supercharger

[Siddharth Mandal]

Can We use a supercharger for the 450cc engine
any sugesstins on its tuning up

[fade]

good question what do the rules say?

[MalcolmG]

no problems with using a supercharger at all from a rules perspective. Just make sure it comes after the inlet restrictor. We have a supercharged R6 motor and it goes like stink!

[Garlic]

Unfortunately, I've just mandated that powertrain illegal on my own accord. Sorry!

[Big Bird]

Please, don't do it - it is not worth the trouble and expense. A 450 is perfectly competitive naturally aspirated. Until your team is scoring regular 800+ pointscores you are better off running it as standard as possible. Focus on getting the rest of the car done and spending some time training drivers and ironing out bugs.

[JHarshbarger]

This comes from the team who lost to Texas A&M who ran the same engine but supercharged. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

But I agree, there's many more aspects to tuning a engine that a team should look into first than adding a whole new system like a supercharger. Unless you have a 10 person group working only on the engine, I wouldn't even consider it. I think Texas A&M only made around 5 hp more with the supercharger. Not worth it in my opinion for the time put into design.

[Kirk Feldkamp]

10 people on engine? Yeesh. That doesn't seem very efficient no matter how you slice it.

-Kirk

[kwancho]

Originally posted by JHarshbarger:
This comes from the team who lost to Texas A&M who ran the same engine but supercharged. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

But I agree, there's many more aspects to tuning a engine that a team should look into first than adding a whole new system like a supercharger. Unless you have a 10 person group working only on the engine, I wouldn't even consider it. I think Texas A&M only made around 5 hp more with the supercharger. Not worth it in my opinion for the time put into design.

It's area under the curve, not peak. I'm sure even the 450 can choke the restrictor at some high rpm.

[repeatoffender]

Not to mention how many engines they went through....

I heard in the neighbourhood of 4 or 5

How many has RMIT gone through? Probably less, purely and simply because they arent extending the bounds of the initial design of the engine.

Geoff??

[Big Bird]

"This comes from the team who lost to Texas A&M who ran the same engine but supercharged"
Not wishing to gloat (nor take away from our Texan friends' achievements) - but isn't that only half a story? We did compete against them twice. (And i doubt a second place finish has suddenly proven us uncompetitive)

http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Gratuitous smiley face to show that any grumpiness read into the above is due to poor writing skills

For the first two years we ran standard internals and didn't have a single engine issue. We've recently started having a couple of troubles:
* Broken aftermarket high-comp piston - pretty well stuffed the whole engine (chasing more torque)
* Spun bearing on a dyno (could happen to anyone - but a by-product of a pretty extensive dyno program)

Read whatever you like into the above, but my own personal opinion is that with extensive engine development plans you are exposing yourself to huge risk for minimal points returns. I know many of you are damn good at getting the most out of an engine - but how many of you have actually sat down and figured out points returns for, say, a 10% difference in straight line acceleration. We have, and there are better places to spend your time and money.

Our team ran a supercharger in 2001, and a turbocharger in 2002, so I have seen first hand the grief and expense that such systems can cause. In 2003 we decided to simplify the project as much as we could (also forced from a halving of allocated budget due to our excessive spending in previous years) - and this coincided with us going from being a 300 point team to regular 800+ point finisher.

I'm only saying that you don't NEED a supercharger, especially if you are a novice team. I am assuming that Siddharth belongs to a novice team. FSAE is a project in risk management and resource allocation, (moreso than a performance comp - so I don't really agree with "area under the curve" arguments either). Proof is the huge number of teams that still fail to finish each year. Attack it wisely and there is no reason you can't succeed.

Cheers all,

[Siddharth Mandal]

dear dear i won`t dare to go for one now thanks everyone

[MSJ]

Thanks for posting your experiences Geoff. Always nice to hear how top teams re-weigh options and choices in design.

[VFR750R]

I totally agree, don't use a supercharger...put on a turbo http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[hope & hopeless]

i think proper dyno and keep the reliability of your engine as high as possible are the most important thing for the competition.

supercharge have its pros and cons.
there is no right or wrong.
its all depend on how you give and take.