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real electric supercharger?

15K views 58 replies 26 participants last post by  mikeps3speed  
#1 ·
is there such thing as a real electric supercharger? not those stupid ebay ones....
 
#4 ·
can you post a DIY Ric?

:D I was thinking of my shop vac vs. a leaf blower
 
#6 ·
Yeah, that's neat, but why? lol
It'll just put more strain on your electrical system, especially if you've already got an audio system or underdrive pulleys. And for that price, it seems like a good ol' fashioned supercharger kit or a turbo would deliver the most bang for the buck.

And:
The ESC has an expected lifespan of 24 years running forty 10-second runs per day (400 seconds per day).
:giggle: That's only a few minutes of boost a day.
The 10-15 second bursts you can use it in make it totally useless for anything but drag racing. Might as well just use a bigger shot of nitrous imo.
 
#7 ·
firelizard said:
Yeah, that's neat, but why? lol
It'll just put more strain on your electrical system, especially if you've already got an audio system or underdrive pulleys. And for that price, it seems like a good ol' fashioned supercharger kit or a turbo would deliver the most bang for the buck.

And:

:giggle: That's only a few minutes of boost a day.
The 10-15 second bursts you can use it in make it totally useless for anything but drag racing. Might as well just use a bigger shot of nitrous imo.
I agree. I was gonna try to come up with an electric supercharger that was a little bit more practical but haven't had the time or funding. With all of the bruhless motor technology out there now there has to be a way to do it. I was gonna go with a Rotrex supercharger unit but they are over $1000 a piece. Still want to do it one day though but have to get some money rolling in first. Would love to super charge the legend.
 
#9 ·
chuckee98 said:
The original question was:

The original question was not: "does it make sense?"
it would only make sense if it were something that worked like an actual crank driven supercharger that is always on. This one seems more like electric NOS which we all know can never be used for more than a short burst or your motor melts down. If it could be used on demand for as long as needed then it would make sense.
 
#10 ·
gooniac1 said:
it would only make sense if it were something that worked like an actual crank driven supercharger that is always on. This one seems more like electric NOS which we all know can never be used for more than a short burst or your motor melts down. If it could be used on demand for as long as needed then it would make sense.
they were uses in airplane engines way before they ended up in cars..& those weren't used in short bursts by any stretch of the imagination.

Nitrous doesn't blow motors up. Stupid people that use nitrous blow motors up
 
#13 ·
RICDOGG said:
they were uses in airplane engines way before they ended up in cars..& those weren't used in short bursts by any stretch of the imagination.

Nitrous doesn't blow motors up. Stupid people that use nitrous blow motors up
you misunderstood what I said. I was referring to NOS not superchargers. The electric one I was referring to works like nitrous for 15 second burst.

I know my history on superchargers and yes they were used in the WW2 aircraft like the P-38, P-51 and many others as well. But what I bet you don't know is that they used to use alcohol/water injection for a boost in power. Kind of like they use NOS now but the motors would need a major overhaul after they used it for long periods of time. Kind of like the way NOS kills motors today. Yes it does work if done right but I have seen pistons from cars that had nitrous done "the right way". Not good for the motor no matter how you use it.
 
#14 ·
Americans were the only Allied power to use turbosuperchargers. Britain and Germany used only mechanical superchargers in their production aircraft.

P-38, P-47, B-17 and B-24 used GE turbos. All other production craft used mechanical superchargers. Spitfire and Mustang got their high-altitude goodness from two-stage, two-speed, intercooled superchargers. B-29 used turbo-compounded R-3360s.

Germany was exclusive user of nitrous boost, Allies used methanol/water.
 
#15 ·
I am working on one as we speak that will work if all goes well

this is a little different than anything out there. when I get it working I will get you all posted on what is working like. It uses a high amp motor that is rated to run continuously for long periods of time and really moves lots of air but I need to see whether it will compress air. The only unit I have found that can do what I need but it is on a 24 volt system. If it works it will be a huge break through hopefully and I will offer it to everyone here first.
 
#18 ·
i dont know too much about supercharges or turbos so don't flame me if im wrong about everything im saying but don't superchargers and turbos need regulation according to engine speed?
like a turbo pushes air depending on how fast exhaust is comming out
and a supercharger puts out depending how fast the drive belt is moving, at idle a supercharger still pushes more air than needed and results in the unstable growl.

a electric turbo/supercharger wouldnt be regulated at all and would be the same psi constantly, unless your alternator was going bad and high rpms cranked cranked more power...

so basically what i'm saying is if the thing put out decent airflow the car would be getting the same flow at idle as it would at highend and it would be pressing air past the throttle plate making rpms race. if the car did idle still it would mean its not pushing much as all it wouldnt be offering anything for for highend so whats the point?

Plus the fact that im assuming the turbine is lightweight plastic so it wouldnt have any torque to the fan, so very low pressure. I know they make light weight turbines for real turbos to help out with the low end loss while still improving highend but were talking about a 2 ounce piece of plastic!

These turbos arent made for cars either, they are just somthing some one found in a hardware store or somthing, i bet the fan blades are made of crappy plastic and when you do take your car to high end the engine suction its self will spin the fan faster than its designed for making it break to pieces and flying straight into your engine.
i doubt they are designed to handle heat under the hood either.

but then again, i dont know much if anything about forced air induction so this is just off the top of my head...

I'm pretty sure if these things worked you would be hearing about it everywhere because those civc ricer kids would have got the word out by now, i'm sure they are they make up most of the people buying these things.
 
#19 ·
cigarettcancerman said:
i dont know too much about supercharges or turbos so don't flame me if im wrong about everything im saying but don't superchargers and turbos need regulation according to engine speed?
like a turbo pushes air depending on how fast exhaust is comming out
and a supercharger puts out depending how fast the drive belt is moving, at idle a supercharger still pushes more air than needed and results in the unstable growl.

a electric turbo/supercharger wouldnt be regulated at all and would be the same psi constantly, unless your alternator was going bad and high rpms cranked cranked more power...

so basically what i'm saying is if the thing put out decent airflow the car would be getting the same flow at idle as it would at highend and it would be pressing air past the throttle plate making rpms race. if the car did idle still it would mean its not pushing much as all it wouldnt be offering anything for for highend so whats the point?

Plus the fact that im assuming the turbine is lightweight plastic so it wouldnt have any torque to the fan, so very low pressure. I know they make light weight turbines for real turbos to help out with the low end loss while still improving highend but were talking about a 2 ounce piece of plastic!

These turbos arent made for cars either, they are just somthing some one found in a hardware store or somthing, i bet the fan blades are made of crappy plastic and when you do take your car to high end the engine suction its self will spin the fan faster than its designed for making it break to pieces and flying straight into your engine.
i doubt they are designed to handle heat under the hood either.

but then again, i dont know much if anything about forced air induction so this is just off the top of my head...

I'm pretty sure if these things worked you would be hearing about it everywhere because those civc ricer kids would have got the word out by now, i'm sure they are they make up most of the people buying these things.
most of things you describe can be fixed
-Plastic fan blades: get metal ones
-shrappnel in engine:put the blower before the filter or chicken wire after the blower
-low and high speed no good: have a switch to turn it on when you want

i believe the electric supercharger COULD work but no one wants to take the time/money to do it when you could just get NOS. plus it would look like a ricer thing or like sh it
 
#21 ·
ive seen these for sale on ebay and there are alot of bad comments.. the ones that are good i assume its because these electric turbos usually come with a high flow filter too, so if your going from stock then i think you would notice a little power and leave a good comment...

If i saw some actual test results from a decent source i would consider it but not a moment sooner. im sure a electric leaf blower motor would put off more pressure than those things, go buy a cheap one for like 40$ that has like 2.5hp
 
#22 ·
cigarettcancerman said:
ive seen these for sale on ebay and there are alot of bad comments.. the ones that are good i assume its because these electric turbos usually come with a high flow filter too, so if your going from stock then i think you would notice a little power and leave a good comment...

If i saw some actual test results from a decent source i would consider it but not a moment sooner. im sure a electric leaf blower motor would put off more pressure than those things, go buy a cheap one for like 40$ that has like 2.5hp
I am going to be doing this as I said before. There are ways to do it but it takes time. I have found some things that would be able to get it to work. Basically the only thing making it difficult now is the power to run it. All I need is some time though and I will have one going.
 
#23 ·
cigarettecancerman: turbo engines do need regulation... this is what a wastegate is. all turbo engines SHOULD have a wastegate and if you dont you will mostlikely blow up your engine. what a wastegate is is a bleed valve on the exhuast manifold that opens via spring under a specified amount of boost. a legend turbo might run say 8psi boost... the spring in the wastegate would be an 8psi spring. 8.1 psi would open the spring and vent pressure maintaining a max 8psi.
what a turbo actually is: a vacuum powered vacuum reducer. vacuum = negative pressure = slow. boost = positive pressure = fast.
what a supercharger is: a belt driven vacuum reducer.
superchargers and turbochargers slow your engine down at low speeds. this is called turbo lag. they add a whole bunch of added restriction on either your exhaust or your belt system. but the good thing is that once your engine gets up to speed momentum kicks in and so does the power!
an na(naturally aspirated)2.7l legend would be faster than a turbo2.7l legend off the line, but after the 2.7l turbo spools up it would smoke the na2.7.
why electric superchargers dont make sense: YOU KNOW HOW MANY AMPS IT WOULD TAKE TO PUSH 8PSI BOOST INTO AN ENGINE?
better install a second alternator! cuz where else is all of this added electricity demand coming from?
then you are back at square one... a belt driven supercharger. just in two parts...
this really doesnt make sense guys...
i could see using one for a drag race... but that is pretty homersexual if you ask me...
a lot of work for squat in gains...
you are better off buying one of those tornado intake devices ;)
and btw thats a joke... dont ever buy one of those pos.
maytag
 
#25 ·
i love my acura legend... dont take this the wrong way... but if you want lots of turbo power on a tight budget? pick up an 1988 audi 90 quattro for $2000 or less... buy an audi 5000 10v turbo motor for $500 then maybe $1000 worth of extras... its an easy conversion and there are tons of specialized parts etc.
as soon as im rich... or better off im going to do a second conversion...
my first was a success but died eventually...
very satisfying project...
not to diss my legend...
but turbo awd in a car slightly nicer than the legend...
but the legend handles nicer... after all its a tiny coupe :)
dont get my wrong... ill probably own a legend forever :)
maytag

ps my audi friends are disgusted by me owning a jap car...
but i respond "lets race" ;)
 
#26 ·
On the current 12V DC car power system having an electric supercharger is pointless becuase of amperage required to move that much air.

If they ever decide to move into 24V or 42V DC systems for cars (they have been working on it as of now but when you up DC Volts the risk of arcing greatly increases so they have been working on the safety systems to go along with those increased volts) things such as these will be much easier to produce. Simple physics tells us W=A*V where W=watts A=amps and V=Volts
Say to push 8psi of air we need a 300W electric motor on a 12V car we would need 25 amps to push that air, whereas a 24V car would only need 13 amps and a 42V car would need only 7 amps of power.

One type of performance system I have been thinking of is take a turbocharged car and add an electric motor that upon a full throttle input from the driver prespools the turbo to get rid of most if not all of the turbo lag. You could kind of think about it how honda's IMA system works, a little motor ot help the bigger one out. in this case a simple 1/4-1/2 hp high speed rotation electric motor that helps the turbo get upt to speed.