[muditgrover]

Hey guys,

May sound stupid but I need to clear all my curiosities even if it is 2 AM in the morning and as it is related to cars. What can be better than TBHP?

I have attached an image. Please check and tell me what is that? I mean it takes the air in the engine. What do we call it?

Thanks and Regards

[AlphaKilo]

my 2 cents supercharger!

[muditgrover]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

my 2 cents supercharger!

My first thought was a supercharger but then i search supercharger in google images and found other things, So it thought that it would be something else.

Thanks for clearing it up.

Now, can anyone tell me the different between a supercharger and turbocharger?

Thanks

[AlphaKilo]

Simple grover.

Supercharger, works on the principle of compressing ram air and feeds the compressed air into the intake. It has a impeller(similar to one found in our borewell pumps) which compresses air and forwards the compressed air into cylinder thru a pathway.

Turbocharger, works the otherway around, it takes the exhaust air, purifies it, compresses it and resends it back to the engine.

Basically both of them add more power to the engine. Both have their advantages and disadvantages so cannot term which is better and which is not depends on usage and applications

[911varun]

Its a throttle body of the engine, it takes cold air. Its not a turbocharged engine its conventional

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by 911varun

Its a throttle body of the engine, it takes cold air. Its not a turbocharged engine its conventional

Its a throttle body, which I can understand and thats y I just guessed it could be a supercharger. For sure its not a turbo, but then why do we need such a big throttle body and that too for a cold ram? It has to be some way linked to a supercharger unit rite?

[Pankaj401]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Turbocharger, works the otherway around, it takes the exhaust air, purifies it, compresses it and resends it back to the engine.

Not correct. The TC uses the energy in the exhaust gases to compress the air to supply intake with higher air pressure. The exhaust gases are then expelled through the exhaust.
May be it was EGR that you were referring to but then that's simple recirculation of part of exhaust gases into intake.

[absynthguzzler]

They are called blower type superchargers ....the one installed on that particular car was code named BDS 8-71.

Yes, the answer was googled with a little bit of effort. If we're planning to discuss the technicalities of the product, i request the mods to change the title of the thread to a more generic one.

cheers.

[Technocrat]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Supercharger, works on the principle of compressing ram air and feeds the compressed air into the intake. It has a impeller(similar to one found in our borewell pumps) which compresses air and forwards the compressed air into cylinder thru a pathway.

Turbocharger, works the otherway around, it takes the exhaust air, purifies it, compresses it and resends it back to the engine.

Basically both of them add more power to the engine. Both have their advantages and disadvantages so cannot term which is better and which is not depends on usage and applications

Originally Posted by Pankaj401

Not correct. The TC uses the energy in the exhaust gases to compress the air to supply intake with higher air pressure. The exhaust gases are then expelled through the exhaust.
May be it was EGR that you were referring to but then that's simple recirculation of part of exhaust gases into intake.

Both have been explained in This Thread

Both turbochargers and superchargers are called forced induction systems. They compress the air flowing into the engine (see How Car Engines Work for a description of airflow in a normal engine). The advantage of compressing the air is that it lets the engine stuff more air into a cylinder. More air means that more fuel can be stuffed in, too, so you get more power from each explosion in each cylinder. A turbo/supercharged engine produces more power overall than the same engine without the charging.

The key difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger is its power supply. Something has to supply the power to run the air compressor. In a supercharger, there is a belt that connects directly to the engine. It gets its power the same way that the water pump or alternator does. A turbocharger, on the other hand, gets its power from the exhaust stream. The exhaust runs through a turbine, which in turn spins the compressor (see How Gas Turbine Engines Work for details).

There are tradeoffs in both systems. In theory, a turbocharger is more efficient because it is using the "wasted" energy in the exhaust stream for its power source. On the other hand, a turbocharger causes some amount of back pressure in the exhaust system and tends to provide less boost until the engine is running at higher RPMs. Superchargers are easier to install but tend to be more expensive.

[absynthguzzler]

Apologies, I'm only partly correct on the previous post . What you see above the hood is indeed fuel injectors for blowers! . i.e the mechanical/electrical fuel injection assemblies and not the supercharger that sits under.

EDIT - Blower Injector Info







Another correction in the thread title

[VCheng]

The original picture has the ram air intake with the throttle plates circled that sit on top of a huge supercharger.

This set up is used in top fuel dragstesr to add horsepower with increasing speeds towards the end of the run. Some assemblies may contain injectors for water/methanol/nitromethane etc.

There is usually no intercooler on these types of units since they are cooled before the run with lots of ice and the whole run lasts well under 10 seconds.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

... Supercharger, works on the principle of compressing ram air and feeds the compressed air into the intake. ...
Turbocharger, works the otherway around, it takes the exhaust air, purifies it, compresses it and resends it back to the engine. ...

The only difference between a Super-charger and a Turbo-charger is the where the energy to compress the air is coming from. Both have a vane-type air compressor (not a piston-type air compressor that feeds borewell water extractors) to force more air into the air intake of an engine than possible by natural induction.

To drive this air compressor, a supercharger is either driven by an electric motor, or in older versions by a belt from the engine itself. A turbo-charger is driven by a turbine which extracts remnant energy from the exhaust gases. And no, the exhaust gases are not fed back into the engine the way you describe - they go out through the catalytic converter like in any car. For controlling emissions, the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) system feeds controlled amounts of exhaust gases into the intake manifold via the EGR valve - nothing to do with the Turbo-charger.

PS: Sorry, just realized this has already been covered by @Pankaj and @technocrat

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by muditgrover

I have attached an image. Please check and tell me what is that? I mean it takes the air in the engine. What do we call it?

The movie "Mad Max" (ABOUT THE REAL MAD MAX CARS) and its sequels triggered a rage for these cars over the years, with blower injectors being one of the components that stick out above the bonnet. Apart from injectors, such extensions can incorporate ram air intakes, superchargers and fuel injector hats. Even today, a certain Mr. Foose chips in with such modifications in Overhaulin'.

[absynthguzzler]

Can i be enlightened with the actual efficiency of these FI, blowers and RAM intake assemblies please. Are they designed for better performance than what a discreet setup ( as in something that's hidden under hood ) or is it primarily the aesthetic/design radicalism that make's one opt for it.

From what i gather, the superchargers used in these setups are of the larrger footprint screw type, but the one's which are more readily available and marketed nowadays are much smaller and rotary blade type. As some may quote........does size really matter in this case ?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by absynthguzzler

...the actual efficiency of these FI, blowers and RAM intake assemblies...
...designed for better performance than what a discreet setup...
...does size really matter in this case ?

Oh yes, size does matter! Hotrods have never caught on (and probably never will) in a country obsessed with "kitna deti hai?" , and these modifications are meant to take power output into a different league altogether.

Some more material here: Fuel Injection - Muscle Cars Street Rods - Fuel Injection Conversions and Force Fuel Injection - Gallery.

ABOUT PORT FUEL INJECTION

Port fuel injection, where the injector is located at the port, greatly reduces the problems of manifold design, relating to fuel distribution, separating, heat soak, and speed of the mixture traveling through the runners.

Because there is no fuel trying to go through the main portion of the manifold, the mixture is less dense, and will travel at a greater velocity. This higher velocity means more air should enter the cylinder. If greater amounts of air can fill the cylinder, combined with the proper amount of fuel, the engine should produce more power and better economy.

Care should be taken in the design of the system components with factors of R.P.M., C.F.M., and horsepower being main considerations.

The cubic feet per minute that an engine can consume will determine the size of the throttle valve, and the manifold style and design.

R.P.M. and horsepower levels play a big part in the sizing of the injectors. Obviously too small an injector will starve an engine, if not do serious and irreparable harm.

It should be remembered that maximum fuel consumption occurs at peak torque. However the injector capacity needs to be bigger as the R.P.M. increases because there is less time available to inject the fuel.