Electric Superchargers. Gimmicky? Yes. Possible? Technically.

[mctwin2kman]

Originally Posted by Mickey_D

That's what I was thinking. Get a turbocharger that the exhaust side casing is cracked anyways. Go at it with a Dremel tool to remove any unnecessary crap from it so all that's left is the compressor part. Use the existing shaft from the exhaust side to hook the motor up to it.

It would have to be one hell of a motor, though. Capable of the RPM's that turbos require. I guess a gear or belt system to up the drive ratio would be required. But there are some high RPM motors out there. Just ask any RC car fanatic. I've seen some of them capable of 30,000 RPM.

As for the speed controller, again use one from an electric RC car. Would take some fiddling to get the inputs and outputs matched, but nothing a good electronics tech couldn't handle in an afternoon (speaking from experience here).



Hrm, y'all got me thinking here...

Now, if my one and only Jeep wasn't my DD and my business office I'd already be on this!!

Instead of doing all that why not attach a pulley to the one side and make a supercharger and use the drive belt to drive the pulley.

[justanotherjpr]

Originally Posted by Mickey_D

That's what I was thinking. Get a turbocharger that the exhaust side casing is cracked anyways. Go at it with a Dremel tool to remove any unnecessary crap from it so all that's left is the compressor part. Use the existing shaft from the exhaust side to hook the motor up to it.

It would have to be one hell of a motor, though. Capable of the RPM's that turbos require. I guess a gear or belt system to up the drive ratio would be required. But there are some high RPM motors out there. Just ask any RC car fanatic. I've seen some of them capable of 30,000 RPM.

As for the speed controller, again use one from an electric RC car. Would take some fiddling to get the inputs and outputs matched, but nothing a good electronics tech couldn't handle in an afternoon (speaking from experience here).



Hrm, y'all got me thinking here...

Now, if my one and only Jeep wasn't my DD and my business office I'd already be on this!!

Look at it this way. If it was a truly effective means of forced induction, auto manufacturers would have already done it.

[Kettles]

Originally Posted by justanotherjpr

Look at it this way. If it was a truly effective means of forced induction, auto manufacturers would have already done it.

Thats bull****. Not that I am saying it is an effective means of forced induction (it isn't at the moment), but that the fact the auto manufacturers are not doing it doesn't mean its not viable. Car companies (as with most companies) are just worried about how much can they sell and how cheap can they produce it. Profitability takes preference over innovation sadly.
An electric supercharger simply is not profitable for a car company. There is not enough advancement in the area yet for them to take it up, especially when there are mechanical ones available that have been developed already.

[hubs97xj]

Yeah, and an exhaust driven turbo, or belt driven supercharger is expensive, adds complexity, and requires additional maintenance, development, part inventories... If they could accomplish the same thing with DC motors at a fraction of the cost and time, why wouldn't they?

What's bull are these idiotic claims that such a system is cheap, easy, efficient, and just as effective as conventional forced induction systems. Sure, there is always room for improvement where mechanical systems are concerned, but you guys are in a pipe dream.

[Kettles]

Originally Posted by hubs97xj

Yeah, and an exhaust driven turbo, or belt driven supercharger is expensive, adds complexity, and requires additional maintenance, development, part inventories... If they could accomplish the same thing with DC motors at a fraction of the cost and time, why wouldn't they?

What's bull are these idiotic claims that such a system is cheap, easy, efficient, and just as effective as conventional forced induction systems. Sure, there is always room for improvement where mechanical systems are concerned, but you guys are in a pipe dream.

Yes the eBay ones are fake. No the idea is not a cheap easy and efficient solution in comparison to what is already available. Thats because someone already took the time to build, test, build retest, rebuid retest a million times over the stuff that is already available. I bet my life's earnings that if as much time and money was put into the development of an electric supercharger that it could be made at least as efficient and cheap as a mechanical one.

[Kettles]

A little history to think on. The first supercharger was patented in 1885 in Germany; and then Renault patented a centrifugal one in 1902 in France.
so there is over 100 years of innovation and improvement in supercharger (and turbocharger, which is a variant of a supercharger) technology.
Brushless electric motors have not really come into play until fairly recently, in conjunction with other electronic and computer technologies. So the means to produce a electric supercharger has only been around for a fairly short while. Maybe this is why it has not really been done, and is not commercially available. It has not had the hundred years of innovation to make it so.

My point being don't walk in (or I should say "digitally stroll in") and say it can't be done because it hasn't been done yet. Are you also going to tell me that we can't make flying cars and practical jet packs, just because most previous attempts have failed? Sure it may take a few years/decades, but it will never get there if you don't start sometime.

Ok I am officially not replying to this thread anymore, I am getting too worked up.. take it or leave it.

[hubs97xj]

It may be possible at some time in the future (I don't know about this- the advances in technology in even the last few years come at a staggering rate compared to the beginning of the industrial age), but it's still not practical. Why introduce an additional system to accomplish the same thing, when this system will introduce further inefficiencies? Right now, we use mechanical energy the engine creates to compress air. Why would you want to use that same power to generate electricity, in order to run a compressor that still has to do the same amount of work?

[justanotherjpr]

Originally Posted by Kettles

Thats bull****. Not that I am saying it is an effective means of forced induction (it isn't at the moment), but that the fact the auto manufacturers are not doing it doesn't mean its not viable. Car companies (as with most companies) are just worried about how much can they sell and how cheap can they produce it. Profitability takes preference over innovation sadly.
An electric supercharger simply is not profitable for a car company. There is not enough advancement in the area yet for them to take it up, especially when there are mechanical ones available that have been developed already.

Do you think you guys are the first ones to try this? These ideas are not new. I assure you, at least one auto manufacturer has put electric 'forced' induction through extensive testing that decided that it is not an effective means when compared to exhaust driven (turbo) or crank driven (supercharger).

Any electric motor that can push enough air simply requires too much current for a vehicle to produce without outweighing the effect it creates. To set your car up with a leaf blower motor, you'd have to first make room for it (not impossible) then, power it. By the time you hook up a large enough alternator, the resistance your motor faces in turning that alternator is more than overshadowed by the gain from your leaf blower.

No RC car motor can move enough air to gain any power at speed. If it could, leaf blowers would have RC car motors.

Even if you got an electric motor light enough but powerful enough to move that much air, and somehow managed to power it without bogging down your engine, you've got two other large issues to address.

1. Cooling that electric motor - Ever touched an electric that's been run hard? They get HOT and it's not hard to melt an armature.

2. Speed control. We all know how a turbo/supercharger responds to engine throttle, but you're going to need a way to modulate the speed of the electric motor to match your engine RPM. I'm sure something could be rigged. Keep in mind electric RC car speed controls only move so many amps and get VERY hot. I have burned up more than a few of these running them hard in my RC days.

Not only this, but a turbo/supercharger's main job isn't to push air into the throttle body faster, but to compress that air so that more fuel can be added. The leaf blower is not compressing the air. I'd love to see how well the leaf blower works when a car is traveling 100mph.

Any commercially sold 'electric supercharger' is nothing more than a gimmick. It's like the fuel magnet or the fuel injector and intake cleaner. Total garbage.

Anyone attempting to create their own electric super charger is on a far fetched plan. It MIGHT be possible, but it's just not reasonable. You could have slapped a turbo or supercharger on there in one tenth of the time with better results and less money.

Originally Posted by hubs97xj

Yeah, and an exhaust driven turbo, or belt driven supercharger is expensive, adds complexity, and requires additional maintenance, development, part inventories... If they could accomplish the same thing with DC motors at a fraction of the cost and time, why wouldn't they?

What's bull are these idiotic claims that such a system is cheap, easy, efficient, and just as effective as conventional forced induction systems. Sure, there is always room for improvement where mechanical systems are concerned, but you guys are in a pipe dream.

x2

[Ninety5poloz]

LOL this post is too funny. You realize adding boost to an EFI vehicle requires the computer to be modified to accept the new parameters of the engine? You also need more fuel, bigger injectors and so on. On an F-body forum I visit frequantly there are lots of guys using 60# + injectors just to feed their motors. Electric superchargers are a worthless idea just pawned off on people that aren't smart enough to realize how useless they are.

All of the time you could spend redisigning(SP) a turbo to accept an electric power source, why not just fab up a real turbo system and be done with it LOL

But on a side note when I was 18 I worked at an oil change center, a guy came in with a mid 90s buick regal and he was telling me to watch out for the switch on the dash because it adds crazy amounts of power. I was like WTF ok I'll look out for it, but when we got it inside and opened the hood there was an electric supercharger there We turned it on when we had the air filter out and it was honestly like a computer fan. I will guarentee that it was more of a restriction than a power adder

I do enough work on my car to know what makes power and what doesn't. I am currently sitting about 420 rwhp with my little 355 LT1 in my 95 camaro, no NOS and no boost, just straight motor

[XJdamyankee]

Ok here's the redneck version GUARANTEED to work everytime. First you wire in a couple of power converters. Second put in about 6 batteries. Third remove A/C and replace with HO alt. Forth rig up 2 electric leaf blowers under hood plug them into the converters and wire them to a switch. Last anytime you need a short burst of power just hit the switch and BAM!!! you got power. Oh and dont forget to put as many stickers on your windows as possible because we all know they add 5hp for each one.

[offroadnut36]

Originally Posted by Kettles

A little history to think on. The first supercharger was patented in 1885 in Germany; and then Renault patented a centrifugal one in 1902 in France.
so there is over 100 years of innovation and improvement in supercharger (and turbocharger, which is a variant of a supercharger) technology.
Brushless electric motors have not really come into play until fairly recently, in conjunction with other electronic and computer technologies. So the means to produce a electric supercharger has only been around for a fairly short while. Maybe this is why it has not really been done, and is not commercially available. It has not had the hundred years of innovation to make it so.

My point being don't walk in (or I should say "digitally stroll in") and say it can't be done because it hasn't been done yet. Are you also going to tell me that we can't make flying cars and practical jet packs, just because most previous attempts have failed? Sure it may take a few years/decades, but it will never get there if you don't start sometime.

Ok I am officially not replying to this thread anymore, I am getting too worked up.. take it or leave it.

An electric supercharger would be a centrifugal type supercharger, only without the belt. A centrifugal supercharger is like a turbocharger except it is belt driven. A turbocharger, when fully spooled to the psi range it is supposed to supply, spins between 100,000 and 150,000 rpm's. How are you physically going to be able to get an electric motor to spin that fast with out it melting and/or flying apart? I just don't see it happening.

[Deezelweazel]

Useless to show him the cons. He didn't get it...

[keepishop]

Originally Posted by offroadnut36

An electric supercharger would be a centrifugal type supercharger, only without the belt. A centrifugal supercharger is like a turbocharger except it is belt driven. A turbocharger, when fully spooled to the psi range it is supposed to supply, spins between 100,000 and 150,000 rpm's. How are you physically going to be able to get an electric motor to spin that fast with out it melting and/or flying apart? I just don't see it happening.

Funny how no one here has thought of trying using gears to bump up the speed of the motor, seeing as electrics of the wattage in question generally have plenty of torque.

[Magus2727]

The issue still remains that any type of "electric fan" can not produce the pressure you need. Yea you can get 2000 CFM fan but turn it on and put a shield over the fan and you we see that there is next to no pressure pushing on the shield. Its due to the fin design of electric fans. for superchargers and Turbo chargers (The Supercharger does have a gear in it to get it spinning about 1/2 the speed of the Turbo) they have a multi lobe,fin/vain design that have less then .010" of an inch clearance (in most cases). The only way I see of getting an "Electric supercharger" is to put a Torque-ie DC motor and gear it right (with the correct power - engine speed controls). so you would still have all the work of a Turbo-Supercharger.

[Magus2727]

but hey they do have it 50% off.... why not test it out, many cold air kits cost more then that...