Jump to content

Dumb Question About Psi


Mals BA XR6T

Recommended Posts

  • Member
  • Member For: 21y 4m 17d
  • Location: Sydney

This is going to sound really dumb.

Given that the car is a 4 ltr (as a NA) and you compress air into the piston chamber at 6 PSI, what would the otherwise volume of the engine be??? Is 6 PSI twice the amount of air volume, 3 times, 4 times???? :o

I hope I make sense here :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 21
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Member
  • Member For: 21y 6m 1d

Hey Mal

Normal air pressure (1 bar) is 14.7 psi. I assume, rather simplistically of course ;), that adding 6psi is upping the volume of the air in the cylinders by approximately 40%.

Someone tell me if I'm off the track here as that's just off the top of my head :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • SLOJAM, Gone but not forgotten
  • Lifetime Members
  • Member For: 21y 6m 9d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Outer east - Melbourne
Normal air pressure (1 bar) is 14.7 psi. I assume, rather simplistically of course ;), that adding 6psi is upping the volume of the air in the cylinders by approximately 40%.

Someone tell me if I'm off the track here as that's just off the top of my head  :o  

That seems to make sense...240kw is about 40% up on 180kw. 40% more fuel/air mixture would, I assume, make 40% more power :o

Coincidence or science??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
  • Member For: 21y 4m 17d
  • Location: Sydney

So assuming all this, and as I said, I'm sure this sounds really dumb... but you could say that working this all backwards the 4ltr would be something like 5.6 ltrs.

Why I'm asking all this is because my Dad is from the "old" school of motors and he has his V8 and keeps telling me the XR6T is only a 4 ltr, and doesn't understand how Turbo's work... :blink:

At least I can now use this as an example when I try to explain it again :banghead:

Thanks Guys

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Firm Member
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 21y 5m 18d
  • Location: Adelaide Hills

Yep, that's right Mal.

The engine has the same quantity of air in each cylinder as the 5.6lt engine due to the force feed from the turbo (when at full boost), effectively increasing the capacity of the 4lt engine. When the extra power is not needed and you are driving sedatley and so the turbo is providing little boost, the engine is effectively close to its naturally aspirated 4lt capacity, so saving fuel. that's the great thing about turbos, close to N/A economy when not using the turbo, and big engine performance when you are. The best of both worlds.

A turbo increses the volumetric efficiency of the engine beyond 1.... example. If a perfect naturally aspirated 4 lt engine went through one cycle of combustion in all 6 cylinders in a perfect world it would have sucked in 4lt of air. However in the real world this never happens due to friction on the intake side, heat causing the inducted air to warm up and so expand etc etc, so the volumetric efficiency is less than 1 as a result. But bang a turbo on and suddenly at full boost the 4lt engine is drawing close to 5.6lt of air (excluding the friction loses) just like your dads car and the volumetric efficency then becomes greater than 1.

l havent explained that very well, but l hope it makes some sense :blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Firm Member
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 21y 5m 18d
  • Location: Adelaide Hills
I thought you explained it pretty well actually!

So Mondie, do you miss the low down grunt of the V8?

No, not at all.

l absolutley love the turbo rush, nothing beats plodding along at 20km an hour in 1st with one of your mates in the passenger seat and then just planting it, the car instantley launches. It seems to hit 70km in about the time it takes to reach for the gear shift. l love it :P

They dont bother asking how it goes after that, they just sit there in impressed awe.

l used to have a 72 XU-1, one of the late model ones with the uprated 202 for Bathurst and l loved it, my favourite car over all others l have owned. l hoped to recapture some of that 6 magic with the XR6T and l have, with a bit of luxury and comfort thrown in.

There is nothing l miss about a V8 really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
  • Create New...
'