In response to an earlier post asking what is this? It appeared to be a electric starter motor powered supercharger by the Turbonique co. I have included photos of a few that Turbonique offered in their catalog. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
There are a bunch of threads on here about Oberhausen blowers. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/strange-but-very-cool-blower.213319
Yeah Oberhausen was the first co. to offer electric superchargers in the '50's. Then Turbonique must have purchased the patterns and any inventory in the early '60's when Oberhausen folded. They offered several models. Cool looking and for short bursts might put out some boost. A 6V motor run on 12 V would really be the ticket for a 10 second burst..More RPM= more boost! The latest Formula 1 cars are now using a electric Supercharger driven by a huge capacitor that shoots high voltage for quick bursts of power. Some type of on board charging system powers the capacitor up. Cool technology Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I had always heard that these "push button" superchargers were the things of tv and movies, that you could not engage and disengage one as you drove (ala Mad Max) I guess the "experts" I read were wrong.
Wow is this interesting. Totally new to me. Would be fun to have that housing to play with. Thanks for posting.
I have one, while I know of a few guys who have them mocked up on an engine, or in a showcase, mine is the only one that I am aware of on a running functional and highly driven car Sent from my SM-G935P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The advertisement above claiming a 4 Hp motor is interesting to me. According to Kenne Bell's website (and the laws of physics), most superchargers require 0.004 hp/cfm*psi boost)/compressor efficiency. That means at 1 atmosphere (14.7 psi) of boost and 700 cfm of air flow (typical 350 ci. engine at 6500 rpm) would require 41.2 Hp at 100% efficiency and 58.8 at 70% efficiency. Even at 7 psi of boost, you are still needing over 20 Hp to move 700 CFM. I don't see a 4 Hp motor being able to move nearly enough air to build any significant amount of boost, unless you have it attached to a Briggs and Straton. MercDeuceMan, have you ever put a boost gauge on your compressor? Don't get me wrong, the Oberhausen and Turbonique set-ups are cool as hell, but I am not sure the physics works out? One more thing to chew on. A 4 Hp electric motor is just under 3000 Watts. That means at 12V, it would draw 248 Amps. Not a big deal on a starter motor that is only on for a few seconds and fed with #1 cables. A 25 Hp DC motor at 12V would require over 1550 Amps. That would make it awful tough to keep from welding contacts together and melting wires.
I'm kinda like "FrozenMerc". This stuff is cool, but I believe it violates the laws of the conservation of energy. A couple of years ago, my neighbor got the bright idea that a 36 volt leaf blower would help his golf cart go faster. It didn't work at all!
I believe Turbonique dabbled in a lot of "chargers" and power adders besides the electric ones. I had an acquaintance who purchased one of their hydrogen peroxide powered turbines. It was about the size of a 1/4 barrel beer keg as I recall and he had plans to mount it in a motorcycle in place of the engine and deliver power from the turbine shaft to the rear wheel in some maner. He planned to travel around doing exhibitions at drag strips. He wasn't an engineer of any sort and assumed that he wouldn't wheelstand because of lack of traction and that he would burn up a slick with every run. I lost track of him shortly after I met him so I don't know the end of the story. This was back in '69-ish and is a vague, crusty memory. His name is lost to me and I kinda-sorta remember Turbonique as the hardware provider.
The impeller looks like a modern day sump pump impeller. It forces all of its air thru a choked down passage under the impeller. So in reality, it is not efficient at all. I never have put a boost gage on it, I have been looking for a cool, old, period perfect gage for the car but havent found one yet. The engine already has quite a bit of power and its in a light weight car. By design, the supercharger is to be used only under full throttle. Any power increase in this short period of time is negligible. Im tickled shitless the car runs as good as it does. I have put a shade over 3,000 miles on the car since installing the blower. My main concern is whether or not the blower could run the engine lean on fuel Sent from my SM-T377P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That is a great photo. I know it's an old post but I am new to this website So if I'm reading the catalog correctly that is a Model W-500 Low pancake style? Looks absolutely cool. Thank you.
Not a supercharger expert, but like a few others have stated, I have doubts that a motor that size can produce useful boost. It kind of reminds me of the old carburetor screens that were supposed to add power by causing the gas to atomize more fully as it passed thru the screen. While it may have done that, it also cut down on the area (cfm) of the air entering the carb. Just can't believe advertisements.........
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