Wanna Add Power to Your Harley? Here’s How!

Power adders can be added to your Harley to make it exceed factory expectations, and push itself to the maximum. Some power adders may increase power 100 percent of the time, while others may only provide power for a short period of time. There are a several types of power adders available to increase your engine power without causing problems.

Superchargers

A supercharger, normally referred to as a blower, is one of the three major groups of power adders. This is a mechanically driven system that is designed to worked off the crankshaft as the motor is rotating during normal operational speeds. The job of the blower is to compress the air inside the piston to more than the normal 14.7 psi. A supercharger is rated in pounds of boost, so for every pound of boost you increase the 14.7 psi by one.

There are two major types of blowers, the root-displacement and the centrifugal style. Root systems use rotors to compress air allowing instant boost at low RPMs and maintaining it throughout the range. It suffers in efficiency as heat is built up during higher RPMs and allows for leakage around the seals. A centrifugal charger uses belt driven impellers to compress the air inside the intake tract. This allows them to be tuned for higher RPMs, provide more power, and increase efficiency. These benefits also comes at a higher price.

Turbocharger

A turbocharger, similar to a supercharger,  is a device that tries to gain back some 30-50 percent power lost from your exhaust. It is designed to use exhaust gas to spin an impeller blade to draw in more air into the cylinders.

For a turbocharger to work properly, it needs to match the displacement of the engine. The design of turbochargers is to provide power through out all ranges of RPMs. The faster the engine turns, the more exhaust is put out. As the impeller spins faster, more pressure is provided increasing power. An improperly matched turbocharger will result in turbo lag or spooling up. Turbo lag is the delay from the opening of the throttle to when the turbo kicks in. As spooling occurs, the exhaust gases push the impeller blades very fast, which is caused by the rapid increase in the throttle.

Nitrous Oxide

The last of the power adders, commonly referred to as juice, squeeze, or simply NOS will provide an instant power boost. Unlike the previous power adders, it does not rely on mechanically driven pressure systems. Nitrous works by providing an oxidizer that allows for more fuel to be burned, increasing pressure. This can be delivered in a wet style, with both fuel and nitro, or a dry style, which has only nitro. Nitrous oxide systems work well during higher RPMs and helps avoid potential catastrophic engine failure. Nitrous systems can be modified to fit the various needs of the rider.

There’s so much more power adder information in the Forums, it’s hard to choose where to start, but why not here?!