Poor man's super charger?

[project 92z]

I was recently thinking about a quick cheap form of boost and thought this might be a low budget, quick 20-30 horses. I'm looking for inputs.

Since boost is basically accomplished by forcing more and denser air into the combustion chamber, wouldn't larger injectors, an old school "ram" air routed thru a K&N filter and a quick tune on a chip to allow for the new set up work? Since I have an air dam on my front bumper, having a wide air shovel fabbed to route cold air up to an insulated air cleaner box into the tb should work.

My concern would be there's no way to govern how much "boost" I'm getting since the faster I'm going, the more air is being forced up. Also being OBD1, can a chip be tuned?

[robertisaar]

there are 800HP, purpose built cars with ram-air setups that don't achieve a ~25HP bump while traveling at 125+ MPH.... i don't think you're going to be seeing even 5 at legal speeds.

unless you somehow generate enough positive manifold pressure to outrange the MAP sensor, the ECM will account for the increased air density with no problem.



cheap? dry shot of nitrous can do 20-30 with no problem, but i hate the concept of it. wet/direct port is the way to go.

from the looks and sounds of it though, you're playing with a LQ1.... you can grab somewhere in the 20-30 range from cam timing alone from what i've seen of some fiero guys on a dyno. modifying the upper intake can also yield some pretty fantastic results as well.

[Guest]

there are 800HP, purpose built cars with ram-air setups that don't achieve a ~25HP bump while traveling at 125+ MPH.... i don't think you're going to be seeing even 5 at legal speeds.

This^^

I read an article years ago about a drag (purpose built) Neon, that had a scoop situated in such a way that forced the air directly into the open throttle bores (ITBs placed on the front of the engine so that there was no restriction between the outside of the car and the ITBs). At 100+ MPH they achieved 2 PSIG of positive intake pressure.

While ram air in theory works, it takes a lot of speed to have any appreciable gains.

[1988GTU]

Cheaper to install a nitrous wet kit.

[project 92z]

Well, theory is all it was/is. I use to have an old 71 Plymouth and RAM air was all the rage. Outranging the MAP sensor and ECM I thought might be accomplished thru a WOT chip maybe? And I did look at a wet kit. Although it is a relatively cheap way to go, If RAM air worked it would be cheaper to install with no ongoing cost of refilling bottles. But again, all theory....

[1988GTU]

If RAM air worked it would be cheaper to install with no ongoing cost of refilling bottles.

On the other hand, you could take that wet kit and expand upon it should more power be desired.. or transition it over to another vehicle relatively cheap (initial major components would be already accounted for) with an already familiarization of installation. Apples to beans for thinkin.

[Superdave]

Here you go... lol

I ran it at the track all day like that, at 100+ MPH you could tell it was working. If the DA was better I might have been able to get my 12.99, traps were up in the 108 MPH range all day.


Modified headlight and radiator support, 3.5" pipe directly to a 75mm TB. I did a before and after test, I can't remember the specific numbers from the MAP sensor but it went from low 90's Kpa to maxed out at 99.9 ish. Wish I had a 2 bar in there at the time.

Wasn't worth the effort though.

[3400-95-Modified]

I would say that is worth it to simply get FRESH cool air... I know when I'm sitting in the staging lines if my fan happens to come on the air blows from the radiator down to where my filter is... Some of my logs from this past weekend I had IAT temps of 121* before leaving the line. I need to find a way to move or isolate the intake to prevent that hot air from getting in there.

[project 92z]

Thanks Dave. I hadn't looked back at this post in a while. Kinda cool just to hear about it being applied. You said it wasn't worth the effort, though? What did you notice since you said you could tell it was working?

[Superdave]

The datalogs showed that the MAP sensor maxing out vs being lower without it. You could also tell at high speeds that air was being forced into the TB, the throttle didn't feel the same as it did with a normal CAI. Kind of a delayed response.


It didn't net any noticeable gains in trap speeds but I'm sure intake air temps were lower. That would be the reason to do something like this, just nice fresh air right into the engine.

[Purple pit]

http://www.heatshieldproducts.com/automotive/component-specific-heat-shields/cold-intake-shield

This worked great for me on my 04 Cavy with a K&N WAI. The intake temps went from over 100F to almost ambient.

[Superdave]

Header wrap works well too.