Motors getting more power out of my rabbit

I'm getting an old diesel Volkswagon Rabbit because they get 50mpg and would like to give it some sort of power boost because sometimes it would be nice to have more than 48hp. At first, I was looking at turbos but then I discovered electric superchargers. I'm thinking of using an electric because I can switch it on and off, it's simple to install, and one website said they're efficient.

What I'm worrying about though is how much current a car makes and how much the charger draws. I have no Idea how much current a car makes and I've heard some places that electric superchargers are over 1000 watts. Would it drain my battery even while driving?

 

I thought those things were a bit of, well, a con?

 

I've never known such things existed. From what you're describing, they seem to require some form of production of electricity from the engine to cancel the same draw.

 

Yea, why not get a normal supercharger?

 

They are electric and fairly low boost.. And as you say they can be turned off. About whether they work or not, i have yet so experience them first hand. I might try one. And the website states the max power draw from it is 120amps for the big version. S3 mag has a review of it here http://www.electricsupercharger.com/pdfs/S3-Mag-11-05-e-RAM-dyno-article.pdf but how biased it is i dont know.. (take everything with a grain of salt)

 

you could always just get a 12v case fan and mount it to a switch and put it in your intake...

some basic concepts...

a supercharger is a belt or gear driven fan (compressor) that forces air into the intake system of your car at pressure

a turbocharger is a gas driven fan (compressor) that uses exhaust gases to force air into the intake system of your car

and "electric supercharger" is an electric fan... there's no true compression (meaning you gain maybe 1-2 psi) as it likely won't spin fast enough...

a turbocharger typically spins well upwards of 10,000 rpm, the fastest electric fan spins at what? maybe 8,000 rpm?


as RTT said, for the most part, these are a con... you might notice a slight gain, but no more than if you do what i suggested..

you will however likely feel a loss of power from the increased draw upon the electrical system of your car.


edit: also diesel engines typically benefit more from a turbocharger than a supercharger due to their low rpms not providing enough speed for pulleys or gears to keep a supercharger providing boost...

also, turbos allow higher boost than superchargers

 

Good point. I'll go with a turbo. Does anybody know if a turbo would change the gas milage significantly?

But out of curiosity, does anybody know how many amps a typical alternator generates?

 

if you turbocharge your engine properly you will gain fuel economy as well as power.

What is the displacement on your engine btw? if its over 1.5L then its useless to use electric driven turbochargers. I would go to a junk yard and find an old turbo, buy some new bearing and have someone weld a proper manifold for the turbocharger mounting. T3 flanges are very common btw. If you do a good job at it it will gain you some good numbers. However don't stop there, an old intercooler from a volvo is cheep as chips, get one of those as well, it will prolong engine life, gain economy and allow for higher and safer boost levels. I would not go over 10psi max, so get an old adjustable waste gate and set it to 8psi or so. The old waste gates from bmw's work well and in some cases are adjustable.


If you have a decent diy background and know your way around a wrench or two, be creative and hope to god that the engine your dealing with is as simple as possible, you can pull it off for about 300bux worth of parts. In some cases you can double your hp, but be careful as vw diesel engines heave head gasket issues. In the US the older diesel vw usually are around 1.5L but most people bolt on the 1.6L engine head because its more reliable and provides a good seal versus the stock head leaks oil 9 out of 10 times.

good luck.

 

Those Electric superchargers are a massive con, you can't get that much power for that price Never.

 

I'd have to question whether it's going to be worth doing this. For the cost of buying the car and getting it turbocharged, surely you could buy a more recent car with similar economy and better performance anyway?

 

What's the displacement? If the engine is too small, you won't produce enough exhaust volume to take full advantage of a turbocharger. I'd just recommend a supercharger.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking as I read the rest of this thread. Not worth it, especially the hassle of a turbo conversion...

 

Don't you need a minimum amount of horse power to actually run the supercharger, though? You might take away just as much as you gain.

 

As others have said, why bother. Here in the UK, getting a turbo fitted proffessionally, the only way I'd go unless you know exactly what you are doing costs upwards of a grand. Just use the money to buy a more powerfull car to begin with. Alot of diesel cars do 50mpg with a hell of a lot more hp than 47!

 

Way upwards of a grand if you're getting a half-decent job done! Get a more modern VAG car with the 1.9TDI engine and you'll get much better performance than you would with a turbo on that car, plus 50mpg whilst cruising is achievable, plus you'd have a much nicer car in just about every other way for the money.

Is the 50mpg from the car you're looking at a real-world figure or a figure quoted from the manufacturer?

 

Shell out the more cash for a more recent turbo diesel and chip it, then you get a lot more power.

 

Remember that 'boost' is actually a measure of head/inlet restriction, so you could get vastly improved performance for very little 'boost' on a well designed engine.

 

What I'm getting is either a 1.5l or 1.6l, I won't get it until I get my license (as soon as possible). The reason I'm getting this car is because I'm cheap and I can get one for $1000 or less, unless you can show me another $1000 car that gets 50mpg. I know a lot about car mechanics and have done a lot of work with other cars so with enough research, I could probably install the turbo without paying somebody else to do it for me. Of course, this all depends on how easy the engine I'm getting is to work with, so I might not give it a turbo if the exhaust manifold etc... is too hard to work with.

 

Very few people even recognise this fact, they seem to think all you want is pressure and not overall airflow.

EDIT: A review of the electric supercharger showed it casued the engine to loose power, cba to find it though...im lazy.

 

true
mine hits 100,000 rpm

these electric lookalikes are not worth it IMHO , and they don't deliver
but I am only speaking of experiences in the bike world

and once you start putting serious power in to an engine that wasn't made to take it you will kill it quicker or immediately(I have seen both types)
unless you uprate the rods/pistons/ignition/fueling/valvesprings/clutch/brakes(if huge speed increase)