BlogoftheBiker.com Logo

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Turbocharge a carbureted motorcycle? - Yahoo! Answers

Turbocharge a carbureted motorcycle?

Back in the 1970's, RayJay used a single carb ahead of the turbo and a single intake manifold. The problem with carbs ahead of the turbo is that with the long intake tract, they can be hard to start and fuel droplets form in low velocity situations. But, you don't have to deal with fuel pumps. For good running at low or no boost situations, it works better to have the turbo ahead of the carbs. However, the

need one of two different things. Either they need to be sealed to the outside atmosphere, which can be problematic plugging all the leaks. Or, have the carbs inside of an air tight box, but on a bike the size of the pressure chamber would cause problems. Either way, you'll need solid floats or if they're brass, fill them with fuel resistant foam to keep the air pressure from crushing them.

The problem will be finding a turbo small enough. I think the '84 Kaw 750 turbo bike had a turbin that was about the diameter of a penny. Get one too big and you'll have excessive turbo lag with power finally coming on like flipping a light switch. Good luck.

Source(s):

Turbocharging or supercharging old Studebakers is cool.