Has anyone tried putting a blower in line with the air intake before? Is it a complete waste of time? Or would it damage the engine at all? I don't really have much of an interest in trying it, I just think its an interesting idea... Would it be proper to assume that it would be decently worthless on a turboed engine?

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1984 300D Turbo.

100% waste of time and money. A standard cage blower can do just that, blow. It can't make pressure.

A high speed, high amp, fan is the only way you will get any measurable pressure. http://www.electricsupercharger.com/ This is the only one that's done it right. Even they admit it will only make 1PSI with a single charger or 2PSI with a second one.

The only thing I can think of that will come close is a vacuum blower from a heavy-duty shop vac. With that you would need a 12V DC to 120V AC inverter and only something like a 240D would see a usable difference is manifold air.

Put your hand over the plastic tube of your filter box. You will see just how much air these engines take in at idle. Now imagine that x8 (For full power/RPM) and you can see that HVAC blowers can't even supply more air than engines need at idle. The turbo engines use around 400-600CFM @ full output (depending on air temp, boost PSI and countless other factors). There are only 3 easy bolt on things we can do to get more air into the engines.

1: Bigger turbo
2: A second turbo
3: A roots-type blower

Some eBay electric "supercharger" examples:
Example 1
eBay example 2
I STRONGLY suggest that you mercilessly laugh at anyone stupid enough to buy one of these things.

Think about it, our turbocharger compressor wheels are 60mm in diameter and spin over 100,000 RPM. Do you think that little plastic thingy spinning around 500rpm can come within ballpark (or planetary) range of that???

EDIT: Most of the eBay sites claim 120CFM airflow. NONE say anything about pressure. CFM means NOTHING without pressure and since they don't tell you what kind of pressure these things produce, that should trigger your BS detector right away.

Good reading http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/better_20electric_20supercharger
(Bad language alert) http://www.homemadeturbo.com/tech_projects/el_blower/

Do you want a TRUE WORKING electric super charger? Check this out: http://www.turbomagazine.com/tech/0406tur_knight/

I'm skeptical of these systems but I won't totally condemn them yet, ram air induction has some minor gains if done right. If you were to have the blower suck air through its own filter and feed the outlet air from it after your ordinary air filter there may be some slight gain. This may help off the line a little. Beyond that, I wouldn't have much hope for it.

I know both Garrett and Holset are looking at incorporating electric motors in the CRHA to provide some low end boost, so the concept isn't totally out there.

Personally, I think a pressure bottle would be better. You have the bottle get pressurized through a check valve from the intake manifold when at peak boost. When you stomp on the pedal, have a circuit open a valve releasing the pressure. When released the air will expand and cool providing a nice slug of air to the cylinders which will help spool up the turbo. Un fortunatly to be trully effective the pressure tank would have to be kind of large.

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

Yeah, it would probably have to come with a trailer to carry it.

I've seen the math from somewhere before. A 50 gallon tank at 120PSI, regulated to 15psi output, would be enough to power a 1.6L honda at WOT for about 4 seconds.

It wouldn't have to provide more than 1/4 second boost to help since it would also spool up the turbo some. Since it would be charged off the turbo it would only be like 12 to 14 psi though.

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

Why do that? Just rig up a propane injection system in the air intake. Very simple to do and is like nitrous for a diesel. But anytime you are on a quest for power, you must accept the parts breakage that goes along with it.

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1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

The easy way would be to crank up the low end fuel and use nitrous until you get boost. Even better, use a VNT turbo. A VNT should get you ~5psi boost if you do a powerbrake launch.

In the 60's Detroit Muscle Car days you started seeing functional hood scoops. Some pointed in the direction of front of car. Then a few Mopars had the scoop, but pointed towards windshield. The second configuration, with same opening area was superior. But, I'm not sure, but it might have been the 396 Chevelle that first used windshield cowl induction. The cowl is where you see the highest air pressure at speed. The configuration of the grille area tended to push the air up resulting in a relative low pressure for the hood induction, but a much higher pressure at the cowl. As other's stated, you really need a lot of fan to do anything, even to get up above it being an air restriction. So, cowl induction first, grille induction second, though grille induction because of the length of the conduit to carburetor (in carbureted days, I know) and engine heat falls far short of cowln induction. I know this doesn't directly address your question. I just mean it in the sense of aerodynamics and that using aerodynamics as a boost is probably the way to go versus electric fans.

The most boost you can theoretically get from ram air induction at 70mph is about 0.1 psi . The most I have seen someone get at 70 mph is about 0.07 psi . Not exactly alot all by itself. As far as initial boost off the line it will be of no real benefit. At higher speeds these gains will be multipled by the turbo however. An electric fan would be better than ram air of the line.

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

I have been a mechanic all my life. I've seen many things I would call snake oil and the electric blower is one of them. Nothig more than something to seperate your money from your walet.

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85 300CD
83 300TD
78 240D (daughter)