With the uncertainty of fuel prices and the concern that gasoline could again top $4 a gallon across the nation, Americans have been shifting their vehicle-buying behaviors toward more fuel-efficient vehicles.
While gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles have been getting much of the attention as the next step in fuel-sipping vehicles, turbocharging — which is used by roughly half of new vehicles in Europe — is emerging as an engine technology U.S. consumers “didn’t know they wanted.”
In a recent study of U.S. consumers by Honeywell, more than half of those who plan to purchase a vehicle in the next two years believe fuel efficiency is more important than it was during their last vehicle purchase. The study also found that more than 80% of American consumers were more likely to consider purchasing a turbocharged vehicle after learning that the readily available turbocharger helps to increase the fuel efficiency of a gas engine by up to 20%, without sacrificing performance or reliability.
But what about adding on an aftermarket turbo to a vehcle? We all know that turbochargers are incredibly appealing to performance enthusiasts because of their ability to add “free” horsepower — and lots of it — to almost any engine or vehicle.
Today, it seems easier than ever for the average gearhead to harness the incredible power-building capability of turbochargers. Those who want to increase the performance of their existing turbo system, or those who want to add a turbo to an existing engine, have never had so many components, vendors and resources to choose from.
Unfortunately, this wealth of options and opinions can be hard to understand and navigate. That’s where Turbo: Real World High-Performance Turbocharger Systems comes in. This book is the most complete, detailed, up-to-date resource on anything and everything to do with turbochargers.
Whether you’re running gas or diesel, 4, 6, 8 or more cylinders, this book will teach you to test, install and maintain your high-performance turbo system.
You’ll learn how turbochargers work, how to choose the right turbo or turbos for your engine by reading flow maps, and how to tune your engine to run perfectly with your turbo system.
Author Jay K. Miller uses more than 300 photos and the perfect blend of technical and common-sense information to help you build boost quickly and make more horsepower and torque. In his 160-page softbound book, Miller discusses the various components of a turbocharger and explains how to decode complicated turbocharger model numbers, compressor maps and other specs.
If you run into problems with your turbo system, there’s also a detailed chapter on failure analysis to help you figure out what’s wrong and how to fix it — plus a complete step-by-step turbocharger tear-down and rebuild.
I'm sure you'll find this book a great reference on creating turbocharger systems for you and your customer's vehicles. In fact, this book won a 2008 IAMA silver award for “Technical: How To Do It” book category.
ISBN 13: 9781932494297 Price: $24.95 plus $6.95 shipping & handling.
To order your copy, visit www.cartechbooks.com.
Fast Eddie —