Posted by David Blodgett (IP: 128.118.248.132) on April 18, 2000 at 00:33:16:
In Reply to: FOR REALS????? posted by JasonGfunk on April 17, 2000 at 23:29:33:
I'm no expert on the subject, but this is what I picked up in my thermodynamics class. Tell me what you think, maybe these classes are actually useful after all ;-) The reason blowers are associated with poor gas mileage, is because they are most often used in racing applications, where a tank of gas just has to get you down the quarter mile. A blower is a compressor. They increase efficiency of the engine by trading off velocity for volume and inlet pressure of the air/fuel mixture. The reason they wouldn't be used on just any car is because the increase in efficiency doesn't offset the cost of producing a blower for every car on the assembly line. However when you've got the money to spend, it's a simple way to add power to your engine.