> >The technology has been around for ages. Has anybody out there
> >supercharged a B?
> >
> >Regards,
> >Michael.
Oddly enough, I was recently thinking about trying the same thing for my 'B.
Here's
my idea: I have a set of hopeless dual SU's. Use each dashpot as the housing
for the
turbine. Find or fabricate a turbine from aluminum and modify the dashpot to
suck in
air from a side port. The top of the dashpot would face the radiator, and each
dashpot would be mounted side by side and driven by a single pulley, with the
units
connected by gears. This assembly would be mounted below the carbs, by the
water pump
pulley, and wouold be run by a longer v-belt. The air would travel from the
turbines to the SU intakes by means of aluminum or steel pipe that is custom
bent
for the application. The air intake tubes would be mounted to the old SU
intake,
which would be mounted to the SU's where the air cleaners went. I would also
fit a
screen mesh between the turbines and the intake tubes, along with a cone air
filter to
the end of each air intake.
OK, here's the tricky part: This setup needs to negate the car's
natural
vacuum to be of any use, and it should actually be somewhat higher than the
vacuum to
see any real boost. I seem to remember that Dodge vehicles use a turbo boost
of
5-8lbs, while the earlier Saab turbos could run as high as 20lbs.
Obviously, the turbines would be spinning full-time, so tests would
have to be
made to ensure that the turbos didn't hit their peak at say, 4000rpm. If this
happened, the engine would be choked. On the contrary, the turbos shouldn't
put out
too much boost at low RPM's either.
As for lubrication, I dunno. I was thinking of fitting a roller
bearing to
the tip of the turbine where the shaft fits in to the dashpot, but I don't know
how I
could lube it. I'd have to fabricate the mounting bracket, the drive gears,
the
pulley, and each turbine. That's alot of work, especially if the boost doesn't
even
cover the vacuum pressure! I thought of using the gear from an old camshaft
(the gear
that turns the dizzy) for a turbine, but I don't think it would be large
enough. My
best bet might be to have a machine shop mill one for me from a block of
aluminum. I
also thought about stacking three or four old electric fan blades from the
later
MGB's, but I dunno if the plastic blades could stand up to a hellacious boost
pressure
without disintegrating. Of course, I couldn't use the SU bodies for this, but
it's a
thought though...
So, my first step would be to create one of these contraptions and
figure out
what kind of RPM's the turbine would be spinning at, then bench test it, if
possible,
to assimilate the boost values, then compare them to the vacuum values from my
SU's.
>From there, it might be feasible to mount them to the car and test their
>effects on
the engine at different RPM's. However, this is just an idea that came upon me
during
my North Carolina history class.
OK, for anybody who has read this crazy scheme to the end, what do you
think?
I'd especially like the advice of the self-named Old Farts who have been
around
superchargers and turbos for a while and know their characteristics. I'd also
like to
know what effects this would have on my engine. Would I have to upgrade my
cam,
lifters, rockers, crank, etc? Would I run the risk of detonation, or even
worse,
seizure? Keep in mind that I really don't have the time/money to pursue this
at the
moment, but it's something that I've been refining in my head. It might become
a
project this summer, if the laws of physics don't disagree with my ideas!
Thanks in advance for any advice, criticisms and flames. Yes, the
flames will
be handy when I decide to roast some chestnuts...8-)
--
Michael S. Lishego
St. Andrews Presbyterian College
Elementary Education Major,
English Minor, Class of 1999
R.A. of Winston-Salem Hall
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