Full throttle Electric Supercharger Build Thread

[BuffDriver]

Originally Posted by WNDSRFR

Wow
a) But I think you're completely wrong.

b) Crawford Power Blocks. That will have to be removed.

a. OK, No drama from here on your beliefs {Horse > Google it > water }

b. Yup, BPB are getting removed.

[WNDSRFR]

OK so the internet agrees with you. But it still sounds like a hokey story to me.

Meanwhile, I've been having a strange problem with the ESC lately. It seems like my engagement switch is intermittent. Whenever I engage the switch the first time everything is fine. The voltage drops to about 19 and I get good boost every time. I let off the gas and the meter immediately goes to 28, then when I engage the switch again the meter drops to 26 or 27 and no boost. I let off the gas and the meter goes to 28 and if I engage it again sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I took a look at the switch and the adjustment wasn't that great, so I readjusted it to where I'm certain it is being engaged consistently. But it still has the same problem.
Now I'm starting to think maybe it's the batteries. They're at least two years old. Is there any easy way to load test them? I checked the voltage and they're at about 13.26 volts but that doesn't mean much. The starter battery is less than that and it works fine.

Anybody have any ideas?

[BuffDriver]

Actually, I ignored the resonator boxes on the snorkel but that is a different issue well discussed on the forum in numerous threads, the point is that the engineers designed a pretty efficient intake system on our cars and it's easy to lose HP n torque if mods are not carefully engineered. the old hotrodder days are gone and gains today take careful thought and science.

Ex: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50492

Originally Posted by GrimmSpeed

That is a great question, and one of my favorite things to think about. Helmholtz resonators, or acoustic devices are pretty straight forward but can be extremely confusing at the same time. When you see an intake system like this with 4 resonators (5 if you want to consider the volume of the soundtube) it really starts to make you think. Since I've never seen a paper on the design of this particular intake system, all I can do is speculate.

However, I've never heard of anyone refer to one of these acoustic devices as a "turbulence box," I might have to do some looking around Generally any sort of turbulence is bad in an intake system, especially one that is RIGHT after the MAF, and on a bend (even worse, on an "accordion tube"). And saying "turbulence is bad" is the most general statement of all time, and no one really explains why. The easiest way to think about the effects of turbulence is that it generates a pressure loss, and any sort of pressure loss means less power, however minute. Lets use this part of the system, and it's placement as a specific example.

We all know that turbulence before the MAF is NOT helpful. The more laminar, or smooth, the air stream across the MAF, the more accurate the representative sample is of the mass of air entering the engine. We all know this is important, because a bad sample could lead to a lean or rich mixture, which can lead to power loss or engine damage. Turbulence AFTER the MAF can be just as detrimental, as it has an effect on the air before it, which unfortunately is the air currently being sampled by the MAF. It should be fairly obvious that making this flow as accurate of a representation of the actual airflow into the engine is of utmost importance here. The fact that the stock inlet for the MAF has both an air straightener and a velocity stack entrance should help show how important this was in the design of this intake.

I've never thought of a helmholtz resonator in terms of generating turbulence, but I do know for a fact that it is usually designed to smooth out pulsations and variances in both pressure and velocity. The placement of this particular resonator is right on the bend (high turbulence/pressure loss area) and right after the MAF (another high turbulence/pressure loss area). This would lead me to believe that this particular resonator is pretty important to this intake's design for smoothing pressure and velocity fluctuations across the MAF.

With that said: typically these acoustic devices are only effective in a small RPM range, so this particular resonator could be put here simply because that is where it fits best, rather than it being an ideal area to help minimize turbulence and thus pressure loss. The fact that there are 4 (or possibly a 5th) total resonators leads me to believe they are tuning for specific effects in the entire RPM range. I don't even want to speculate if the very large volume of air in the sound tube counts as a resonator (it technically does) because I'm not sure it was designed as one, or if for proper functioning of the sound tube requires that large of a diameter of tube. Without having been a fly on the wall to the design engineers it is difficult to speculate exactly what they were trying to accomplish, and at what RPM ranges. One could calculate the volume of each resonator, and interpolate when combined with dyno testing from removing each resonator, but I don't know who has the time or money to do that unfortunately. I honestly wish that's what I got to do all day!

What I'm getting at there is specific to your question though. I would have to suspect that the resonators are sized to work together to eliminate volumetric efficiency problems at specific RPM ranges, perhaps to increase VE in the torque dip, who knows. So I almost don't know how to answer your question. A CAI that has already removed the airbox resonator and the two snorkel resonators might go to say that the one left in the intake tube that we're talking about is probably only effective in a very narrow rpm range, so removing it might be fairly negligible. BUT, I could also be wrong, and that resonator could be doing a great job of smoothing out velocity and pressure fluctuations that occur as a result of the MAF and bend in the inlet tube. The best way to answer this would be extensive testing with a particular CAI design, back to back with the full stock intake.

That might have been the LONGEST way to say "I'm not sure," but I really really like intake design, so I hope you didn't mind the read. Thanks again for the question!

Chase
Engineering

[R2]

Tough decision, but I am shifting gears with new plans for the car, so my ESC has to go. It's the latest 5kW kit.


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...56#post2986256

[WNDSRFR]

Originally Posted by WNDSRFR

OK so the internet agrees with you. But it still sounds like a hokey story to me.

Meanwhile, I've been having a strange problem with the ESC lately. It seems like my engagement switch is intermittent. Whenever I engage the switch the first time everything is fine. The voltage drops to about 19 and I get good boost every time. I let off the gas and the meter immediately goes to 28, then when I engage the switch again the meter drops to 26 or 27 and no boost. I let off the gas and the meter goes to 28 and if I engage it again sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I took a look at the switch and the adjustment wasn't that great, so I readjusted it to where I'm certain it is being engaged consistently. But it still has the same problem.
Now I'm starting to think maybe it's the batteries. They're at least two years old. Is there any easy way to load test them? I checked the voltage and they're at about 13.26 volts but that doesn't mean much. The starter battery is less than that and it works fine.

Anybody have any ideas?

I fixed it!

I got a new set of boost batteries from Battery Rush. I still use the original 1.5 pack so I got the replacements for the Power Sonics made by Sigma Tek. Cost less than 75 bucks for the 4 batteries.
Well, when I removed the .5 pack, I noticed one of the + terminal tabs was broken off and had arc marks. So I had been running on just the two old, weak Power Sonics for who knows how long.
Now the car runs MUCH better. Goes like a bat outa hell again.
I would recommend replacing the boost batteries at least every two years whether you think they need replacing or not.

[Wil]

Can anyone confirm that the Phantom Supercharger is a deader than dead project?
Apparently, the website is down and there's been no way to purchase it ever since it was released.

[jeffchap]

If it is, that's a shame. This guy could have made a fortune if only supply had kept up with demand. I would have purchased one myself, but never got on the list because I didn't want to have to wait 2 years for it. I suspect many other people probably did the same. And it seems that it would have been easily adapted to any other NA platform.



I'm honestly surprised that some manufacturer hasn't picked this up and brought it to market.

[Wil]

And even push the concept a little bit further... A vacuum actuated compressor would be much more convenient than a switch under your gas pedal. If the guy doesn't want to commercialize it, then, for the sake of everyone interested in his work, he could release everything as an open source

[Reamer]

Originally Posted by Wil

And even push the concept a little bit further... A vacuum actuated compressor would be much more convenient than a switch under your gas pedal. If the guy doesn't want to commercialize it, then, for the sake of everyone interested in his work, he could release everything as an open source

Have you looked into the "Procede" or something like that? It's supposed to engage the ESC by throttle position and not use a microswitch.

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[Sojhinn]

So as a heads up. I sold my car (kids getting larger) and have moved onto an A3.

I’ll still be around to help so please keep reaching out to me. Just may be a wee bit slower to respond.


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[FingR-S]

Thanks for all your contributions over the years Sojhinn!
I am also selling my BRZ this week. It's been a great experience tinkering with the ESC and moving on to vortech and then saying goodbye to a car i thoroughly enjoyed.
I'm moving on to mazdaspeed3 - so in the same idea.
Cheers!


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[Carsnguitars]

Originally Posted by Sojhinn

So as a heads up. I sold my car (kids getting larger) and have moved onto an A3.

I’ll still be around to help so please keep reaching out to me. Just may be a wee bit slower to respond.

Is it red...?

[Sojhinn]

Originally Posted by Carsnguitars

Is it red...?

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[Carsnguitars]

Very nice indeed! Congratulations!