[sammyg2]

With the emphasis today on hybrids .... small efficient turbo engines etc a thought just popped into my head:
stored boost.

Suppose we had a small compressor that built up presure in an air tank and that pressure was released into the intake manifold on demand, = instant (and temporary) boost.

Why? it could be charged while iding, while decellerating, with significantly less detrimental parasitic losses than a conventional supercharged or turbo engine.

Heck why not take it another step, have one or two cylinders switch from internal combustion to air compression on decell, like a jake brake or such. It'd help with braking and take that energy and sasve it instead of turning into heat.

Wouldn't do much for constant cruise but would be nice for stop and go driving.

'spose it could build up 15 or 20 psig in a 10 gallon tank, maybe that's too big for packaging but we'll go with it for 'sposes.

On a small 1.6 liter engine that could produce a 5 psi boost under accelleration for what, 10 seconds maybe longer? Haven't done the math here, so just guessing so far. Who doesn't want an extra 50 hp once in a while, and if it's basically free with ZERO lag ....

We don't need much power on steady cruise or gradual accelleration, just on innitial start up to 30 or 40 mpg, that would allow a much smaller engine to push around a bigger vehicle.

Yes it'd be fairly complex, prolly more than I could pull off in my garage with all the computerized stuff, but the big car makers could do something like that in their sleep.

Oh well, just a thought.