Jim,
Speaking of supercharging, I've had two personal examples. In 1953 we put an
ItalMechania Rootes blower, with a single Ford down draft, on an 1250 cc. MG-TD.
This had square cut steel gears and screamed like a banshee, in sound and
performance. The nice thing about a Rootes is you get that boost NOW. Ran
about a
7 pound boost.
In 1977 I put a turbo on my 1600 cc VW '71 dual port engine. It was a bolt on
kit, with all the pieces, including a mechanical Bosch distributor and an elbow
for the stock carb.
I replaced the intake with a 2" SU horizontal carb from a Big Healy with a Jag
float bowl, and hand worked the needle till the mixture was good all the way up.
The nice thing about that was the carb was a mass flow sensing device which
opened
the throat as the demand increased. Ran about 9-10 lb. on the VDO gauge.
Really
fooled a lot of people with that sleeper. The turbo was small, and spun up
fairly
fast, but not like the rootes in instant power. Mileage was a function of how
often your foot got heavy.
My bottom line on these was that they were just fine on good, well built, new
engines, with new blowers. But they didn't last too long. Not sure that any
motor would have extra-ordinary life when power demands are constantly called
for,
but the extra heat of these methods speeds up destruction. Knocking will
destroy
it quicker than anything, and with the blower scream and the hot exhaust noise,
it
might be missed. Need advanced knock sensor to automatically retard ignition,
but
those were years off, then.
Today, most turbo cars need to have the turbo rebuilt just after the warranty
expires (50,000 miles or so, like the rubber timing belts). How do they
engineer
them so well? {9->
They are pretty good, but like the Tiger demonstrates, there is no substitute
for
more cubic inches, other than more displacement. {9->
--
Steve Laifman < Find out what is most >
B9472289 < important in your life >
< and don't let it get away!>
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