Electric Boost vs Turbo & Super Chargers

[jb92563]

Another idea popped into my head while reading a few threads on Cold Air intake restrictions, Super Chargers, Turbos etc.

A lot of big bucks are being spent on getting more air down the throat of the engine (Throttle body) so that the engine can produce more power.

The intake mods are about reducing obstructions to allow more air volume, and the Super and Turbo chargers are about Forcing more volume of air.

What about an electric fan in the intake that could be speed controlled to apply various amounts of "Boost" pressure?

If you have ever seen the model airplane electric ducted fans you will know where Im heading with this.

Motki 90 From Ductedfans.com USA Power To Move

Fan video

These electric motor ducted fans can produce 20+ lbs of pressure. Turbos and Super chargers can use up to 14 lbs depending on the engine.

I wonder if anyone has tried something like this for a modest boost during hard acceleration?

The equipment to do something like this could probably cost less than $500 and it could be plumbed inline with the existing air intake very easily.

The controller could be programed based on a throttle position and other sensors to vary boost accordingly to some safe maximum value.

Just thinking out loud and wondering if this has ever been tried.

[shadrach74]

They're are electric superchargers for sale all over fleaBay that have largely been found to be useless by most folks that have tried them. I'm not saying that it could not be done well, but I know of no one producing a viable electric SC.

[Mrmaddbrad]

A few corrections. Turbo/ Superchargers can push much higher than 14lbs of boost. You're confusing numbers. 14.7lbs is 1 atmosphere. If you have a naturally aspirated motor, it is, at WoT, pulling in 14.7lbs of air pressure. A single pound of boost means it is sucking in 15.7 lbs. SOOooo, in a perfect world, if you pushed out 14.7lbs of boost, you would double your horsepower. Simple.

However, many turbo diesel trucks push in the 40-60lbs of boost range. As ridiculous as it seems, it's actually correct.

Now on to your question. YES! This would work! But you would have to be willing to have the ECU flashed to tell the computer there is more air coming into the system, just like if you put the TechnoKit from Pedro's Garage on your car, you need the ECU flashed (Which he does) to match your modifications.

With something like this, to see horsepower gains you would need to take it to a tuner that can dyno your car and optimize the use of the make-shift forced induction.

In short, yes, it would work, but it's not as cheap as you think, unless some one has already done it and has a quick ECU flash so you can plug and play, but you probably won't gain the level of horsepower gains you may think you might.

Best of luck
~Brad

[Eric G]

Take a look at the electric leaf blower and the honda on youtube...they do work but you need a lot of extension cord.

[Mrmaddbrad]

Actually, I don't know what I was thinking in that previous post.

Turbo's and superchargers work in completely different ways than these fans. Although a good idea, it will never work.

The average turbo spins at about 100,000 times a minute... An electrically driven fan is never going to provide that. Sorry to burst your bubble!

[jb92563]

I do not want to attempt this, but was just curious if it had been done before.

It would require a tune of course since the computer controls the amount of fuel entering the engine.

Any device that can increase the volume of air entering the engine should be able to increase HP along with the ECU tune.

I just thought that with so many folks spending $400+ to get a less obstructed induction system for a gain of less than 10hp, they may as well do the electric super charger and get perhaps 20hp gain or more for the same $$$.

I used to have a Turbo car and it had a boost guage that had a red zone beyond 14lbs boost before the wastegate would open.

To me that was a nice feature that helped acceleration tremendously.

I think if the 6 speed Boxster had a turbo you would need to be pretty fast on the shifts and perhaps a 5 speed transmission would be better.

Here is a Dyno test of the leafblower experiment

[stephen wilson]

Just a few thoughts. That leaf blower looks to be gas powered, and the smoke video just proves that a fan sucks......we knew that. And the price for the electric fan you linked is $400. There is no free lunch, forced induction takes HP to generate boost, whether it's from the exhaust, a pulley, or electricity generated by the alternator. I would guess a DC motor ( or inverter and AC motor ) big enough to generate useful boost would be fairly large and heavy.