Forced Air? TURBO? Options

[bob91403]

Could someone tell me why a scoop can't increase air pressure, as you go faster, and create the same kind of HP "boost" you get from turbo or superchargers? Excuse me for being ignorant. But, isn't it just a matter of increasing air pressure to the intake, and pumping in the right amount of gas for mixture? What about a pressurized tank of air, or both air and propane tanks? Couldn't you use a small compressor for boost, or as a source to refill a "boost" tank? I really don't understand this obcession with tubocharging. Nitrous systems have been around for a long time, and are much simpler. I was told, by my top rated Porsche mechanic, that, "Yeah, higher compression heads, turbocharging, supercharging, nitrous oxide, will all increase horsepower. But, anything you do to increase the horsepower will seriously lower the longevity of the engine." He doesn't even recomend european compression heads for a rebuild. I do understand, tubocharging a smaller engine gives you increased horsepower, plus the weight advantage of not having to put in a 3.2L six. But, if you have to rebuild it every 50K, instead of 150K miles, doesn't conversion cost less? Curious to hear your replies.

[lapuwali]

No problem from me. Some people get rather, um, annoyed by units. Years ago, some (European) guy went off on a rant on a newsgroup about the use of non-metric units and how stupid esp. we Americans were for using such an outdated, archaic system of units. So, a few of the other people colluded and began to discuss things only in wonderful units like furlongs per fortnight for speed, or rod/slugs for torque, etc.

On older Unix systems (Linux, alas, doesn't normally come with this), there was a great program called "units", which would convert between a huge array of units. It actually had furlongs, fortnights, slugs, cubits, etc. Alas, it only did units where there was a linear conversion, so one of the most common conversions (C to F), wasn't available.