eTorque to eTurbo conversion?

[jmccorm]

Have there been any mods or even any discussion on converting the eTorque system into an eTurbo system? So that's not a supercharger, but an electric motor which gets the turbo up-to-speed (before it can run away on its own with exhaust airflow). Ignoring fuel economy, from a performance perspective, its seems like a far better use for a 48vdc battery pack than the BSG.

More of a shower thought, really. A concept with possibilities? Stupid idea?

UPDATE: I just finished watching some real-world test videos on YouTube on these new eTurbos. (Not the cheap eBay ones.) Particularly a twin-eTurbo test on a Chevy Colbalt nearly doubling max torque and HP. What's interesting for us is that our eTorque vehicles with those 48vdc batteries seem like an ideal power supply for these hungry motors.

They might call them electric turbos or eTurbos, but working electric superchargers for small engines (for which our 2.0L qualifies). I wonder how well the 2.0L's existing turbo would fair if it was directly fed from one (or two) of those 48vdc superchargers. The boost appears to be mild (without stacking), we're talking 10psi on the outside.

At peak, on the output side, we're generating, what... a 24 or 25psi boost? There's no reason to exceed that. We're just looking for performance when our existing turbo hasn't spooled up... and indirectly, this should help our turbo spool up even faster.

Thoughts?

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[jmccorm]

It looks like this idea isn't so pie-in-the-sky.

I found a European company, TORQAMP, which sells an electric turbo for this very purpose (eliminating turbo lag). Their controller (Aduino based, which they allow users to reprogram with their own rules if the defaults don't work for them) is designed to take output from a throttle valve position sensor (0-5V) along with your intake manifold pressure to automatically work alongside your existing turbo. Their system is also designed to take 12VDC and step it up to 48VDC by itself (unclear if you can supply 48VDC from your own eTorque battery or not). Also, no special cooling required! It claims that it can be placed before an existing turbo, or after an existing turbo (and to either side of its intercooler).

For larger engines, they do recommend a bypass valve so that their eTurbo does not choke the intake of your engine (or for that matter, a large turbo on a smaller engine). As far as your battery capacity, it is designed to let your battery recharge when the TORQAMP has disengaged or when the engine is at idle. But wow, you'd think that this could be pretty tough on automotive batteries? Also, some vehicles require an ECU remap to mix the right amount of fuel outside typical boost ranges. Reading further, this would also seem to add some unknown additional load to the turbo's existing cooling circuit (via warmer intake air).

Finally, I'm a little surprised to see one warning on their website: "Boosting at low air mass flow will damage the TORQAMP compressor due to the surge phenomena." Mind you, this is true. I'm just surprised they hadn't embedded a sensor to detect and prevent that. (Next gen product feature, am I right?)

I'm far more pumped about the upside than the downside here. I've got the chops to make one (or two) of these spin. I'd love to take an TORQAMP for a run and report back. Anyone have $3500 they can loan me for some technical investigative journalism? ?

PS: One could ignore their recommendation of a lever-switch activator on the gas petal if they wanted to go full Hasselhoff/KITT/Knight Rider and just plain dedicate their AUX1 button to this monster. Nobody would object! ?

 

[JLTruman]

It looks like this idea isn't so pie-in-the-sky.

I found a European company, TORQAMP, which sells an electric turbo for this very purpose (eliminating turbo lag). Their controller (Aduino based, which they allow users to reprogram with their own rules if the defaults don't work for them) is designed to take output from a throttle valve position sensor (0-5V) along with your intake manifold pressure to automatically work alongside your existing turbo. Their system is also designed to take 12VDC and step it up to 48VDC by itself (unclear if you can supply 48VDC from your own eTorque battery or not). Also, no special cooling required!

For larger engines, they do recommend a bypass valve so that their eTurbo does not choke the intake of your engine (or for that matter, a large turbo on a smaller engine). As far as your battery capacity, it is designed to let your battery recharge when the TORQAMP has disengaged or when the engine is at idle. But wow, you'd think that this could be pretty tough on automotive batteries? Also, some vehicles require an ECU remap to mix the right amount of fuel outside typical boost ranges. Reading further, this would also seem to add some unknown additional load to the turbo's existing cooling circuit (via warmer intake air).

Finally, I'm a little surprised to see one warning on their website: "Boosting at low air mass flow will damage the TORQAMP compressor due to the surge phenomena." Mind you, this is true. I'm just surprised they hadn't embedded a sensor to detect and prevent that. (Next gen product feature, am I right?)

I'm far more pumped about the upside than the downside here. I've got the chops to make one (or two) of these spin. I'd love to take an TORQAMP for a run and report back. Anyone have $3500 they can loan me for some technical investigative journalism? ?

PS: One could ignore their recommendation of a lever-switch activator on the gas petal if they wanted to go full Hasselhoff/KITT/Knight Rider and just plain dedicate their AUX1 button to this monster. Nobody would object! ?

not sure this will be helpful but a youtuber I watch did mess with torqamp on a small engine did dyno runs too

link to fun -

 

[jmccorm]

not sure this will be helpful but a youtuber I watch did mess with torqamp on a small engine did dyno runs too

You encouraged me to look some more. I found TORQAMP at SEMA 2019!




...it looks like they didn't fair all that well during the pandemic, but they're still kicking. Since then, I've seen a couple of unboxing videos about five months ago, and a couple of install and real-world test videos from three months ago.

My favorite video was in watching this guy and his crappy (and completely untuned) 1.8L Hyundai Elantra absolutely flying from 80 to 100mph. He then had to go back and create a second video to show exactly how slow his bucket was without the eTurbo assist. (But as a natural skeptic, I do have to wonder how much the eTurbo might have been choking the engine when not in use. I didn't see any bypass in his rigged airway.)

EDIT: In thinking about this some more, it might be up against a lot of competition when stacked up against the 2.0L's turbo. We're using to seeing 24psi max boost. These little jewels offer only about 6psi unless used in parallel (which is prohibitively expensive). But then again, if the name if the game is getting the existing turbo up-to-speed, 6psi from a standstill might just do enough good.

 

[Zandcwhite]

How are you planning to charge the 48v battery if you delete the belt start GENERATOR? Sure you could probably tap the 48v system to also run an e-turbo or e-supercharger, but eliminating the BSG would eliminate the 48v charging, which then uses a dc to dc inverter to charge the 12v system. No charging system, your e-turbo might be faster…for a few minutes before everything dies.

 

[LittleDog]

How are you planning to charge the 48v battery if you delete the belt start GENERATOR? Sure you could probably tap the 48v system to also run an e-turbo or e-supercharger, but eliminating the BSG would eliminate the 48v charging, which then uses a dc to dc inverter to charge the 12v system. No charging system, your e-turbo might be faster…for a few minutes before everything dies.

I'm sure he only means tapping the 48V battery, not deleting the BSG. It is also the starter after all.

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