turbos, superchargers, nitrous

[Amerijuanican]

Anyone have experience or knowledge about power adders like in the thread title, for use on Motorcycles?

Have a late 70s Yamaha xs-400 twin and I'm looking to put a turbo on it. They are quite reasonable on ebay.

bike is air-cooled, most of the turbos I see are water cooled. Looking for 7 to 10 pounds of boost.

[Amerijuanican]

I found someone that will grind a custom cam for a boost in midrange torque, and a two into one header. Going to switch from two carbs, to one large one. Custom manifold w/ a 40 degree bend away from the engine, this will give me some extra room.

[Osquirrell]

reminds me, I got some nitrous carts on the way, maybe they will come today. that would be nice.. probably not..

[Amerijuanican]

I tried those once recently, was concerned with that cold blast @ the very beginning, its effect on my throat. So I was careful.

Looked it up online when I got home, I guess that cold part at the beginning can cause some damage, like freezing some tissue.

I think it said the kind you get makes a difference. Last I saw they had taken the Pumps off ebay, but still had the carts.

[onceburned]

if you use nitrous, you'll need to find a fuel nozzle, for the intake . when nitrous is burned it produces oxygen. if there is no way to richen the fuel mix, it will go lean and burn the engine. and a head temperature gage so you'll know to let off the button.

turbos run off the exhaust, so both turbines ( the intake and exhaust)will need to be sized to fit the engine and an oil line if no oil it will lockup

superchargers run off the crank . the advantage is no spool up time , you will need a intercooler for both to keep the air cooler and dense.

you will also need a exhaust temp gauge, since you are in new territory.

there is a new product out, an electric super charger, but the battery pack will be a hard fit. no room on a bike

[Amerijuanican]

if you use nitrous, you'll need to find a fuel nozzle, for the intake . when nitrous is burned it produces oxygen. if there is no way to richen the fuel mix, it will go lean and burn the engine. and a head temperature gage so you'll know to let off the button.

-Plenty of stock vehicles run nitrous without changing the mix… however a couple of camshaft manufacturers sell cams specially for N2O performance vehicles, with different intake/exhaust opening or closing times for optimized performance. The temp gauge is a good idea.

turbos run off the exhaust, so both turbines ( the intake and exhaust)will need to be sized to fit the engine and an oil line if no oil it will lockup

-Very good point

superchargers run off the crank . the advantage is no spool up time , you will need a intercooler for both to keep the air cooler and dense.

-not exactly sure I want to run a supercharger on a bike, the sudden blast of power could make the bike unmanageable!

you will also need a exhaust temp gauge, since you are in new territory.

-again, the temp gauge would be very helpful.

there is a new product out, an electric super charger, but the battery pack will be a hard fit. no room on a bike

-I haven’t read many good reviews on those who have installed electric superchargers on anything.

[WritersPanic]

if you use nitrous, you'll need to find a fuel nozzle, for the intake . when nitrous is burned it produces oxygen. if there is no way to richen the fuel mix, it will go lean and burn the engine. and a head temperature gage so you'll know to let off the button.

turbos run off the exhaust, so both turbines ( the intake and exhaust)will need to be sized to fit the engine and an oil line if no oil it will lockup

superchargers run off the crank . the advantage is no spool up time , you will need a intercooler for both to keep the air cooler and dense.

you will also need a exhaust temp gauge, since you are in new territory.

there is a new product out, an electric super charger, but the battery pack will be a hard fit. no room on a bike

Decades ago I got reamed by an Audi 5000 that ate 3 turbochargers in 1 year. Each time they found hundreds of dollars worth of shit the warranty didn't cover, like the oil supply line. However, when I was on a fresh turbo and traveling between Atlanta and Memphis, I hit 140 a couple of times and the ride was superb. So I'm sold on the technology, but I don't care for the implementation. For one, piston engine oil should not be fed to a turbine journal bearing. A turbocharger should have it's own synthetic oil circulation and cooling system.

Another oddity I recall, and I think it was in Mechanics Illustrated, was a concept called a Jet Charger. It was a venturi eductor that fed the intake and had a high pressure nozzle mounted in the throat. The nozzle would be fed high pressure compressed air from a scuba tank and by virtue of Bernoulli the high-velocity stream would pull in a greater air mass overall. Obviously it's only good for a few shots at 5-20 seconds each (depending on CID), but for some occasions it's enough. Especially when you consider how cheap it is overall. The only moving part is a solenoid valve, I don't recall it being throttled.

Such a system might be perfect for a motorcycle since it would be light. If the event is limited in duration it could be practical. Ultimately you're juggling the power to weight ratio as well as the wallet factor.