Moving Air compressor intake out of intake manifold?

The turbo pieces would have to make it through your aftercooler for that to happen now.

Have you ever stuck your hand in front of your turbo at an idle with the intake tube off? There is negative pressure, and thats not even at full boost. You are not loosing boost to the air compressor, nor are you loosing fuel economy.

They were put in the intake so the compressor will always have a clean supply of warm air.

 

I'm about 99% sure it doesn't draw air unless it's compressing anyways.

 

You can do it but it's probably not worth your time. I put a bigger compressor on my CAT and it's set up to be "naturally aspirated" meaning the supply air shouldn'd be foced in like it is when it comes from the intake manifold. I was told by Bendix to put the air pickup it as close as possible to the air cleaner or to run a seperate air filter so that the air would be more stable. They said if it was too close to the turbo it could try to suck air/oil out of the air compressor under boost. They told me some trucks with EGR have n/a compressors because the exhaust gasses in the intake mixture were causing issues with compressors. Don't forget a lot of OLD cat came from the factory like that. They just had a small round filter bolted to the side of the compressor.

 

If i'm in a pull my boost can drop 3-4 psi when the compressor starts up. I've considered this mod myself but I'm worried the compressor won't be able to keep up with my trains if the air isn't being crammed in there. I'm interested in hearing how this goes for you.

 

You guys in my opinion are over thinking this. If you really think you have to convert the the compressor over to atmosphere intake, bendix makes a filter that bolts on to the intake of the compressor. It's in there catalog. Although I really think its a moot point as there is no reason to change it over.

 

How much of that boost loss is due to the increased load on the motor or other factors unrelated to the compressors actual affect on manifold pressure? Small turbo maxed out? Large turbo falling out of it's sweet spot?

I would do a test, switching the compressor intake to verify your conclusion.

 

My.02.....I do it on all the trucks I keep. Less heat on compressor....less boost loss.... Builds air fine. Cat engineers are not the ones with compressor knowledge..... Try bendix.....cfm will be lower without boost.....particularly on acerts..... But the problems with the carbon in the brass valves and the line charging the tanks go from frequent to virtually non existent..... To me the pluses outweigh any minus. RW

 

I would say it's more compressor heat if anything. The turbocharger is actually a very efficient way to compress air. Far more efficient than any air compressor. Without it the air compressor does more work because it takes a lot longer to build up air.