Has anyone actually tried an electric supercharger...?

[m52 e30]

With humor and a plethora of skepticism I ask, has anyone actually used one of those $200 electric superchargers and out of curiousity, what were the results??? Thanks

[02stu]

I made one when I was 16 out of a eletric leaf blower and a tennis ball machine, sadly it did nothing. I did manage to ruin the leaf blower and the tennis ball launcher.

[mattdk318i]

same here. except i only ruined a leaf blower

[chuckybob]

if you mean those pieces of shit that you put in your air intake, dyno results have proven time and time again that theyre completely useless. at least with magnets on your fuel lines theres a notable change.

if you mean some kind of electric motor powered supercharger on the otherhand, gimme links dammit. should work as long as it can spin RPMs as high as mechanically driven ones.

[StereoInstaller1]

If you understand that an alternator is only like 60% efficient, adn an electric motor less so, you will see that the chance of making more power is just impossible.

Even a "Roots" type is better than that.

Luke

[RobertK]

http://www.boosthead.com/home.php

This is the only electric supercharger I know of that can actually produce results. Unfortunately it's only able to produce power for short durations due to the amount of power needed to produce the boost. So you have to activate it with a button like NOS.

The way I see it is if you are going to spend that kind of money on a supercharger you might as well get the real thing.

[yozsi]

gas powered leaf blower will boost hp and tq

[yozsi]

http://videos.streetfire.net/search/leaf+blower/0/AB544E3B-5DFF-416D-9CFD-A1AD23CA9564.htm

[02stu]

If you understand that an alternator is only like 60% efficient, adn an electric motor less so, you will see that the chance of making more power is just impossible.
Luke

Thats a good point, but if you can force more air in, you can force more fuel in. If you can do that you can get more power while decreaseing efficiency. So I think you could get more power but your right, I wonder if thats the same for a belt driven supercharger. A turbo can increase power and efficiency, I bet a supercharger can't. Even if you could get power out of an electric supercharger the power gain vs. all the shit you would get for it wouldn't be worth it. I can't image taking that to an autocross and have them try to class it, you would never here the end of it.
stu

[silverfbimmer]

Superchargers loose 30% of their power through lack of efficiancy. I had an article somewhere that stated this. Turbos are a lot more efficient becuase they don't put any excess strain on the engine to operate. As opposed to a supercharger which uses belts run off the engine to create power.

[Tangent]

With just a really quick search it looks like most gas leafblowers will push a little over 320cfm of air. I'm pretty sure that even a stock m20b25 will pull something more than 500cfm. One of the problems with using a leaf blower to produce boost should be pretty obvious...

[RobertK]

Superchargers loose 30% of their power through lack of efficiancy. I had an article somewhere that stated this. Turbos are a lot more efficient becuase they don't put any excess strain on the engine to operate. As opposed to a supercharger which uses belts run off the engine to create power.

Both Superchargers and Turbos have there place regardless of efficiency.

Superchargers = More Power off the line but less top end.

Turbos = Harder to get power off the line but plenty of power to pull on the top end.

[chuckybob]

twin turbo or... dare i say... triple turbo = moar powar off the line B)

[ptownTSI]

while rudimentary compared to many newer applications the blow through carburateur centrifugal supercharger is ALWAYS fun to drive on 30 year old detroit iron. if you ever have the chance to feel so much power, don't hesitate.

[Group A]

anything that forces more air into your engine (assuming you give it more fuel to compensate) will make power. so do those electric superhcargers work? they probably do, but not enough to either feel a difference or justify the price