electric supercharger???? would this work?

[Budfreak]

Originally Posted by Beav

Actually, you'd probably have better luck using the suction side of the leaf blower on the tailpipe... you know, suckercharging.

that is the funniest damn thing i've ever read in my life!

[Budfreak]

here's an idea. what if you take the cooling element out of one of those coolers you plug into your cigarette lighters and mount it in the intake somewhere?

[UberRoo]

The whole supercharged lawnmower thing was a lame proof-of-concept idea. I had toyed around with the idea of using a gas-powered leaf blower to supercharge a car. There was something comically appealing about pulling alongside some beefed-up muscle car in my POS Honda, and, while he's revving his engine, I'd just yank the pull-starter cord on the dash and start revving my leaf blower. The thought of whooping somebody with a rusty Honda and a leaf blower was enough to inspire me to at least give it a shot.

I built a primitive pressure tank around the carburetor and gas tank of an old lawnmower (because they're attached together and fairly small) and then literally duct-taped an electric leaf blower to the assembly. I replaced the mower blade with a 25-pound barbell weight and used a heavy leather welding glove and my bare hands to measure torque. Normally aspirated, it was possible for me to roll on the throttle and still stop the spinning barbell with a fair bit of effort. It wasn't easy to stop. I'm pretty sure that with only slightly more power it would have been nearly impossible to manage, so that seemed like a pretty good test to me, even if it's not exactly scientific. If I thought I was having some degree of success I was planning on building an actual band brake and using a fishing scale to measure the braking effort required to control RPM at WOT. ...but it never came to that.

Anyway, by the time I was content that the whole thing was a waste of time, I'd played with the fuel mixture, removed the flywheel key to advance the spark timing, and even with three leaf blowers I didn't notice any real difference other than that it idled a little smoother, but not any faster. The contraption was primarily constructed of duct tape and vacuum cleaner hose.

I measured the pressure by placing a small piece of hardboard over the opening of the vacuum cleaner hose. I added and removed weight until the pressure from the blowers was just barely able to lift the hardboard. Using the area of the opening of the hose and the weight of the hardboard and weights, it's possible to get a reasonably accurate calculation of pressure. ...which wasn't very much. I don't remember exactly how much it was, but it was less than a pound. My leaf blowers were all electric, so it's likely that gas leaf blowers are more powerful, but I don't think it'd be enough to make a substantial difference.

In theory, there must have been a slight increase in power or I somehow failed to get the fuel mixture quite right. I think there was an increase, but it was so small that it was simply imperceptible. I think those motors have either a 7.5:1 or 8:1 compression ratio. (I used to know.) It's pretty low, whatever it is. Perhaps that low ratio is why a small increase wouldn't be noticeable.

Sorry, no pictures. If it had worked, there probably would have been.


The "super sucker" idea isn't exactly a new one, but it doesn't make much difference in most engines. There's a similar idea that actually does make a difference though. Off the top of my head I don't remember what it's called, but it's basically a crankcase vacuum pump. (That might be what it's called.) People often knife-edge the crankshaft counterweights and other parts to reduce drag. Another way to reduce drag inside the engine is to remove all the air. It's horribly turbulent inside there, and by removing the air it's supposed to be possible to gain five to twenty horsepower, depending on the engine. The vacuum pumps draw relatively little power, and the power you get by reducing drag is free power. The downside is that the pumps need to be cleaned very often and also suck a lot of oil out of your crankcase too. I would think that perhaps some sort of oil trap and recirculation sump might be able to recover the oil. I think they use some sort of positive displacement gear pump and that's why they need constant cleaning, but I haven't looked into it much, so I don't really know. It's good for drag racing, but not much else.

[kuroneko_sama]

damn...i was half kidding... that story rocks though...i totally dig the mad scientist aspect of car ownership

[UberRoo]

Originally Posted by sir_romeo

...i totally dig the mad scientist aspect of car ownership

More like the Red Green aspect.

[kuroneko_sama]

"today we are gonna "suckercharge" our SVX using a belt sander and a leaf blower....*PAFF*... there goes harold"

i can change if i have to.... i guess

[calisvx]

heres another idea run some duct work from our air conditioners to the intake so the air it sucks is ice cold hehehe any theories on that one?

[kuoh]

Awsome idea! Soup up the blower motor and you have a cold air induction electric supercharger with 3 selectable boost levels!

KuoH

Originally Posted by calisvx

heres another idea run some duct work from our air conditioners to the intake so the air it sucks is ice cold hehehe any theories on that one?

[94svxred]

Hey that suckercharger things sounds a little X-Rated .don't you think Watch your language there are kids here

Originally Posted by calisvx

heres another idea run some duct work from our air conditioners to the intake so the air it sucks is ice cold hehehe any theories on that one?

The problem with this is that it takes power to run the AC compressor. Any advantage the cold air might give you would be offset by the power required to run the compressor.



Dave

[MaxImUmZ]

I kinda get the idea that this post kinda has a 50/50 mix of people posting... half who are messing around with dumb ideas and half who are taking them seriously

[SpoonChucker]

Originally Posted by red95svx

The problem with this is that it takes power to run the AC compressor. Any advantage the cold air might give you would be offset by the power required to run the compressor.



Dave

By the same rational, the most power that you could get from a super charger would be the 1-2 hp parasitic loss required to drive to turbine (because it takes power to run the super charger). What is really happening is that the energy required to increase the amount of oxygen molecules isn’t the same as the energy released when those same molecules combine with more fuel.

I don’t think it would work because the flow rate would not be high enough, but that isn’t to say that a heat exchanger driven by the AC compressor couldn’t be used to cool the air intake. To offset a 1 hp draw from the AC (only an assumption) would require the amount of oxygen to increase by .4%. Without doing the math, it would require cooling the air only 1 or 2 degrees.

[TomsSVX]

The only A/c cooling advantage to the intake system is on turbo/supercharged cars. My brother is still in College to be a mechanical enigineer and this was going to be part of his thesis project on his z. it was too bad that ford beat him to the punch by doing it on their 2005 prototype of the Lightning. Iteresting setup though, the freon was run through their custom intercooler for a quick 30 second blast. it ended up giving the car an extra 50hp at the wheels but the problem is, You don't want to run the A/C while racing so it is to charge it up and then have it released to the intercooler to cool it down. I thought it was really smart idea but I don't think they are going to put it into production. A naturally aspirated car is not afected by heat differences as much as a forced induction car is. Thats why I beat Tom at the track on a 100degree day.

Tom

[Earthworm]

Now you could have the intake A/C charge only under braking so that not only will it slightly help slow you down but also be ready to go when you step on the gas.

(think regenerative braking on electric cars)

Originally Posted by SpoonChucker

By the same rational, the most power that you could get from a super charger would be the 1-2 hp parasitic loss required to drive to turbine (because it takes power to run the super charger).

A supercharger is much more effiecient than a compressor is, so this does not hold true for superchargers

Dave