Supercharger Performance and Engine Performance Parts

Posts Tagged ‘N2O’

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Technorati Tags: boost, CFM, compressor map, header, Intercooler, N2O, Power Calculator, RPM, water injection

This is the triple distilled guide on engine performance parts to help you make the most power with the least effort. There’s an abundance of bolt on and custom application engine performance parts available for any vehicle, and the internet is full of advice, trials, and feedback from enthusiasts, brand promoters, magazine editors, and even racers about which performance parts are best for your car. 

Engine performance hinges on one of THREE general factors:

1-      raw power factors

2-      efficiency factors

3-      Power boosters

3-      Power Boosters:

Typically called forced induction, power boosters include serious modifications to your engine that can result in a 30 to 400% power increase while maintaining the same raw power and efficiency figures (i.e. at the same peak rpm and with the same displacement).

Because of this serious increase in power, power boosters are the great equalizer that allows smaller engines to simulate and exceed the performance of a much larger engine. Originally these technologies were developed for conditions where more power was needed with a limitation on the physical dimensions of the engine. A prime example for this would be requiring more horsepower for a plane that would see most of its usage in high altitude thin air. The engine for this type of aircraft faces the difficulty of having to carry its weight and still maneuver with high performance and accuracy, which places maximum weight and size requirements on the engine and complete aircraft. Furthermore, the engine would have to operate efficiently and produce power in thin air which is less dense and thus less oxygen rich making it have less power potential.

After time these technologies moved into automotive racing and from there into aftermarket modifications and finally into production automobiles.

There are three types of Power boosters I want to mention here:

Engine Compression ratios:

Some may argue that this is an efficiency modification, but since this modification actually ADDS more horsepower rather than freeing up system inefficiencies I have chosen to set it apart here.

The addition of 1 compression point typically results in a 4% power increase and reduced fuel consumption. Bumping up a car’s compression ratio from a typical 9:1 compression ratio to a more performance oriented 15:1 for example is a potential power increase of 24%. I don’t think this kind of power increase can be considered an ‘efficiency’ upgrade but rather a legit power boost.

Let me disclaim here that increasing the motor’s compression ratio , as well as using all the other power booster modifications in this section, significantly increases the final combustion pressure produced inside the motor (especially when using more than one power booster in tandem), and thus there is definitely a need for:

1-      Higher octane fuel requirements to prevent preigntion detonation and reduce the speed of the flame front for normal ignition events.

2-      Heat management, through increased head cooling, using aluminum heads, colder spark plugs, and upgraded cooling system capacity to be able to cope with a significant increase in power (and its co product which is heat).

3-      A more conservative retune to a richer air fuel ratio that helps maintain stable exhaust gas temperatures that indicate a sustainable combustion process rather than an explosion occurring inside the engine

4-      A more conservative retune to for ignition timing and cam overlap that helps maintain stable exhaust gas temperatures that indicate a sustainable combustion process rather than an explosion occurring inside the engine.

Chargers (weather they are turbochargers or superchargers)

Turbochargers and superchargers intercept air in the intake system before it reaches the engine and compress it making it denser leaving more oxygen per volume of air. If the air is compressed to half its size for example then we will be able to fill a 2.0 Liter engine with 4.0 Liters of air per revolution. If we also make available double the fuel injection coupled with proper tuning, then we can successfully produce double the horsepower because there is literally twice as big a combustion occurring inside the engine.

Of course under normal conditions the engine would never breathe 4.0 Liters of air on its own, and thus charger works as a pump that keeps the engine pressurized by overfeeding or force feeding it with more air than it would have ingested under normal conditions.

The term boost or ‘psi’ (pounds per square inch) is a measure of how much pressure is placed on the motor and thus boost is highly related to how much more air is ingested into the motor. Every 1psi of boost is equivalent to a power increase of 7% over what the engine would make without a turbocharger, so increasing the pressure of an engine by just a few psi can show a significant increase in power and torque.

With 93 octane gasoline and proper tuning, boosting an engine to 15 to 18psi is pretty safe and thus increasing an engine’s power by 120% is not uncommon with a ‘street’ friendly turbo system. More power increases can be seen with race setups and higher octane availability.

One of the advantages of turbochargers and superchargers is that since the air is compressed (for example to half its original size at 14psi) then  a conservatively sized 45mm throttle body looks to like a 63mm throttle body from the point of view of the compressed air. In this way, turbochargers and superchargers can overcome inefficiencies in the design of the engine’s intake path because compressing the air makes it occupy a smaller volume (for the same oxygen content) which makes the intake system seem like less of a flow restriction.

This also makes some of the efficiency modifications (namely those between the charger and the intake valve) less in need of being modified as they are less of a power restriction.

Nitrous Oxide Injection

Nitrous oxide injection is similar to turbochargers and superchargers in that it delivers more oxygen to the fire in the same volume of air and thus in the same engine displacement. Nitrous oxide does this in two ways:

1-      Rather than compressing air to a smaller volume to increase oxygen density, nitrous oxide is composed of two nitrogen molecules and 1 oxygen molecule. This composition makes nitrous oxide 33% oxygen rich by volume compared with normal air which is around 16% oxygen by volume. What this means quite literally is that if we had an engine breathing pure nitrous oxide flowing at room temperatures and atmospheric pressure then the horsepower output would simply be doubled.

2-      However nitrous oxide is delivered to the engine in compressed form (as it is compressed to 1000psi when it is packaged into the bottle). Using the same formula for pressure and volume that we used for turbochargers, a 1000 psi pressurized bottle is compressed 70 times or to 1/70^th its original volume. This  means that feeding an engine purely with nitrous oxide at the temperature and pressure at which it comes out of the nitrous bottle, we could potentially produce 140 times more horsepower from that engine than we could having it breathe normal air! How is that for a replacement for displacement?

Practically speaking, nitrous oxide is usually used for a power boost of 50 to 100% depending on how prepared the engine (and the user is) for the power boost, and depending on the style of nitrous delivery (for example progressive direct port nitrous injection is the most reliable type of injection for 100% or more nitrous power boosts).

So in summary of the whole article…. Here’s what I recommend:

1-      Figure out how much horsepower you want to achieve

2-      As stated in part 1, figure out the engine combination with the highest potential that is allowable for you in the rule books.

3-      Look at how much boost you will need if any with that engine combination to reach your power goals

4-      Depending on weather you need a 20% power boost or a 200% power boost, pick your power adder (from a small compression increase, to a small nitrous shot, to a larger supercharger or turbocharger setup, to a combination of power boosters) that will allow you to reach your goals.

5-      Last (and not first), plan out the supporting and efficiency modifications that are required for that engine and power adder combination (from part two of this article). Basically you want to install the efficiency parts that will allow you to flow the amount of exhaust gas that you need at your peak power level, and optimize your entire engine package around your target peak PRM, anything else would be a waste of money.

6-      Understanding that upgrading engine efficiency is limited to a 10-20% power increase over stock as well as performing modifications planning in the sequence that I have just described, may save you TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars from being wasted upgrading a motor that just frankly doesn’t have the raw power potential (in terms of displacement, RPM or stroke) to meet your power requirements, or requires an unrealistic power boost combination (such as a 400% power hike using an exotic turbo setup) to reach the power goal requirements that you have.

I know that most of the advertising and development in performance modifications spent on things like intakes and exhausts (covered in part two of this article), but that is easily explainable:

1-      Those parts although they don’t add much horsepower to your car, are exactly what 80% of the people are willing to install on their cars because they sound cool, are cheap, may require no tuning at all, and are fairly easy to install.

2-      Those parts are also a gateway modification to more power modifications in the future, and so come at a smaller entry price and smaller install complication to get you willing to work on your car and purchase parts (basically a marketing ploy). If everyone were chucking their stock engines for a larger big block grabbed from the junkyard then all the shallow aftermarket performance companies (producing only efficiency parts) would go out of business leaving only the companies that have the depth of experience and science to build crate engines and power adder kits. So for these companies to stay profitable they need to keep you invested in your stock engine which allows them to secure their place in the industry, weather that wins you races or not.

However if you are serious about modifications, you will use my 3 piece guide to start your modifications plan with the end in mind. If you really want 700hp then you are much better off with a 500hp engine running a measly 6psi of boost than you are trying to boost a 150hp 4 cylinder to 54psi or trying to feed it 550 horsepower worth of nitrous.

Technorati Tags: compression ratio, Displacement, engine performance parts, exhaust, intake, N2O, Supercharger, turbocharger

The movie gone in 60 seconds is the all time most viewed movie by automotive performance enthusiasts. One of the most memorable icons in the movie is Eleanor the 1967 Mustang Fastback. A car that combines both big block performance as well as other engine performance parts most notable a dual side exit exhaust system and a go-fast-go nitrous system activated by the infamous red button on the shifter.

 The move reminds us of fun times, simple times, with friends gathering together around a project, in simple carefree times, not worrying about high gas prices, or emissions, pre-global warming and pre the big three bailout.

A company called Classic Recreations from Yukon, Oklahoma now gives you the opportunity to relive that nostalgic time by owning a turn-key ready to go resto-performance replica of the original Eleanor featured in gone in 60 seconds…

The cars come in two possible packaged of either a naturally aspirated 535 hp or an impressive turn-key 750 hp relying on supercharger performance!

The naturally aspirated package relies on a:

Nostalgic Times

“410 CI Keith Craft Crate Engine w/Aluminum Heads (535hp)
Mass Flo Fuel Injection
Tremec TKO Manual Transmission
Fab 9- 9″ rear w/ 3:70 Gear ratio and Posi Traction installed
Concept One serpentine drive belt system”

While its supercharged big brother utilizes a:

“427 CI Keith Craft Crate Engine w/Aluminum Heads (750hp)
Mass Flo Fuel Injection
Procharger 14psi intercooled supercharger
Tremec TKO Manual Transmission

14psi from a Procharger Supercharger

Fab 9- 9″ rear w/ 3:70 Gear ratio and Posi Traction installed
Concept One serpentine drive belt system”

Both cars are further equipped with a nitrous system for even more boost.

Find the complete details here:

FI 750 HP

Technorati Tags: Eleanor, mustang, N2O, OEM, Procharger, Tuners