My 84s previous owner cut a hole in the radiator shroud sealed it with weather striping and welded open the butterfly flaps to get more in into the TBs. Does getting more air into a carb or FI system really add any real horsepower or is it more show than go? Years ago Chevy had cowl induction and Pontiac Ram Air but what really is the increase in horsepower with such systems?

 

Thats not forced air, that sounds like a cold air intake. Burning cold outside air is better than hot under the hood air. I cant say how much better.

 

I think the jury will be out for sometime on that one. I have an AO kit thru the front plate & got 10 HP with a leaf blower on a dyno when I tried it (really)

I think it falls into the 'ol "can't hurt to try" category

 

Has anyone seen this electric supercharger? Claims 5psi.

 

There's been some questions lately about a company called Thorton making wild claims about their electric blowers.

The Thorton site is http://www.electricsupercharger.net/

Looking at their site, there are all sorts of warning signs that should send you running away.

Firstly, you'll note that they get their power from the car's 12V battery. There's no way they're making the boost they say they are with the battery as its power source.

Secondly, they're offering an "EPROM Performance Chip" with it, which is a load of hogwash. That's an entirely different scam and I have a page here devoted to explaining it. That's the first big warning that they're pulling your leg.

Next, you'll notice that their "100% satisfaction guarantee" requires that you return everything to them within 2 weeks. If they were really standing behind it, they wouldn't need that quick a turnaround. This doesn't give enough time to even install it and book a dyno test.

Now take a look at their fabricated dyno sheet. If you know how to read a dyno sheet then it'll be good for a laugh. In case they change it on their site, here it is.



If you don't know how to read a dyno sheet, then take my word for it that this is not only BS, but actually a completely impossible to attain dyno graph for any car.

Finally, take a look at their forum and note all the BS talk on it. I tried to sign up to ask some questions and every single forum there requires administrative rights to post in it. It's a fake forum filled with fake entries.

The bottom line is that it appears to be just another electric fan in a metal casing and, especially after reading this, you'd be stupid to waste your money on it.

Note that the people at NE Performance Inc were the exact same scammers as the Thorton folks. As I type this, the two share the same hosting company and both list the exact same phone number (1-253-882-6900) as their contact number.

Note that I removed the link to NE Performance Inc as it appears they gave up on it and it is currently just a spam link site.


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When you think about how a street supercharger requires ~50hp to spin it at full boost, it seems strange that these guys can get similar power gains with only a ~1hp electric fan.

You would most likely require at least a 15 hp electric motor to drive a supercharger. At 15 hp, you would require more than 800 Amps of current to drive it at 14 volts. Me thinks that your alternator would have a difficult time keeping up to the demand.

And how would you turn it off? Can you drive a supercharged car with the belt removed from the blower?

 

Watch the video on the site. I could not stop giggling. When they "Engage the Supercharger" you can see metal shavings flying into the intake.

 

They sell everything on the www.

 

Just for a laugh, I emailed their tech support and requested a video of a system with a boost gauge installed. They responded no. Big suprise. I asked how they knew how much boost they were making without a gauge. They said they didnt have one when they did the dyno but it made 5psi "on the bench". So by the their laws of physics, a fan that makes 5 psi on a bench will make 5 psi on a running engine of any size.