Some where I remember seeing a guy drag racing and he used a tank of compressed air to boost his horse power like a super charger or turbo would. Does any one do this or was that just an experiment I remembered? For a short distance I don't see why this couldn't work. I don't see this happening at a tractor pull thought.
- Thread starter JL Ray
- Start date
buickanddeere
Well-known Member
Thinking of NO2 perhaps ?
rustyfarmall
Well-known Member
I doubt if it was compressed air. More likely it was nitrous oxide.
It has been done. I remember reading a story about just such an experiment at Chevrolet in 1958.
They already had air suspension as an option, so had an engine mounted air compressor. In this experiment, they mounted a fairly large air tank in the trunk and fed air through a high pressure nozzle to a venture at the air cleaner/ air box inlet of a chevy 235 6 cyl. This worked as a venture pump and mildly supercharged the 235 6 cyl to the power level of a 283 V8. The tank held enough air to deliver boost for about 30 seconds. It worked, but never made it into production.
Much easier to just order a 283
They already had air suspension as an option, so had an engine mounted air compressor. In this experiment, they mounted a fairly large air tank in the trunk and fed air through a high pressure nozzle to a venture at the air cleaner/ air box inlet of a chevy 235 6 cyl. This worked as a venture pump and mildly supercharged the 235 6 cyl to the power level of a 283 V8. The tank held enough air to deliver boost for about 30 seconds. It worked, but never made it into production.
Much easier to just order a 283
A quick google search shows that such a modern system does exist for drag racing. Air from two trunk mounted tanks at 3500 psi, reduced to about 10 psi as it enters the engine. claiming over 800 hp .
compressed air supercharging
compressed air supercharging
buickanddeere
Well-known Member
Every now and again somebody that never passed Chemistry 101 tries to add pure O2 to an internal Combustion Engine. The expensive Ka-Boom usually teaches them a lesson.
CenTex Farmall
Well-known Member
I have the magazine article on that somewhere.
It was none other than Mickey Thompson. IIRC it was a funny car and had several high pressure bottles. That's all I remember. I believe it was in Car Craft in the mid to late 60's. Car Craft back then tended to have more in depth tech articles than the other ones.
It was none other than Mickey Thompson. IIRC it was a funny car and had several high pressure bottles. That's all I remember. I believe it was in Car Craft in the mid to late 60's. Car Craft back then tended to have more in depth tech articles than the other ones.
dr sportster
Well-known Member
There is a dragster in The Garlits Museum in Ocala Fl. that has a huge air tank that directly drives the rear end .No engine. It was built by Art Malone .
At the Don Gartlets drag racing museum in Fl. there is on display a dragster with a good sized water storage tank mounted on the nose of the car.It's purpose was to,as you posted supply more air to the engine toward the end of the run.I don't remember the builders name but I guess it wasen't very successful since nobody else tried it!
dr sportster
Well-known Member
It didn't supply air to the engine . It supplied air to the turbine rear end . There was no engine. The blast of air being released directly to the special rear. The tank held thousands of PSI. Slow down and read up more when you visit these museums. Built by Art Malone ,Don Garlits partner.
jimg.allentown
Well-known Member
OK, do some arithmetic here. The cubic inch (or liter if you prefer) displacement of an engine is the amount of air that passes through the engine in TWO revolutions - on a 4-stroke engine. So, let us say that a 300 cubic inch engine (about 5 liters) would need An additional 300 cubic inches of air for every 2 revolutions of the engine to achieve a 1 atmosphere boost.
So, assuming an engine speed of say 4000 rpm, to get 1 atmosphere of boost would require 2000x300 cubic inches of air PER MINUTE to get this one atmosphere of boost. So that is 600,000 cubic inches of air PER MINUTE. There are 1728 cubic inches in a cubic foot. 600,000/1728=347.22222 cubic feet per minute. So, this would take an enormous and high pressure tank to accomplish this, and it would only last for a very short time. Turbocharging or supercharging both sound way more efficient to me.
So, assuming an engine speed of say 4000 rpm, to get 1 atmosphere of boost would require 2000x300 cubic inches of air PER MINUTE to get this one atmosphere of boost. So that is 600,000 cubic inches of air PER MINUTE. There are 1728 cubic inches in a cubic foot. 600,000/1728=347.22222 cubic feet per minute. So, this would take an enormous and high pressure tank to accomplish this, and it would only last for a very short time. Turbocharging or supercharging both sound way more efficient to me.
Ron in Nebr
Member
Not compressed air, but in Hot Rod Magazine's video series "Roadkill" a few years ago, in a Red Green manner, they rigged up a half dozen or so battery powered leaf
blowers to blow through the intake on some small 4cyl car. I guess it showed a little boost on a boost guage, but really didn't help quarter mile times.
In a related story, as a 14 year old lucky enough to have my own car on the ranch to tinker with(a 62 Caddy Sedan DeVille), I rigged up a "blow through supercharger
system" that consisted of a half a coffee can that fit over the carb, a length of plastic air duct from a chevy pickup air cleaner snorkel duct taped to a hole in the
coffee can, and a defroster fan duct taped to the other end of the air duct, controlled by a toggle switch. Of course it didn't do a dang thing, but when I floored the
caddy and hit the "blower switch", I felt pretty cool!
blowers to blow through the intake on some small 4cyl car. I guess it showed a little boost on a boost guage, but really didn't help quarter mile times.
In a related story, as a 14 year old lucky enough to have my own car on the ranch to tinker with(a 62 Caddy Sedan DeVille), I rigged up a "blow through supercharger
system" that consisted of a half a coffee can that fit over the carb, a length of plastic air duct from a chevy pickup air cleaner snorkel duct taped to a hole in the
coffee can, and a defroster fan duct taped to the other end of the air duct, controlled by a toggle switch. Of course it didn't do a dang thing, but when I floored the
caddy and hit the "blower switch", I felt pretty cool!
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