Book Reviews on Turbocharging

[jlccc]

I recently purchased two books from Amazon.com and thought others might be interested.



Maximum Boost: Designing, Testing & Installing Turbocharger Systems

By Corky Bell

$25



Turbochargers

by Hugh MacInnes

$13



Of the two books, I enjoyed the MacInnes work much more. It was definitely more technical but still understandable. It also focused more on the turbo itself rather than the entire turbocharging system (as contrasted with the work by Bell).



Both books had very good sections on intercooling, but the latter had better information on water injection and A/R ratios (which were the areas I specifically wanted to study).



First book had a good explanation as to how a turbocharged engine can produce twice the horsepower of a normally aspirated engine without creating twice the stress levels in the engine.



Second book had info on double and triple-staging turbos to achieve boost pressures in excess of 200 psi.



Delivered to my door, the cost for both books was $42.

 

[Steve Campbell]

I read MacInnes' book

adout 17-18 years ago. It was very informative.

 

[jlccc]

Re: I read MacInnes' book

Originally posted by Steve Campbell

adout 17-18 years ago. It was very informative.

In the Introduction he mentions a prior major revision, so the version I have must be revision 2. There is no date of publication that I can find but the newest reference I can find in the book is 1983.



EDIT: Amazon.com says it was published 1987. Wish there was an updated version.

 

[Blakers]

On the subject of books... I have a 1939 version of "Diesel Engineering Handbook. " It's about 2" thick and I read it cover to cover back in high school.



With the exception of computer controls, everything about our diesels was well known in 1939. No major changes since then. They had turbochargers and supercharges back then, but I guess no one had the guts to put enough boost, fuel and rpm together to get the power we get in our small packages.



Blake

 

[jlccc]

Originally posted by Blakers

... but I guess no one had the guts to put enough boost, fuel and rpm together to get the power we get in our small packages.



Blake

Without checking dates, I'd venture to guess that some of the materials we take for granted (and which make our small packages possible) weren't available then.

 

[tgbol]

Without going out to the garage to dig out the first edition, if I remember right it was about '73. MacInnes book was just about the Bible on self turbo an engine. I sure used it when I did my Comanche engine.

 

[Blakers]

Originally posted by jlccc





Without checking dates, I'd venture to guess that some of the materials we take for granted (and which make our small packages possible) weren't available then.

I can't think of anything that wasn't available then that is now on our 12 valve engines. Bosch pumps were basically the same, turbos were available - though probably bigger to get the same airflow, internal engine components were basically the same, injectors were basically the same. Granted, very few smaller (our truck size) diesels were turbocharged at the time, but the technology was available.



My grandfather was developing engines for Cletrac and Hercules at the time. Here is a picture of the dynomometer room where he did much of his work. He also traveled all over North America troubleshooting when the dealers could not fix a problem.



Hope you enjoy some of these pictures. Many links on the site.



Blake

 

[NVR FNSH]

I did my mechanical engineering co-op at Garrett Turbochargers in Torrance, Ca. Talk about a kid in a candy store First day we reported to work - 4 of us lived together - we were each given a copy of Hugh MacInnes' book and told read it cover to cover. One of the engineers had worked with MacInnes and challenged us to find the typo's and other errors. There were/are a couple that I can remember.



It's a very good book.



Brian