turbo
- Thread starter mike_h
- Start date
gunnut
Junior Member
I met a guy the other week,who had a turbo fitted to his sporty believe it or not.It was a huge ugly thing hanging on the side of the engine(come to think of it,it may well have been a super charger,but dont quote me).Said it made an amazing difference to the performance,and gas milage,(obvious realy)but it kept leaking oil(the engine) no matter what he did. He did mention there was a awefull lot of rebuilding and machining involved tho,special this and special that...he lost me after about 2 minites of techspeak,but it was interresting rite up till the part when it became confusing.
Supercharger is a belt driven device typically, so I can see Gunnut's point about it being a huge thing...supercharger produces induction pressure all the time, a waste gate is fitted to prevent overpressurizing the intake...so more hardware. Can't imagine supercharging to be "elegant" in implementation.
Turbocharging on the other hand is a high speed durable vane spinning at 10,000 RPM from the exhaust spent gasses. Since HD has low RPM exhaust pulses it requires a pretty advanced system to get the "dremel tool" speeds to generate induction pressure, the need for a waste gate to regulate diminished. The good news being technology here has had plenty of time to advance, overcoming corrosion, heat deformation and deterioration of such systems to survive in that inferno and getting it durable enough to outfit stock motorcycles in the 80's. I think Smitty and Hobbit are on to something regarding a practical "street" solution, as aftermarket has had plenty of time to come up with solutions.
Turbocharging on the other hand is a high speed durable vane spinning at 10,000 RPM from the exhaust spent gasses. Since HD has low RPM exhaust pulses it requires a pretty advanced system to get the "dremel tool" speeds to generate induction pressure, the need for a waste gate to regulate diminished. The good news being technology here has had plenty of time to advance, overcoming corrosion, heat deformation and deterioration of such systems to survive in that inferno and getting it durable enough to outfit stock motorcycles in the 80's. I think Smitty and Hobbit are on to something regarding a practical "street" solution, as aftermarket has had plenty of time to come up with solutions.