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Author: Subject: Home made supercharger?
bi22le

posted on 11/7/11 at 08:42 PM Reply With Quote
Home made supercharger?

Hi all,

I was day dreaming the other day again about supercharging my car and had a look for Rotrex superchargers, they cost soooo much!

You can get a MINI Eaton supercharger for a fifth of the price but it wont fit in a 7 as far as I know. I dont think there is room in my Striker anyway!!

So, after looking at a Rotrex and speaking to my mad mate (bending and building a bonkers V8 MG Midget from scratch) it was thought as possible.

Could I not get a small ish turbo, split it and pulley the shaft?

A machined plate may need to be made up so the oil cooled bearings dont melt and internals are weighted, supported correctly?

10 to 1 ratio pulley.

. . . . . . . I dont know, I was just dreaming.


Thoughts, experience?

Happy driving all,

Biz





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tomgregory2000

posted on 11/7/11 at 08:46 PM Reply With Quote
I dont think you will be able to spin it fast enough, simple as that
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clairetoo

posted on 11/7/11 at 08:48 PM Reply With Quote
In a word - no .
The Rotrex has an epicyclic gearbox , which increases the revs so the pulley can turn at a reasonable speed - even multi V pulleys cant run at 60000 rpm...............

[Edited on 11/7/11 by clairetoo]





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daviep

posted on 11/7/11 at 08:55 PM Reply With Quote
I think the pulley ratios would be prohibitive, I think you'd need at least 20:1 you're looking for turbine speeds of about 100,000rpm, which mean having a crank pulley bigger than 2 foot diameter.

Davie





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bi22le

posted on 11/7/11 at 08:58 PM Reply With Quote
Ah nuts.

any alturnatives to rotrex or a method of skrinking an eaton?!?





Track days ARE the best thing since sliced bread, until I get a supercharger that is!

Please read my ring story:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/13/viewthread.php?tid=139152&page=1

Me doing a sub 56sec lap around Brands Indy. I need a geo set up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHksfvIGB3I

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bi22le

posted on 11/7/11 at 08:58 PM Reply With Quote
Ah nuts.

any alturnatives to rotrex or a method of skrinking an eaton?!?





Track days ARE the best thing since sliced bread, until I get a supercharger that is!

Please read my ring story:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/13/viewthread.php?tid=139152&page=1

Me doing a sub 56sec lap around Brands Indy. I need a geo set up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHksfvIGB3I

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tomgregory2000

posted on 11/7/11 at 09:03 PM Reply With Quote
Just use the turbo as it was intended!!!!!!

You know you want to

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MikeRJ

posted on 11/7/11 at 09:03 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
Could I not get a small ish turbo, split it and pulley the shaft?



Certainly, but you'd need the budget to develop a suitable gearbox and solve all the lubrication issues. I doubt that it would be cheaper than buying a Rotrex...

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balidey

posted on 11/7/11 at 09:24 PM Reply With Quote
Why can't you do it? I looked into this a while ago for my cinquecento, very small engine, very small engine bay.
A Rotrex is just a turbo housing on the side of a bespoke made gearbox.
As for speeds, I seem to remember from AG Bell's book on charging, a smaller turbo needs to run at faster speeds than a larger turbo, so if you can't achieve the same speeds as a Rotrex unit just use a larger turbo running slower to achieve the same effect (OK, simplified it, but thats basically the gist of it)
Ultimately you may not get it spinning at the same RPM, but you will still be achieving a positive pressure, so you will still have supercharged your engine for a few hundred as opposed to a few thousand pounds. All you need to do is source or make the right gearbox. And as Rotrex have made one that tells me there must be similar ones out there that you can adapt to do a similar job.





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zilspeed

posted on 11/7/11 at 10:11 PM Reply With Quote
12V winches have planetary gears.
Not sure of the ratios though.






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Badger_McLetcher

posted on 11/7/11 at 10:27 PM Reply With Quote
To get up to those kind of speeds a suitable gearbox is needed. Get one and then yes, you could make yourself a a supercharger. Not entirely sure where you could source such a beast though. It may be possible to make one yourself, dependent on your facilities.





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Doctor Derek Doctors

posted on 11/7/11 at 10:37 PM Reply With Quote
Instead of gearing it up you could just use a much larger compressor. Something like an IHI 85mm truck turbo compressor would need to be spun less quickly to to give the same flow than a tiny car turbo needing to pin at 80,000+ rpm.

But then again I think even with that size compressor you would need at least 30,000 rpm to get 10psi of boost. So you have a Turbo thats nearly a foot accoss with a 1:5 (ish) pulley ratio to make a fairly low amount of boost.

You might as well just use a turbocharger, superchargers are a dieing technology, the manufacturers are selling them at a loss to the car makers and they are less efficient, more complicated and make less boost. Turbos on the other hand are are getting, cheaper, smaller and more efficient.





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MikeRJ

posted on 12/7/11 at 06:59 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by balidey
And as Rotrex have made one that tells me there must be similar ones out there that you can adapt to do a similar job.


The compressor is the trivial part of the Rotrex. The clever bit is the friction driven epicyclic gearbox which gives the massive gear ratio required to spin the compressor at the required speeds, whilst taking the large peak torque during engine speed changes.

Simply fitting a pulley to an old turbo and hoping to be able to drive it fast enough is a total non-starter.

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MikeRJ

posted on 12/7/11 at 07:02 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek Doctors
You might as well just use a turbocharger, superchargers are a dieing technology, the manufacturers are selling them at a loss to the car makers and they are less efficient, more complicated and make less boost. Turbos on the other hand are are getting, cheaper, smaller and more efficient.


But still suffer from the same problems they always have, i.e. non-linear boost characteristics when they are working, and relatively high RPM required to get them working in the first place unless you have the complexity of staged turbos etc.

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bi22le

posted on 12/7/11 at 09:29 AM Reply With Quote
Would it need to get to high RPM?

I only want a little boost, like 10psi or so. a big diesel compressor may do this.

a few have mensioned a massive pulley. is this to achieve tge possible required ratio needed and not due to torque required to spin the turbo?

I can get my hands pn a good condition massive boat engine turbo, garrett aswell i think.





Track days ARE the best thing since sliced bread, until I get a supercharger that is!

Please read my ring story:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/13/viewthread.php?tid=139152&page=1

Me doing a sub 56sec lap around Brands Indy. I need a geo set up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHksfvIGB3I

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bi22le

posted on 12/7/11 at 09:35 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek Doctors
You might as well just use a turbocharger, superchargers are a dieing technology, the manufacturers are selling them at a loss to the car makers and they are less efficient, more complicated and make less boost. Turbos on the other hand are are getting, cheaper, smaller and more efficient.


But still suffer from the same problems they always have, i.e. non-linear boost characteristics when they are working, and relatively high RPM required to get them working in the first place unless you have the complexity of staged turbos etc.


there are acouple of reasons why i want to avoid a turbo and this is one. power figers is appealing to me but i want good usable power in a light car. a supercharger is better for this i feel.

the other reason is just to be different. although i would rather have a faster car and 4 figures of change than nothing!!





Track days ARE the best thing since sliced bread, until I get a supercharger that is!

Please read my ring story:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/13/viewthread.php?tid=139152&page=1

Me doing a sub 56sec lap around Brands Indy. I need a geo set up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHksfvIGB3I

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nick205

posted on 12/7/11 at 09:54 AM Reply With Quote
Didn't flak monkey use an Eaton charger on his GTS Duratec?

Might be worth looking at the install to see how he fitted it and whether a bit of imagination would see it in the Striker. There's nowt wrong (IMHO) with having a charger poking out of the bonnet in a hot rod stylee

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daviep

posted on 12/7/11 at 10:10 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
Would it need to get to high RPM?

I only want a little boost, like 10psi or so. a big diesel compressor may do this.

a few have mensioned a massive pulley. is this to achieve tge possible required ratio needed and not due to torque required to spin the turbo?

I can get my hands pn a good condition massive boat engine turbo, garrett aswell i think.


You would need a huge pulley for two reasons:-

  1. The ratio, you need to be gearing up by a factor of around 10 or 20:1
  2. The pulley on the turbine has a minimum size depending on the belt used, it's not only the torque requirement but the minimum bending radius of the belt.

I don't think a turbo turbine will have a linear output like a supercharger, I think you'll need to reach the correct operating speed.

Bolting on a huge turbo would seem counter productive to me, they aint going to be well packaged under the bonnet and it aint going to be light.

Davie





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Doctor Derek Doctors

posted on 12/7/11 at 12:33 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek Doctors
You might as well just use a turbocharger, superchargers are a dieing technology, the manufacturers are selling them at a loss to the car makers and they are less efficient, more complicated and make less boost. Turbos on the other hand are are getting, cheaper, smaller and more efficient.


But still suffer from the same problems they always have, i.e. non-linear boost characteristics when they are working, and relatively high RPM required to get them working in the first place unless you have the complexity of staged turbos etc.


At the end of the day though they're still a better solution, thats why more and more cars are turbocharged and less and less are supercharged. Even the most somplex turbo's ar still simpler than a supercharger as well. Thats why the new forced induction F1 engines are all using Turbos and not superchargers





Designer and Supplier of the T89 Designs - Single Seater Locost. Build you own Single Seater Racecar for ~£5k.

Plans and Drawings available, U2U or e-mail for details.

Available Now: The Sports Racer Add-On pack, Build a full bodied Sports Racer for Trackdays, Sprints and Racing.



www.t89.co.uk
www.racecarwings.co.uk

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Toniq-r

posted on 12/7/11 at 01:01 PM Reply With Quote
Well Im very happy with my SC fair it was not cheap but no complaints
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flak monkey

posted on 12/7/11 at 04:23 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by nick205
Didn't flak monkey use an Eaton charger on his GTS Duratec?

Might be worth looking at the install to see how he fitted it and whether a bit of imagination would see it in the Striker. There's nowt wrong (IMHO) with having a charger poking out of the bonnet in a hot rod stylee


No I used a Rotrex.

A big compressor doesn't solve the problem, they just become very inefficient.

Either stick with a Rootes type charger, which are pretty simple to fit and set up, or shell out for a proper centrifugal one like the Rotrex.

The americans do produce some centrifugal superchargers with 20:1 step up belt drives, but none will produce very much boost and are very inefficient....





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Liam

posted on 12/7/11 at 05:25 PM Reply With Quote
You can't just fit a truck turbo and run it slowly! It'll be so far away from anywhere on its compressor map it is actually intended to operate it'll be next to useless.
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ianjenn

posted on 12/7/11 at 08:14 PM Reply With Quote
I have supercharged my kitcar with an Eaton M62, full details here with rolling road results and link to pictures supercharging through bike carbs

[Edited on 12/7/11 by ianjenn]

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madflow

posted on 20/1/12 at 12:02 AM Reply With Quote
since im always interested in the unusual and homemade, this idea has me dreaming , have you seen the GATOR web site --they seem to make the idea of belt driving the turbo possible, that is until you go futher into it --its an engineering exercise in bolt together components from your local bearing supplier. more for show purposes than actual use , as i cant see those bearings taking the rpm and lack of oil feed for the turbo floating bearing system.Still it does seem to have been done in the past and been made to work if only for limited period on short run time engines---not weekend use even , let alone a daily driver .My next let down was calculation of cost , toting up the prices and its couple of hundred just in materials and bearings , then add on machine costs so unless you can do machine/ lathe work your- self and get the bits for free or next to nothing , the eaton 45 or 62 unit is going to work out cheaper ( providing it not knackered) and at least give an almost guarenteed result of sorts. But this still hasn t put me off the idea totally --bugger for self inflicted / time wasting/ money pit projects. cheers
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spiderman

posted on 20/1/12 at 01:29 AM Reply With Quote
I seem to remember that PPC magazine were doing a x/flow supercharged Westfield which was looking quite promising but as usual the articles stopped before it was finished. Yet another unfinished project from the boys at PPC, I don't think I have seen a completed project of theirs yet, perhaps they should have called it "Projects Permanently Ceased".





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