Force Flow Electric Superchargers

[kwickr33]

Just came across this force flow superchargers. US made and seen some youtube comparison with other China knock offs.

any one actually used it? retailed around from $500~ $1000 each

http://www.force-flow.com/

Edited October 4, 2009 by kwickr33

[Moodles2]

If you ever read electric and supercharger in the same sentance, assume scam.

[gotRICE?]

I love how they make an appearance every year or so.

I wish someone would buy one and use it. Do a before/after dyno just for shits and giggles.

[Danzzigger]

People say that it is a waste of time. I was interested in doing it a while back due to being on P's and having restrictions to only driving n/a. Was going to fit a turbine into the intake piping, 3 inch or so for the stealth look. But the argument behind it was that it runs out of puff and will start to be restrictive to the engine at the mid / top end.

Here is a link from a properly done one and what was achieved:

http://www.turbomagazine.com/tech/0406tur_...rger/index.html

And a quick link to a pic of the system, it's not just a simple fan:

I still think that there's something behind the turbine in the intake piping though... brushless motors are damn fast and incredibly efficient. If you could make it flow really well it could help with bottom end torque and not restrict the upper end. Probably not worth it though. Only be useful for lightly tuned engines or stealth n/a for p drivers.

Hope this helps

~Danz

[CEF11E]

they blew up the test car due to leaning out. not the best testing procedure.

look at the size if it its a pretty big unit. by the time you fitted one of these and 3 batteries and wiring, piping, new bypass valve ect it would cost more than a goot turbo setup.

[iseekool]

People say that it is a waste of time. I was interested in doing it a while back due to being on P's and having restrictions to only driving n/a. Was going to fit a turbine into the intake piping, 3 inch or so for the stealth look. But the argument behind it was that it runs out of puff and will start to be restrictive to the engine at the mid / top end.

Here is a link from a properly done one and what was achieved:

http://www.turbomagazine.com/tech/0406tur_...rger/index.html

And a quick link to a pic of the system, it's not just a simple fan:

I still think that there's something behind the turbine in the intake piping though... brushless motors are damn fast and incredibly efficient. If you could make it flow really well it could help with bottom end torque and not restrict the upper end. Probably not worth it though. Only be useful for lightly tuned engines or stealth n/a for p drivers.

Hope this helps

~Danz

In regards to the article - I'm approaching this quite cynical. If the technology is good, car manufacturers would have jumped on the bandwagon around 10 years ago.

"Maybe good" strictly for low end application for people after high torque at low RPMs or people wanting an NA+T style setup. Don't think it will be used to make big power... but who knows what the future may bring.

Clear advantage with this system would be zero lag as the supercharger will be independent on engine speed and you can mount it in almost any direction.

Disadvantage - it would be heavy, especially since you will need extra wiring battery and anything else required for such a power hungry device.

Possibly system could be made lighter by using lighter metals, faster/lighter motors, battery technology might improve further and regenerative braking could be used to help charge the batteries faster... but then, again with all that said and done... It would have been easier to go straight to a hybrid (petrol+electric aka Prius) setup and not have the electric supercharger.... as hybrids have pretty good torque from low RPMs.

I'd imagine this whole electric supercharger idea is more of a retro fit to current vehicles that need the extra torque, slight power increase and possibly economy - but no means the future of forced induction.

[Tangles]

a different way to do it....

you purchase a "smog pump" from the USA

hook that up to air-cond. pump so it's spinning and forcing air (~800cfm)

run this unit in the intake and you'd notice a difference

a little trick to force-feed air for motorbikes...... same principle for RB engines.

[Danzzigger]

"Maybe good" strictly for low end application for people after high torque at low RPMs or people wanting an NA+T style setup. Don't think it will be used to make big power... but who knows what the future may bring.

I'm thinking along the same lines, low rpm boost.

But what if it was only used until the turbo comes in, somewhat like the new vw TSI engine which has both a supercharger and turbocharger, once boost goes past a specific amount, the clutch for the supercharger disengages and the turbo is solely run.

In the same way, an electric supercharger could be used, say it gives it boost until the turbo spools up enough. And in terms of choking the airflow, it could run a bypass valve / pipe which will flow the air around the elec supercharger.

a different way to do it....

you purchase a "smog pump" from the USA

hook that up to air-cond. pump so it's spinning and forcing air (~800cfm)

run this unit in the intake and you'd notice a difference

a little trick to force-feed air for motorbikes...... same principle for RB engines.

I've never actually heard about this before... so you sacrifice your a/c for performance, it pumps the air into the exhaust manifold... very interesting. This would only benefit n/a engines I would imagine?

I noticed when reading up on it that it said it lets the fuel burn for a longer period of time resulting in less restriction of flow. Does a stock engine normally have flames in the exhaust? I mean I know you can do stuff with timing and cutting ingnition in order to get flames out the end of the exhaust, but I didn't realize that there was actual flames outside the combustion area of an engine.

What kind of improvement would this modification give you, would it be a better alternative than the elec supercharger in terms of power, weight, and cost?

And are a/c units made to have a constant high duty - will it fail over time?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

tried it on my mate's gf's Prelude Si, non VTEC

Made a bit of a difference, nothing extreme, he wasted like $600 on that forceflow thing, drains shit loads of current on powering up.

Not a good investment, but it did make some power, I'm imaging serious lean-outs too...

Would be good connected to a SAFC or similar.

[Silvia GTR]

I still cant believe people buy this crap

[tridentt150v]

I still cant believe people buy this crap

For the bragging rights!!!

[Danzzigger]

I could really see this going somewhere though, if it was only used to 'giddy up' the engine through the low rpm until the turbo charger has enough momentum to take over. Then to stop it from choking the system, go around it via a bypass valve or something.

Definitely shouldn't be used as a stand alone forced induction. That way it doesn't use a stupid amount of power from the batt either.

On that note, why do people put more batteries into the car in order to compensate for the elec supercharger. Wouldn't you be improving the alternator, not the batteries? I mean it's like having a 100L fuel tank but never actually filling it up that much as it gets used quicker than it can store it.

[bozodos]

probably has a similar usefulness to a Hyclone or a Fuel Catalyst

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

my friend's got one if anyone is interested in buying it... it has been dyno proven on Aussie Ozone Depleting Lawnmowers (Commos)