Thomas Knight Electric Supercharger

[psychlow]

Alright, guys. I know this is the dead horse. But check it out, there's a new bad boy with an electric supercharger. And, it isn't a leaf blower or a fume blower. We're talking nearly 100WHP.

For those of you that subscribe to Turbo and High Performance magazine (www.turbomagazine.com), check out an article titled "Boost for the Hard Case Cars" (June 2004, p.80) regarding the Thomas Knight Turbo Electric Supercharger.

It works by charging extra batteries off the alternator (either 4 car batteries, or, if you have an upgraded alternator, you can opt for lightweight batteries). When you flip the switch, you get a 15-second nitrous-like boost. When the batteries are drained, the motor stops, but guess what? To refill, you simply drive for a few minutes. Meaning NO REFILLING NITROUS.

Oh and guess what? No parasitic drags on engine power whatsoever.

Dyno results on an automatic Nissan Altima:

Baseline: 115.9WHP
Charged 1: 177.1WHP @ 5PSI
Charged 2: 208.8WHP @ 8PSI

And, electric supercharging is in its baby stages: when cars go to 42V power systems, it's possible to have a 1:1 discharge/recharge ratio with some work.

Thomas Knight's website:
http://www.boosthead.com/home.php

(PS - there's also a $1000 belt-driven supercharger kit for the 420A on that site....)

Discuss.

 

[Defiant]

And all in one sentence. TOD 2308.

 

[ryanx99GS]

I found that Thomas Knight makes a Electric Supercharger for the 420a engine - http://www.boosthead.com/home.php - does anyone know if these are reliable?

 

[FullyBuiltDSM]

im not saying that they arent reliable just that no one knows becuse not to many people use them. superchargers in 4cyl. engines arent nearly as powerful as a turbo. basically you get what you pay for. if you want a few horses itll get you them. but if you want a big difference in power save up a little more and get a turbo. The supercharger is $1250 personally i wouldnt risk it.

 

[K_Hill]

Why spend that much on a " electric " supercharger when you can find a 1g turbo dsm for that much?

 

[Booster-Shot]

cus 2gs are damn sexy.

 

[DSMcrazy3]

I'm not sure about that specific one, but I remember seeing loads of threads about electric turbo/superchargers, and how much of a waste they are. The price on this one however seems much higher so I wonder myself if that is actually worth it..

 

[MrBoxx]

On this Thomas Knight site, it says about its supercharger kit: "Maximum Duration: 15 seconds." It also says that turbos rob horsepower due to parasitic loss, and that a turbo kit "easily weighs 100 lbs, while most belt-driven superchagers weigh 90lbs." Uh huh. Sure.

I remember the issue of the "electric supercharger" that a lot of people sell on ebay. (take a look at some of their ads, it's extremely funny what some people will say to sell a piece of plastic) The prime reason they are a ripoff is the ultra low rpm's that the wheels get. They usually can't get more than about a few thousand rpm's. Think about how fast your average 16g spins to get, say, 16psi. It's well over 100k rpm's.

 

[tstkl]

an electric super charger is about as effective as if you had a 50 trim that was just pointed backwards, and you were just going to create forward thrust by pushing the air in the opposite direction you wanted to go.. maybe even less effective...

 

[Defiant]

The Thomas Knight is real enough, but as he says, only for fifteen seconds. That's three starter motors draining an extra battery just about immediately. Giving you a clue as to what it costs to drive superchargers- power is power. And, once you've used up that blip of power, you then have to drive the alternator to recharge the supercharger battery, and that's not a trivial task.
Weird isn't worth that much. Just go turbo. Preferably on a motor the factory built for it.

 

[FullyBuiltDSM]

On this Thomas Knight site, it says about its supercharger kit: "Maximum Duration: 15 seconds." It also says that turbos rob horsepower due to parasitic loss, and that a turbo kit "easily weighs 100 lbs, while most belt-driven superchagers weigh 90lbs." Uh huh. Sure.

I remember the issue of the "electric supercharger" that a lot of people sell on ebay. (take a look at some of their ads, it's extremely funny what some people will say to sell a piece of plastic) The prime reason they are a ripoff is the ultra low rpm's that the wheels get. They usually can't get more than about a few thousand rpm's. Think about how fast your average 16g spins to get, say, 16psi. It's well over 100k rpm's.

a turbo kit doesnt weight 100lbs a 50 trim weighs aprox. 16lbs, an intercooler about 35lbs, manifold 10lbs, piping may weigh another 10 or 15 dpending on what material. add all th acessories and youll be somwhere around 65-70lbs. i know this sound like im picking an argument but what im trying to say is things you hear are usually exagerated. They want that supercharger to sound good so they say all the good things about it and all the bad things about turbos. kids buy fart can mufflers thinking they'll have a 15hp gain like it says on the box, NOT GONNA HAPPEN

 

[SkyLineGtR-R34]

i've read earlier about these things and somebody said they ony mess up your air-fuel ratio and sometimes restrict the airflow instead of doing what they are supposed to do

for the price of this one you can almost buy a real turbo kit or go with NO2

 

[MrBoxx]

When I said "Uh huh, Sure" in my previous post, I was being very sarcastic. The page I quoted obviously exaggerates the information to make their product look good.

 

[dr1665]

Just go turbo. Preferably on a motor the factory built for it.

Hey! Let's not go there, mmkay?

As for the Thomas Knight "Turvo" (or any other electrical doo-dad claiming boost of any kind), just delete the URL from your history and never look back. Pointless, at best, retarded to even mention.

 

[2turbo4u]

If you really want to go supercharge check out rip mods he makes a supercharger for the na models and 3rd gen and others. www.rippmods.com

 

[fuzzyturtles]

Yah just play it safe and dont fool around with this junk. If your looking for boost just save up for a turbo im sur you will be much happier in doing so. good luck and happy modding

 

[alexsmede]

Those little electronic supercharger only put out 2.1 PSI, not worth it.

 

[420aonboost]

i have a supercharged 420a but it isnt powered by a elecric supercharger it is powered by a eaton m34...if you wanna know how to make a supercharger kit capable of 9psi of boost for under $1000 let me know

 

[knighteclipse1]

The Thomas Knight is real enough, but as he says, only for fifteen seconds. That's three starter motors draining an extra battery just about immediately. Giving you a clue as to what it costs to drive superchargers- power is power. And, once you've used up that blip of power, you then have to drive the alternator to recharge the supercharger battery, and that's not a trivial task.
Weird isn't worth that much. Just go turbo. Preferably on a motor the factory built for it.

Anyone not taking this man's advice is an idiot, ppl could learn alot by listening to him.

 

[poorboy2g]

420aonboost, I saw almost the exact same thread on 2gnt. The fellow who wrote something very similar to your post never responded when asked for pics. If you have some hard facts on this with pics to back them up, I'd like to see that. I've personally always felt that with proper tuning,an intercooled, centrifugal supercharger would work well enough for a daily driver that saw little to no track time. If you have good info please share! That would be way cheaper than fabbing everything up for the procharger kit I want.