift. As I stated before, we take advantage of tools like our 3D printers to mitigate unforeseen events and keep these projects moving so that we can get them to you as soon as possible – these F-150 performance parts are well on their way, so stay tuned!
06-03-2016, 10:31 AM
