Unorthodox Rig: Safe or Dangerous?

jonblake88

New Member
My dad and I were discussing cars recently, and we got on the subject of turbos and forced induction. He is old school (American muscle from the 70's) and doesn't know much about turbos, really. Just so you know, he won a state championship back in the 70's for building an engine from scratch at a timed competition, so he is not a noob, although he isn't versed in all of the new stuff. Anyhow, he asked me, "Could you hook up a small external air blower to a vacuum tube connected to the intake tube?" I thought for a minute and couldn't think of anything wrong with the idea. It would probably only add like 3-4 HP max, but still would be a cool rig I think. It would blow additional air right into the intake tube through a vacuum, without blocking the actual intake. But would it taint the intake manifold with dirt, since it would circumvent the air filter? Someone with some info on this kind of stuff please let me know if this is a rig worth the time/risk. Thanks.
 
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mirrorimg

Well-Known Member
So you want an electric supercharger? Blow air into the intake to give it more volume in the combustion chamber? Its a good concept, but nobody has been able to do it yet. You can search ebay, and they have dinky fans which are their "concept" of a electric supercharger. It is a terrible concept as it is flimsy and can break and be sucked into the combustion chamber, and it really wouldn't add much pressure to the air already being pulled in.

There was another company that took the concept to the next level, and the product looked very similar to a turbocharger. This looks to be the product
 

BigMac88

Fat guy in a little 'teg
Yeah those guys^^^ put it on a V-dub I believe. They made some power and helped fuel efficiency as well.
 

jonblake88

New Member
Well it cannot be sucked into the chamber because it would be completely external from everything, connected via a vacuum tube that is directly connected to the intake tube. Basically it would just blow a little extra air into the intake tube, imitating faster driving, thus in theory producing higher throttle response.
 


mirrorimg

Well-Known Member
You say it will be external, yet connected by a tube to the intake arm. This means it will be connected, and risks damaging the engine should it fall apart or break. For what its worth, I have seen a video of a person attaching a leaf blower to the throttle body and turning it on to full blast while on a dyno. It produced more HP than the normal natural aspiration from the intake.

If you can find a way to force more air into that tube and into the combustion chamber, it will improve horsepower.
 

BigMac88

Fat guy in a little 'teg
Get an eBay hamster wheel :lol:. What's it called? The Turbonator or something like that?
 

Joshmmc

New Member
The quantity of air that an engine naturally pulls, and the velocity at which it does it is quite huge. A fan or weak little turbine along the course of the intake is more likely to add resistance to the natural intake process than it is to add boost. As far as te Ebay electric superchargers for $50 go, anyways. Turbonator looks like BS to me, too. I don't think there is anything out there yet that is actually practical compared to conventional turbo and supercharging.
 

jonblake88

New Member
Thanks for the replies. That turbonator is a waste of time and money. Joshmmc, you missed the part where I said it would not be in the course of the intake. It would be something external of the tube and blowing its air through a vacuum tube into the intake. My only concern is what mirrorimg mentioned: if it happens to break, chip, or crack, its pieces could potentially fly into intake tube and fuck up my engine. :s
 

heykosal

Angkorian
Joshmmc said:
The quantity of air that an engine naturally pulls, and the velocity at which it does it is quite huge. A fan or weak little turbine along the course of the intake is more likely to add resistance to the natural intake process than it is to add boost. As far as te Ebay electric superchargers for $50 go, anyways. Turbonator looks like BS to me, too. I don't think there is anything out there yet that is actually practical compared to conventional turbo and supercharging.
Click to expand...
exactly.

there's a youtube clip of a couple of guys messing around with a civic on a dyno, they hooked a leaf blower to the intake and i think it actually made a couple of hp lol
 

19fury69

New Member
My old neighbor actually did this with his prelude.... he stole my leaf blower one day, bought a huge power inverter and mounted the leaf blower onto the intake, ran an extension cord from inside the car where the inverter was out the passenger window and under the hood. Then he cut a hole in the hood so it would close and drove it around thinking it was great... It made no difference at all, the amount of air the engine needs is way more then any leaf blower available to the public would put out.
 
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