A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers. - Boost Forum

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A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 9:44 PM
Last week, I had contacted a large manufacturer of Electric Superchargers via eBay. The company name was "superchargers4less", and their website is www.tempestperformance.com...

Now, I didn't pay a dime for this; I had contacted them over a period of two days asking if they would allow me to "test" the supercharger, and prove to everyone that's been sceptical about purchasing one of these setups. The only catch was that it needed to be returned, and that I had to write a review (good or bad.) So here it is.

When it first arrived, I was impressed by the packaging. I opened it up, and there it was piled under some newspaper.



As I plucked the gloss black charger from the packaging, I found enclosed in a sealed bag a 6 amp switch, a nice long piece of 14 gauge braided blue wire, and instructions with pictures.







Now before I go any further, I guess I should explain what this is going on. The test car is my daily driver -- My 1991 Chevy Cavalier Z24. It has a rather large motor I guess, compared to what most people probably put these products on, as it is a 3.1 liter V6. The other modifications performance-wise that are currently done to the car are ported intake manifolds and an underdrive pulley. It also has a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler, but without the rest of the exhaust you can't count it much.

Alright back to the review. I didn't really have the proper equipment (i.e., a dyno or flowbench) to test this piece out with to see what kind of gains I felt. All I had to rely on during this test was seat of the pants feelings, a boost gauge, and my hand to feel the airflow from the blower.

So the install starts. First thing I notice that's going to be a huge problem is that the inlet for the intake side of the blower has some sort of weird flange on it instead of just a 3" round neck. So after thinking, I took a trip to Autozone and got some sort of weird adapter thing that I saw on the shelf. I grabbed that and some Crazy Glue and came home. After using an absurd amount of crazy glue, I got the neck adapter situated on the outlet. To make sure this wasn't just going to break off as I was driving, I also put a hefty amount of JBStick around it to help secure it to the supercharger. I let it cure for about an hour.

Essentially the the whole installation speaks for itself after that problem was solved. I hooked it up to the intake, but left the air filter off due to clearance problems. Then I just ran the wiring to a switch I used to have for my cooling fan override switch, and just ran the wiring straight to that. Postive and negative come off of the blower motor; the negative to a ground and the postive to the switch. Another positive comes off the switch to a power supply.





So it was all hooked up. I fired the car up. Idles the same. Seems to sound a little throatier and the throttle response seemed a lot better. But was this fact or fiction? Well, I had to make sure I wasn't just imagining things. I shut the switch off, disabling the device and letting the air move naturally. Ahh -- But avail! It must have just been my mind. Sounded and responded exactly the same with it on or off. But could this be it? Did I really just spend an hour hooking everything up just to call it quits without even taking it for a drive? Of course not! I had to see what all this hype was about that the company was claiming! So I installed the boost gauge and took her for a rip.

Initially with the switch it seemed to pick up a little better in the mid range. But again, I had to switch it to off to make sure I wasn't being deceived; and I was. Felt exactly the same. At this point I was starting to feel a little disappointed, but I knew going into this after reading a lot of rave reviews, that, well, chances are it wouldn't do a thing.

So now what... Do I return this? Do I keep it on the car for ha-ha's and get proclaimed Domestic Ricer? Do I take a baseball bat to it and tell the company that they sell a bunch of garbage? No, I will return it. With a copy of this review enclosed, and I will be posting this for informational purposes to anyone wondering about one of these propoganda piles of junk.

So to all of you that didn't feel like reading this entire compilation of words, sentences, bad punctuation, and random babble; here is the moral of the story. For the $90 you are going to spend on these magical electric superchargers, you may as well go buy a $5 oscillating fan and duct tape it to your intake tract. I can't imagine what type of restriction the Inline-Type Electric Chargers have on the intake system, but my setup was a Centrifugal-Inspired Charger and it seemed to have plenty of flow at idle.

Now I try not to get technical most of the time, but here is a constantly reiterated fact about these things. A real supercharger, runs off of a pulley driven by the engines power. No electricity involved. They spin at 50,000+ RPM's! These things probably reach no more than 3,000. If these were to spin at 50,000 RPM's, I would not want to see the carnage left in your engine when it implodes.

This particular setup was supposed to flow a whopping 250CFM, but when hooked up to a battery outside of the car, it felt like sticking your face in front of a small fan on high. Is it enough air to jam the intake tract full of air enough to produce positive pressure, even all the way to WOT? I doubt it. But then again, this was on a semi-large displacement V6, maybe if it was on a small motor like a Geo Prizm you might see .5-1 psi.

All in all this review is ended; Hopefully you enjoyed the read.
[SIZE="1"]
Cliffnotes:
1. The electric supercharger is nowhere worth near $90. It's just a little air pusher fan. Does absolutely nothing.

2. Hopefully I can return this thing, after the JBWeld and Glue I don't know if it will come off safely... If not, I just take a baseball bat to it and send it back.

Here is a video so you can see the REAL results of an electric supercharger!
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/6f085117-6988-4a8d-8bd4-9e1c38022073.htm
(link may not work for a while, it says it was being optimized when I checked.




Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:09 PM








Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:13 PM
sweet but I'm preaty sure its widely known they are junk



Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:28 PM
moe truthfull test woulda been a actual dyno

and not a butt-dyno








Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:30 PM
but was there ever proof of this?



Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 6:41 AM
What happened with the boost gauge?






Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 6:57 AM
.JerseyKid. wrote:What happened with the boost gauge?

As in what? What it revealed? It showed what I thought it would -- Nothing. The video showing this is on the bottom of the review.



Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 7:07 AM
nothing indeed... that's slander sir!!! i propose next time, you do the application right and use four per cylender!!!


JBO Stickers! Get yours today!
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 11:16 AM
Thanks for actually testing it! I think we should have a JBO product review page with lists of products and thier usefulness. It would again, eliminate alot of posts.




N2O + Bolt-ons = 220Hp/250Tq

Coming Soon:HpTunersPro, EagleConnectingRods, WiescoPistons, 13sec2200

Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 3:22 PM
This should be linked in the performance sticky



Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 3:38 PM
Take a look at this....he even has a dyno chart...
lies lies lies

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8071334327

Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 8:42 PM
are you sure this thing was running? I would expect maybe a 1/2 a psi or something. I think one of these were tested on HMT.

Electric turbo testing!

these things are silly.



Scott

When I boost, you boost, we boost
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been banned from NEJBODY.
You've displayed wayyy too many acts of pushing people to their limits.
It's never cool to tear people down for what they want to do.
NEJBODY is a team. We're not the same as JBO where everyone bashes on eachother.
I'm surprised you show up to our meets after half of the things you say on here.
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 9:08 PM
RaGiN Z (the fake 05) wrote:are you sure this thing was running? I would expect maybe a 1/2 a psi or something. I think one of these were tested on HMT.

Electric turbo testing!

these things are silly.


Why would you expect to see any PSI? It's a fan not a compressor....

Mark P.
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 9:23 PM
Idk, I would think that if its blowing air into the motor, u would see some sort of positive psi...



Scott

When I boost, you boost, we boost
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been banned from NEJBODY.
You've displayed wayyy too many acts of pushing people to their limits.
It's never cool to tear people down for what they want to do.
NEJBODY is a team. We're not the same as JBO where everyone bashes on eachother.
I'm surprised you show up to our meets after half of the things you say on here.
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 10:40 PM
RaGiN Z (the fake 05) wrote:Idk, I would think that if its blowing air into the motor, u would see some sort of positive psi...
Blowing Air =/= Compressing Air



Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Friday, June 02, 2006 11:34 PM
Well screw u guys, I'm goin home!



Scott

When I boost, you boost, we boost
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been banned from NEJBODY.
You've displayed wayyy too many acts of pushing people to their limits.
It's never cool to tear people down for what they want to do.
NEJBODY is a team. We're not the same as JBO where everyone bashes on eachother.
I'm surprised you show up to our meets after half of the things you say on here.
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Saturday, June 03, 2006 6:46 AM
i was thinking of taking a midget and cramming him into the engine bay and having them blow into the TB for me. i figure that would net me like 10 HP, so if i get like 10 of them i could get 100 HP out of them.

http://www.helpelijah.com
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Saturday, June 03, 2006 7:23 AM
Very nice writeup, diffenitly REQUIRES a STICKY!!!!





Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Saturday, June 03, 2006 8:24 AM
Mark Pain wrote:Why would you expect to see any PSI? It's a fan not a compressor....Mark P.
So is an Eaton blower, and it obvioulsy creates boost. As long as it's pushing in more air than the engine can flow at ambient pressure, boost will build...
JuggaloZeke wrote:
RaGiN Z (the fake 05) wrote:Idk, I would think that if its blowing air into the motor, u would see some sort of positive psi...
Blowing Air =/= Compressing Air
Not true, all blowing air does is accelerate it. It's the resistance by the rest of the intake path that creates 'boost', the blower then acts like a check valve as well. A turbo or centrifugal SC actually compresses air.



fortune cookie say:
better a delay than a disaster.
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Sunday, June 04, 2006 10:26 PM
when I first saw these my first clue that they were useless was the fact that they are only rated at 250cfm

your motot, and even my boney little 2200 I'm sure pull in more air by themselves. therefore making your electric blower more of a restriction that a help at all. when you floored it I will bet you motor pulling air was actuall forcing that motor to spin faster than it would on its own



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when you beat someone in a civic people wine and make excuses
when you beat someone in a cavalier they pull over and check under thier hoods
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Monday, June 05, 2006 2:58 AM
Not to sound mean or anything... but duh....



Cardomain|Myspace


Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Monday, June 05, 2006 9:35 AM
OHV notec wrote:So is an Eaton blower, and it obvioulsy creates boost. As long as it's pushing in more air than the engine can flow at ambient pressure, boost will build...


wow....

Mark P.
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Monday, June 05, 2006 11:23 AM
Sean McAfee wrote:i was thinking of taking a midget and cramming him into the engine bay and having them blow into the TB for me. i figure that would net me like 10 HP, so if i get like 10 of them i could get 100 HP out of them.


Hmm... so if you line up all 10 of them... then you've got the 2nd midget blowing the 1st midget... and so on and so forth...

Man I do NOT ever want to see under your hood!!!

OHV notec wrote:
Mark Pain wrote:Why would you expect to see any PSI? It's a fan not a compressor....Mark P.
So is an Eaton blower, and it obvioulsy creates boost. As long as it's pushing in more air than the engine can flow at ambient pressure, boost will build...


The key though is that there can't be anywhere else for the air to go. An Eaton blower moves the air through but doesn't allow it to come back. These little electric fans don't. If there was pressure, it could actually come back through the fan blades. Thus, it's not being forced into the smaller area in front of the fan and no pressure is being built.

OHV notec wrote:
JuggaloZeke wrote:
RaGiN Z (the fake 05) wrote:Idk, I would think that if its blowing air into the motor, u would see some sort of positive psi...
Blowing Air =/= Compressing Air
Not true, all blowing air does is accelerate it. It's the resistance by the rest of the intake path that creates 'boost', the blower then acts like a check valve as well. A turbo or centrifugal SC actually compresses air.


As you say... it's the resistance in the rest of the path that allows pressure to build in front of the blower. With an electric fan of the sort sold on eBay, there's no resistance containing the air in front of the fan. The fan doesn't keep air from coming back through it. No boost.





Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Monday, June 05, 2006 5:10 PM
M I N I O N - Sinbird wrote:Not to sound mean or anything... but duh....



well.....we expanded this discussion in every other concevable direction just adding my ow little pull



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------------------------------------------------------------------
when you beat someone in a civic people wine and make excuses
when you beat someone in a cavalier they pull over and check under thier hoods
Re: A Review and Test: Electric Superchargers.
Monday, June 05, 2006 5:52 PM
man I wish I would have seen this post earlier, I would have saved $90 I geuss I should try and cancel my order.


























I need to show my whole town this post, you don't know how many times I hear "I think Im going to try an electric superchager, it should be good for at least 40hp, right??"




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