blowers???

[matt11583]

ok..ive never really looked into blowers much so i have no idea of what it is?? i want to kno how they work wat they run off of?(the belts?) basically everythign you kon i want to kno??? any links that explain it would help and r there wany good brands to go for if i was gonna buy one

[CBFryman]

When someone says a blower they are usually refering to a Roots Blower/Supercharger. Thoes bigassed (and IMO ugly) things sticking out of some "Muscel" cars hoods and on top of Top fule dragsters are Blowers. The 3 most common types of FI are Blowers, Cyntrificals Superchargers, and turbo's. Turbo's are by far the most efficent and best for the engine.
The way a turbo works is simple. Exaust comes out of the manifold into a turbine, it spins the turbine and goes out the rest of hte exaust system. the energy harnassed from the turbine spins an impeller inside a compressor. that compressor feeds the intake.

cyntrifical superchargers are basically just the compressor side of a turbo being spun from a belt driven by the engine. not as efficent as a turbo but more efficent than a roots blower (takes less torque to spin)
a blower compresses air in an intirely different way. think of a blower like 2 rods spinning in opposite directions with little air tight cork screwed fins coming off of the rods. as the rods spin at high RPM's they snatch air, trap it then force it into the engine. sort of like how an automatic base ball thrower throws its balls. these take more torque to turn and are there for least efficent (as all things in the Muscle car era, lol) basically the larger the more boost they are able to create. the bloweres used on top fule dragsters are so inefficent that htye take 600ft/lbs of torque to spin but crank out 40+ psi of boost. most bloweres you see are pushing .5-1 bar of boost. (6-15psi)

[psychorallyfreak]

It is my understanding (not to argue), that the term "blower" is used whenever somebody is referring to any type of Supercharger. Maybe I'm mistaken...

[nissanfanatic]

I think of a blower as being slang for a positive displacement supercharger. Centrifugal superchargers are usually more efficient than the positive displacement chargers. The benefits of positive displacement chargers is thier low-end grunt. The bad things are: inefficient(more heat), easily destructable(even a small backfire can completely destroy the supercharger and/or the engine. This is mostly on carbureted engines.), belt driven, takes a lot more power than turbochargers, not easily adjustable, and the sound effects are not as cool as turbocharged cars.lol IF you want to use a supercharger, my advice would be to use a centrifugal supercharger. They are much more efficient and do not taper off in the higher RPMs like the positive displacements.

[CBFryman]

a positive displacement and roots are the same thing arent they?

[SaabJohan]

Roots is one type of positive displacement compressors. The Lysholm screw compressor is also of positive displacement type, but it's more effective. Positive displacement refers to that the compressor is using a displacement to compress the air (it uses a displacement which is decreasing in volume). The other type is the dynamic compressors like axial and centrifugal compressors which are changing the enthalpy of a streaming fluid.

[xyfalconsrock]

CB why would they use blowers instead of turbos, if turbos are the best?
Considering that top fuel teams have a huge budget.

The advantage of supercharger over turbo is the low rpm power.

P.S blowers=superchargers
turbos=hairdryer/puffer
At least thats wat we call them in australia

[Reed]

they use blowers cause turbos are outlawed.

why are they outlawed?

for the same reason variable geometry wings are outlawed.

they make the car too fast!


at some point someone decided that safety was cool and forgot that racing is about going the fastest

[CBFryman]

Originally Posted by xyfalconsrock

CB why would they use blowers instead of turbos, if turbos are the best?
Considering that top fuel teams have a huge budget.

The advantage of supercharger over turbo is the low rpm power.

P.S blowers=superchargers
turbos=hairdryer/puffer
At least thats wat we call them in australia

xyfalconsrock , if you knew anything about the dynamics of a turbocharger you would know that Turbos are for more efficent. your idea that they use blowers to help with low end power, well top fules launch from 7,000+ RPM and the RPM's never drop below 4,000. Turbos are outlawed in the NHRA. why? well because the NHRA is retarded and wants everyone to be racing the same basic vehicle just like NASCAR. ever see a non NHRA legal funny car? 99% of the time they are twin turbo.

now your other idea that turbos DONT have lower RPM power. if the turbo has been properly fitted for an engines exaust flow turbo lag is slim to none. turbos begin to spool by 2,000 RPM and are making full boost by 3,000. ever driven or ridden in a properly built factory turbo'd car such as a Porsche 911 carrera Turbo? well if you have then you notice that unless you punch it from idle turbo power is almost instantaneous.

Blowers are as much as 50% less efficent compared to a turbocharger. and you state ment Blower=supercharger...well, not to show your ignorance, but a turbocharger is a supercharger. the deffanition of a supercharger is any type of compressor feeding an engine an air pressure greater than ambient air pressure. now you may ask yourself, why are turbos far mor efficent. well its a simple fact, turbochargers get their power from a wasted energy (ie the continuously expanding exaust). a turbo (as you hopefully know) uses the flow of exaust and the exausts' heat continueing to expand the exaust gasses to turn a turbine (turbine..turbo...wow) this turbine intrun spins a cyntrifical compressor. the cyntrifical compresser that makes a cyntrifical supercharger works o nthe exact same principals as the compressor side of a turbo. now granted, a turbo's energy isnt completely free. it puts slight back pressure on the exaust stroke, but if you run 15psi with a turbo you get nearly double the power (in theory), running 15 psi on a "supercharger" (ie non turbo) gives you 50-80% more power. Why? well turning a belt driven supercharger is like turning a large A/C compressor. It takes torque to turn, the ammount of torque it takes to make a certian ammount of boost is the same over the entire RPM range, so the higher the RPM's get the more HP the supercharger is stealing.

[-Jayson-]

superchargers sound so much cooler than turbos IMO, while BOVS are sweet, nothing beats the whine of a Supercharger. Superchargers let everyone know your cars got some performance to it. And you guys make it sound like superchargers rob soooo much HP from the engine. Thats not the case at all. While it does, its not a whole alot.

Also when it comes to maintanence, superchargers are extremly low. Completely self contained, very reliable, just put it on and forget it. With a turbo, you gotta watch out for oil leaks and cracks in the manifold, you need to change the oil more constantly, you have to have an intercooler to handle the extra heat, detonation is alot easier to occure because of the heat. Ive seen alot more people have problems with turbos than superchargers.

While yes turbos are more efficient than superchargers, superchargers are alot easier to take care of.

[CBFryman]

ROTFL. if your turbo is properly installed then oil leaks are an almost never, cracks in the manifold are a never, and detonation is not me prevelant than with a supercharger. gale banks said it himeself. back in the day he would run the same boost on a supercharged and turbo charged engine. in many cases 200hp greater would be seen from the turbo engine. lets say you put a blower on your engine and you happen to have a massive backfire...engine, superhcarger, everything is screwed you ahve to go buy new everything in many cases. back fire with a turbo (almost never happens because most turbo engines are fule injected now a days) and the turbo just looses boost and nothing is dammaged (besides your carburator maybe).

let me ask you this. can you controll boost from a supercharger with a turn of the wrist? oh thats right, NO. can you with a turbo...yes. manual boost controller opens the waste gate completely and you get near 0 boost or closes completely and your get 20+psi boost. with diverter vualves and turbo timing technoligy, as i said before, lag is a thing of the past. and if your pay check is short one week all you have to do to save gas is turn the boost down. what do you have to do with a supercharger? change pulleys, change the belt, and tune carburator if your car is carburated... and you dont like the wine a turbomakes under boost. IMO it sounds better than the sound of broken A/C compressor....

[-Jayson-]

if turbos are so much better, why do ford and gm both use superchargers instead of turbos? Maybe its a reliability issue, and still some of the fastest production cars are supercharged. Lightning, Cobra, GTP, My Z24 Cavalier (yes its a GM kit for MY engine), and many more. Im not saying that all companies use them, but the 2 biggest automotive companies it the world use them in their most popular vehicles. Why is that?

[xyfalconsrock]

I'm sure CB has the answer for EVERYTHING

[CBFryman]

Ford and GM both use superchargers on their performance cars for the simple fact its 100% easyer to supercharge a vehicle. especially when talking about single turbo set ups on V engines.

aside from the fact that you brought in domesic companies. why do Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, and bugadi all use turbo in their FI vehicles? i think Porsche and ferrari know a tad more about performance than GM and especially Ford....not saying that GM and Ford dont know...its jsut when was the last time you saw a world renound supercar come from either of these companies...

[Reed]

1964 till 1969, the gt40
so its been 35 years since the last time we saw a world renown supercar from either of these companies.

so i think we shouldn't look to the big three for performance.

unless of course your talking about the 80's turbo dodges. but thats still 15 to 20 years ago