Theoretical thinking - turbo's

[warped one]

Whilst out with my mate at the pub tonight, he asked me this seemingly simple question, which I could not answer. His question went as so.

If you can fit 1 turbo to an engine, why can't you fit say 4 turbo's to a 4 cylinder engine, and 3 to a 3 cylinder engine?

Anyone got any ideas?

To my mind it is possible, but it would take up to much space.

Warped
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[chris-red]

You can fit as many as you want, in the same way you can fit as many carbs as you want doesn't mean it's a good idea.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

You could, but suspect no great benefit. Not certain but think you would need a pretty small turbo, and suspect that the efficiency of the turbo drops off on a smaller diameter turbine. Also suspect that with a single cylinder powering a turbo you would land up with seperate pulses in the exhaust gas which the turbo probably wouldn't appreciate.

Plenty of engines have 2 turbos. Bugatti EB110 was a V12 with 4 turbos.

All the best

Keith
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[calyx]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-turbo
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[warped one]

Sorry I think my 1st post was slightly vague.

I meant 1 turbo per cyclinder.

Thanks kickstart, but would it work in thoery if you had the right setup and everything would it give better boost over your standard turbo/twin.

Warped
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[Alexio]

The question I would ask is:

Are there four separate air intakes (and air filters) for a four cylinder engine? I honestly don't know but I would assume not.
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[chris-red]

[B5234FT]

You can, but as said, its of no great benefit. you're better pairing cylinders to get an exhaust pulse twice as often at the bare minimum and even if you consider that its often just as good a result if a single turbo is used and then you only have one intake, throttle body, oils feed......

many twin turbo applications are done for packaging rather than overall effect i.e. a V8 single turbo is very hard to engineer

[Cptn. Awesome]

From what I can imagine it may make power ridiculously lumpy. Hellishly fun though, I'd imagine. From what people have said it would seem that a better idea would a minimum of two different pulses per turbo, so a turbo per 2 cylinders.
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[MarJay]

No it wouldn't work.

A turbo works best with a constant stream of exhaust gases. Individual cylinders send out pulses, but with four cylinders you get a much smoother flow of gas which gives much more consistent boost.

I suspect the best efficiency from a turbo is given by a 6 or 8 cylinder engine with the right firing order, and a single turbo. The best efficiency however doesn't necessarily mean the smoothest power delivery or the least lag, hence why some car manufacturers fit a small and large turbo for different parts of the rev range, and even twincharge (which is a supercharger and a turbo).

Not really practical on a bike though.
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[lilredmachine]

[Kickstart]

[thewildblue]

The old RX7 twin turbos had 1 turbo per cylinder...well per rotor...even though it was one for low to mid and the other for top end....and you can make them sequential if you want....

[Pete.]

Simple answer is that one larger turbo is more efficient than two smaller ones, unless they are compounded which isn't any use on a roadbike. Why add complexity and weight for a less-efficient package?
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