Ok so you've decided to stop laughing now, that's a good start, lets continue.

My buddies and I were joking about how funny it would be to have a leaf blower rigged up with an AC/DC converter, tubing, filters and all. Also joking about the kind of looks you would get at the dragstrip once you fired it up.

Now, has anybody ever experimented with this? Would there be any serious gain by actually doing this?

I don't want this to get confused with those little craptastic inline electric superchargers they have on eBay. Because I mean leaf blowers to put out some serious air. Ever aim one at the ground? They basically want to take off!

Thoughts, opinions?

 

still not enough....

I remeber reading somewhere that they used a small motorcycle to power a centrifical blower for a demonstation.

I know my blower can sap up 55hp at 12,000 (nose) rpm

 

I'm still an engineering student and only have about a years of car experience, but I don't think there is much to be gained from the leaf blower.

The main reason that turbos and superchargers work well is that they up the pressure within the air effectively increasing the density(squeezes all the air together) of the air charge. Those with aftercooling increase the density charge further by reducing temperature.

I don't believe the leaf blower would effectively increase the density of the air charge as the increase in pressure within its blower compartment is minimal.

Effectively the leaf blower is pretty much like the electrical supercharger you just mentioned. It blows a lot of air, but doesn't make the air charge more dense. Thus making your addition an interesting sight, but not effectively increasing power.

Alex

 

What if the piping going from the blower to the engine were to get narrow and than large again, would that create the pressure needed to be efficient? Just thowing out ideas.

 

Hes right, a supercharger isn't a fan its a compressor.

It takes a tremdous amount of energy to
run a supercharger.

 

By making the piping narrow, you do increase the pressure, but you decrease the flow velocity and thus effectively decreasing the mass of air flow. (Converging Nozzle)

In addition to this, by making the piping wide again, you nullify the effect of making the piping narrow in the first place as the wide pipe will decrease pressure and increase mass flow. (Diverging Nozzle).

There are also intrinsic losses in the air when you put the converging nozzle with the diverging nozzle, but that is negligible. It is possible to up the pressure of air/density of air by using a converging nozzle, but this would require either a high air speed or large intake size, both of which are not relevant and practical in car use.

Alex

 

how many winning drag racer cars do you see with leafblowers on them?

that should tell you how good it works.

 

Yeah I know. I didn't think that a leaf blower would be better than a supercharger. I was just wondering if there would be any gains worth having from it. Thanks for the answers all, it makes sense now.

 

I just went out to my garage and fired up my leaf blower, and it would not create any preasure. Once you block the outlet it just stalls out, and the air just stops moving.

Anyone want to try bottled oxygen??? It's cheaper than nitrous

 

BOOM! is what would happen....