Homemade Supercharger?
01-23-2011, 08:41 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Colorado
Posts: 13
Homemade Supercharger?
I have seen people attach leaf blowers straight to the air intake as a supercharger. I was thinking you could saw off the plastic pipe of an electric leaf blower, and hook it up to the alternator. Does this work? Is it a significant gain in horsepower?
01-23-2011, 09:09 AM
#2
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 2,549
After I got done laughing what can I say. The one thing I do know is that you can not hook a electric leaf blower up to your alternator and expect it to work. Electric leaf blower requires a/c current. Your car is d/c current. You would have to install a inverter that produces enough wattage output to run the motor. As for working? This sounds like something you would see on a ricer car.
01-23-2011, 09:38 AM
#3
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Michigan
Posts: 240
I bet if you just went through and did the simple things, you could see a lot better performance upgrade than using a leaf blower for a super charger. Just check to make sure your turn signal fluid is in good shape, go through and replace your muffler bearings, and re-grease your break pads. Not only does it stop the squealing, it'll make you more unstoppable than a Toyota!
Do that stuff, you wont need the leaf blower.
Do that stuff, you wont need the leaf blower.
01-27-2011, 01:23 AM
#9
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: United States
Posts: 3,451
The gains will be very minimal. You won't see any boost pressure from it. The alternator isn't capable of supporting the power required for constant forced induction, even if you have a 3g alt. The same applies for those ones online. They don't move enough air. There have been successful electric superchargers built using one or multiple rewrapped starters with roots or centrifugal compressors, but they're only built for 20-30 second bursts & generally require two batteries & a minimum of 5 minutes of normal driving to recharge. Those aren't cheap. I think even the base models go for over $1000.
Those turbonators & small fans do work for something, but not a power gain like you're looking for.
If you can fabricate you can set up a supercharger or turbo kit of your own for around $700 depending on what you're looking for. Neither are hard to build, just time consuming. I imagine it would be a bit cheaper for you since there are already 2.3t parts widely available if you look in the right places. I've only got about $1100 in my ranger including the truck cost & that's with having to buy a t5, hx35w, materials to build a split scroll header, two wastegates, a standalone, 3" exhaust, muffler, 255lph, injectors, materials for fabricating an intake & the end tanks on a 33"x22"x3" intercooler. I'd say it could easily be done for under $500 for a decent stock setup
Those turbonators & small fans do work for something, but not a power gain like you're looking for.
If you can fabricate you can set up a supercharger or turbo kit of your own for around $700 depending on what you're looking for. Neither are hard to build, just time consuming. I imagine it would be a bit cheaper for you since there are already 2.3t parts widely available if you look in the right places. I've only got about $1100 in my ranger including the truck cost & that's with having to buy a t5, hx35w, materials to build a split scroll header, two wastegates, a standalone, 3" exhaust, muffler, 255lph, injectors, materials for fabricating an intake & the end tanks on a 33"x22"x3" intercooler. I'd say it could easily be done for under $500 for a decent stock setup
Last edited by FoxGT; 02-24-2011 at 11:57 PM.
