Electric superchargers?

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MasterAndCommander

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2004
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If you can get your engine to breathe better, you could get some gains in horsepower, torque, and mileage. You could try putting new headers, a throttle body spacer, Cold-Air intake...relatively inexpensive than a supercharger. "Two Guys Garage" did all these mods to a Chevy half-ton pickup on this weeks show and made some impressive gains. They went from the base 202 ft-lb of RWTQ to around 270 ft-lbs after these mods.

http://www.twoguysgarage.com/episodes/index.php?epi=410
 

Black88GTA

Diamond Member
Sep 9, 2003
3,430
0
0
Originally posted by: NiteWulf
What do you all think about electric superchargers? Example

Honestly, they look like a gimmick to me. I came across these while looking for a supercharger for my '95 Ranger. If they work, and work well, I'll consider buying one.


I figure all you car guys will want to know what I have and why I want a supercharger, so here goes:

1995 Ranger
2.3L 4-cyl
112 Hp stock (the only modification I've made is installed a K&N air filter. Woo!)

I want to improve gas mileage. High 25s/low26s isn't enough. ;-)
The truck doesn't have much get-up. I'd like to accelerate faster.

I'm not really looking at other mods, but I'm open to suggestions. I don't want loud exhaust, though.
Your best bet for FI with that motor would be some sort of junkyard turbo setup. That's the same 2.3 block they used in the late '80s TurboCoupes, as well as the Merkur XR4TI and the 84-86 SVO Mustang. The garden variety 4 cyl Mustangs got it as well (naturally aspirated) but produce dismal horsepower numbers. I know, I have one - mine was 105hp brand new.

Upgrading your Ranger to a turbo setup would require (at minimum) the computer, wiring harness, cylinder head, turbo and assorted sensors off of a Ford 2.3-based turbo car, like the ones listed above. It's not an easy conversion, requires lots of knowledge and time to work on it, not to mention a donor car and downtime on your own vehicle. Paying someone else to do it would probably exceed the value of your truck :(.

If there is even a SC kit available for that motor in your truck, it would probably give you ~50-70hp or so, and cost $2500-$3k, as notfred said.

No offense or anything, but I'm guessing you probably don't have the in-depth knowledge it would require to perform a junkyard turbo upgrade on your own.

I don't think FI for your Ranger is in your future, unfortunately. There's not a whole lot you can do to those motors performance-wise without tearing them apart and getting into the internals.
 

DIMENSIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Forcing out a huge 250 CFM, this model is very compact for its size, and draws only 4.3 Amps of power. The size is only
H-6" x W-6" x L-4". Both the air inlet and outlet are made for 3 inch intake piping.
Don't we use case and cpu fans that push more air than that?
 

KokomoGSTmp

Senior member
Aug 29, 2004
412
0
0
Originally posted by: SampSon
DIMENSIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

Forcing out a huge 250 CFM, this model is very compact for its size, and draws only 4.3 Amps of power. The size is only
H-6" x W-6" x L-4". Both the air inlet and outlet are made for 3 inch intake piping.
Don't we use case and cpu fans that push more air than that?

Well, consider that a single valve's intake port when ported properly can follow that whole 250CFM... umm... yeah... not going to do diddly.

If you want to go that cheap with more power... it's time for the NAWZZZZZ. :roll:
WTF 95 Ranger??? For the price of a supercharger kit you can buy a faster car.
 

NiteWulf

Golden Member
Jan 3, 2003
1,112
1
0
Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Your best bet for FI with that motor would be some sort of junkyard turbo setup. That's the same 2.3 block they used in the late '80s TurboCoupes, as well as the Merkur XR4TI and the 84-86 SVO Mustang. The garden variety 4 cyl Mustangs got it as well (naturally aspirated) but produce dismal horsepower numbers. I know, I have one - mine was 105hp brand new.

Upgrading your Ranger to a turbo setup would require (at minimum) the computer, wiring harness, cylinder head, turbo and assorted sensors off of a Ford 2.3-based turbo car, like the ones listed above. It's not an easy conversion, requires lots of knowledge and time to work on it, not to mention a donor car and downtime on your own vehicle. Paying someone else to do it would probably exceed the value of your truck :(.

If there is even a SC kit available for that motor in your truck, it would probably give you ~50-70hp or so, and cost $2500-$3k, as notfred said.

No offense or anything, but I'm guessing you probably don't have the in-depth knowledge it would require to perform a junkyard turbo upgrade on your own.

I don't think FI for your Ranger is in your future, unfortunately. There's not a whole lot you can do to those motors performance-wise without tearing them apart and getting into the internals.


Yeah, you're right--I don't have the knowhow. I'm entertaining possibilities. But exceeding the value of my truck? Nah, that'll be hard to do.

:heart:Ranger:heart:
 

Horus

Platinum Member
Dec 27, 2003
2,838
1
0
Originally posted by: Shawn
Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Originally posted by: pray4mojo
Originally posted by: Shawn
Originally posted by: pray4mojo
I thought all SCs were electrically powered.

Also, adding FI isn't going to improve gas mileage.


umm no. superchargers are belt driven.

What drives the belt?

This is what a real supercharger looks like.


mine just for comparison
img 2
img 3

Supercharged Miata!?!?!?

Zoom Zoom fo'sho!

 

Mellman

Diamond Member
Jul 9, 2003
3,083
0
76
Originally posted by: Shawn
Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Originally posted by: pray4mojo
Originally posted by: Shawn
Originally posted by: pray4mojo
I thought all SCs were electrically powered.

Also, adding FI isn't going to improve gas mileage.


umm no. superchargers are belt driven.

What drives the belt?

This is what a real supercharger looks like.


mine just for comparison
img 2
img 3


Nice Miata!
...looks clean. I'm looking at getting one for just autocrossing. :)
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
how would it increase mileage? superchargers increase air so the engine can combust more not less fuel.