Purpose of this post is for comments, commentary, discussions of the limitations of this setup. This setup is obviously not something even being marketed as a big displacement kit. I'm not even portraying it as a viable kit for any setup. Just interested in the opinion of people with solid Forced Induction backgrounds. this thread intended for discussion purposes only.

Electric Supercharger

Summary(Some of this is claims being made by the maker of the kit)...

3 starter motors tied to a small roots style supercharger. These are run off seperate batteries (recommended one for each motor) Amusingly enough, Batteries not included.

The system is designed for short spurts of boost, runs of no longer than 15 seconds, and the batteries will charge off the alternator when not running.

Claimed 405CFM of flow @ 5.5PSI

Claimed 425 max horsepower

Kit price is $1995. This price does not include a lot of necessary parts (most electrical components need to be purchased, and as said above, batteries not included) There is a page that lists necessary components to completely install the kit and optional/recommended components to include, with price ranges. All prices are based on ebay, not product vendors.

My own comments/questions.

Appears to me that the 15 second limitation is more a limitation of the starter motors overheating than anything else. And even 15 seconds is a pretty long time for a full load constant run on those motors.

Question, do those CFM/max hp numbers match up? They seem a bit off to me, just knowing that the theoretical flow of a NA LS1 engine is and even factoring in a ballpark volumetric efficiency, but I'm not familiar with the power capabilities of Forced Induction systems.

What sort of longevity can a system like this have? Starter motors typically last many years before failing, but do they get the same sort of strain and usage this kit would put on them? Same with the batteries in the system. Obviously it will depend on how often this kit is used, but let's rate it's longevity in total number of 15 second runs.


Feel free to tear it apart as you see fit. I'm interested in what you guys have to say, for purely amusement purposes. I'm in no way connected to this kit. It was pointed out to me by a friend that owns a Miata, and he's looking at a real SC kit made by Jackson, and one from another company I forget. He just saw this on one of the Miata forums and passed it on to me for amusement purposes, and I'm doing the same here.

 

my first honest question, aside from the obvious

is blower speed, it takes quite a drive speed on the rotors of a blower to make any boost. How fast do the motors spin, and what gearing is in the blower?

this might be the first remotely possible idea, not my idea of ideal.

Spray it and be done with it

 

there is discussion of this on a couple other forums.

the small units draw like 20,000 watts... so they seem legit, for having the power to drive the blower.

but that is a lot of power, for a battery to support

 

First off starter motors like those probably will not run for long without some sort of issues such as heat, thus the 15 second runs. Second, the current draw on those three is INSANE, 1250 AMPS.. that's a TON of .. thus the batteries required will add a few pounds to the vehicle possibly negating the power advantage, if you plan on sustaining it for more than one run or longer. Look at going negative for power to wieght ratio.
10 hours of install time is a bit much for this too.

 

What kind of RPM does your typical Roots compressor like to run at? I was under the impression that one of the benefits of Roots was the lower speeds it operated at, but given most turbos run at 60k-80k or more, a root running at a lower speed is still spinning pretty damn fast.

 

I think the 10+ hours of install time is because this really isn't a kit. I was mistakenly calling it that, but that $2000 price tag is really only getting you the compressor/motor unit. Everything else you have to buy yourself. As such there is going to be some level of fabrication, fitting, wiring, clearancing, etc involved in every install.

The more I look, the more I see this really isn't a deal at all.

How much would it cost to buy an adequately sized turbo and get a set of functional (but not necessarily efficient or ideal) log style headers welded up for one of our cars? That's pretty much the equivalent of what this kit is offering, and without the sustained and always there nature of a true turbo or SC system.

 

Go with the STS turbo rear mounted setup. cheap/easy, not to mention unprooven in the long run... take a chance for $3K