I have a dumb question. Turbos, superchargers, and NOS kits are all designed to add oxygen to the "charge" to increase power. I read today the chemically "perfect" ratio is 1 part gas to 14 parts "air". Why do they not just add an oxygen tank and inject that? SCUBA tanks are filled with varying concentrations of oxygen as are medical tanks for lung patients. There are compressors that fill these tanks that could run off of the alternator to keep it filled for those gotta have power moments. Just wondering if anyone knows why its not done. Or maybe it is and i have not heard of it.

 

Just to clarify. I know why you cant do pure oxygen injection but if turbos and superchargers take air from the atmosphere and compress that to 10-30 PSI why cant you take a SCUBA tank and hook it to a NOS system and when you want to get a boost... It would not have to be a super NOS street racing setup so as to not be that hard on the motor but it could easily surpass a turbo with no mechanical parts to break...

 

Why not try it and post the results?

 

The way I look at it, why would you use the compressor to charge a tank when the compressor can charge the intake? It seems as though charging the tank then releasing it on demand to the intake is just adding an extra step.

 

I do understand your "question" Brad and here is my answer. I will freely admit that my understanding or these three different boost systems is limited. The three are Turbo, Supercharge, and NOS.

Turbo takes hot exhaust gasses and uses those to power a turbine compressor that increases the PSI of the intake air and thusly( yes its a word) allows for more gas to be injected and thusly more power. Weak point of turbos is 1. Lag 2. Lubrication. 3. heat or lack thereof. Not to mention mechanical failure due to poor materials and or workmanship.
Superchargers attach to the crankshaft via belt or chain drive and compress the intake air using a couple of different "compressor" types. Weakness 1. Because they run off of the crankshaft a % of the HP boost achieved is used by the charger 2. lubrication. 3. Mechanical failure.
NOS systems inject Nitros Oxide into the chamber resulting in a big increase to combustion power due to the presence of pure Oxygen molecules in the NOS mix. Weakness 1. Very hard on the engine 2. Inefficient for everyday use 3. Blows **** up

Question #1 Is there a way to boost the PSI of intake air in a way that does not add excessive wear to the engine and also does not add additional mechanical components that add to the possibility of failure?

If you use an electric power compressor you would not "rob" any power from the motor because you could time it such that the compressor only ran when other accessories are off and or sync it with other opps. in a way that insured the alternator could be off when "boost" is needed. Hybrid cars use kenetic energy to charge the batteries while braking. If you inject a high pressure mix that is "mostly" atmospheric in its mixture you would not add the massive wear that NOS systems bring becasue you would be achieving smaller levels of boost. The engines that are designed for turbo or supercharging are already designed to handle an HP boost so IF you design it right a direct "SCUBA" boost could be made to generate the same amount of HP increase as a turbo or supercharger without all the added weaknesses those systems bring. Damn I wish I had the $$$ to play!! I think this could work.

 

Someone has been drinking too much Dogfishhead... Damnit, Mr. Asshat, what have you told you about drinking and thinking?

 

You havent told you anything about drinking and thinking.....and you have not told me anything about it either! Seriously though...can you think of any logical reason why it wouldnt work? Just from a pure science point of view I dont see why it wouldnt. If I am not mistaken SCUBA tanks are charged with 2000 PSI of breathable air sometimes they increase the Oxygen % a little for super deep dives but essentially the SCUBA tank is high pressure "regular air" that eliminates the pure O problems and I cant think of any dangers that a NOS system has not already addressed. It seems to me that you could achieve better PSI than a turbo with less wear than a NOS and no additional mechanics to wear out other than an electric air compressor. In addition to all that the motor could run just fine without the "boost" so if it went out your not sans transportation!

P.S. several car makers already use auxilary air injection pumps now. this would be that on performance enhancing drugs..

 

It's kinda like the "alternative medicine" theory... If it actually worked, it wouldn't be called "alternative medicine," it would just be called medicine.

What I mean by that is, I'm sure you are not the first to think of the idea, and if it was viable, or at least moderately effective, some car manufacturer somewhere would have made it already. Instead, what we do have is turbos, supers, and NO2. (Although, a valid counter-point to that would be that no car manufacturer I know of uses NO2, that it is a aftermarket toy. The counter to that counter would be that a reputable aftermarket toy company would have done this by now as well.)

 

You may be right. twenty years ago I had an idea and everyone told me what you just said.

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Now someone else did it.

I will have to find someone with a dyno and a Nos car and see if they would let me attach a SCUBA tank to it to see what happens.

 

The difference between your current idea and your previous idea is that the previous idea was actually a good one