121: Compound Turbocharging — Untapped Potential or a Waste of Time? [#PODCAST]

The legendary @TunedbyShaneT returns to talk about turning LMP3 race cars into hill climb monsters, calibrating V12 air race planes, the realities of compound turbo setups, and much more.

Shane Tecklenburg, or “Shane T” as he’s more commonly known, is one of the biggest names in the tuning industry, and for good reason. This long-time friend of High Performance Academy has been in the EFI tuning game for many years now, and has a reputation as the ultimate problem solver who can rectify all manner of difficult tuning issues that others have given up on.

After appearing in episode #1 back in 2021, Shane now returns for episode #120, allowing us to catch up on his latest projects, starting with an in-depth look at what it takes to transform an LMP3 circuit racer into a hill climb weapon with a sub-10 minute Pikes Peak ascent in its sights.

This leads us into a fascinating conversation around anti-lag, IMAP vs EMAP, and retaining as much power as possible as a car gains altitude.

Next, we get an interesting insight into the world of air racing, as Shane details his tuning adventures with V12-powered Thunder Mustang race planes and the unique challenges that come with calibrating these unique machines and their dual ECUs.

Back in 2021, we talked to Shane about one of the most interesting projects he’s been involved with — the Mazworx SR20VE-powered triple-compound turbo drag car. This machine is fairly well-known online thanks to its incredible aesthetics and unique turbo setup, so the update on this project from Shane is a very welcome one as the team strives for that magical 3000hp goal. The conversation then falls down the very deep compound turbo rabbit hole as Shane gets into the finer details of this forced induction arrangement.

Follow Shane here:
IG: @tunedbyshanet
FB: Tuned By Shane T
YT: TunedbyShaneT

#tripleturbo #compoundturbo #pikespeak #hillclimb #v12 #airrace #p51mustang #highperformanceacademy #buildtunedrive #learndriveoptimise #learntotune #datanerd #racecraft #cars #motorsport #racing #boost #shanet #motec #sr20 #sr20ve #mazworx

[coollee]

Hitting the like button, coming through the door... popcorn in hand.

[Smidnight]

Shane's yt channel is geat, especially the pikes peak episode. And I remember first interview with him at hp academy. That was the reason why I started to follow him

[joshlewis]

From what I have seen, you are able to get a lot more mid range from compounded turbos. If you already have a twin turbo setup, I'd recommend compounding them together with 1 big and 1 small (your weight will be basically the same). If you have a single that you're experiencing lag with, I'd recommend fresh air anti lag for a V band setup and/or spool valves if you have a twin scroll flange setup to block off a scroll essentially making your a/r ratio variable. Compound turbos are a little sensitive to tune, but they can help a lot, especially on diesels.

If you're REALLY wanting to eliminate lag and not use a supercharger, look at what Eric Mann did in the 1990s. He made a jet engine from a semi truck turbocharger and ran that off a small diesel tank. He then bled boost into a Cosworth 1.7 engine, he got a flat torque curve from 2400rpm to 9000rpm.

[GroovesAndLands]

Great interview/chat with a great guest. Already looking forward to him coming back for round 3. Keep up the great work!

[Smidnight]

Shane should have podcasts with hp academy on a regular basis!

[paulk]

Another great episode.. back to back A+

[spooler]

Great interview. So much to learn and knowledge to gain. It's freaking nuts.

[TurbineResearch]

Thanks for all the knowledge share ❤ it’s awesome to hear all the strategies you both use for different applications

[Florent]

Awesome episode once again! Loved it, so many well explained technical content ❤

[exvils]

1:30:25 yeah same.. and what picks up more hp is going bigger in size with smaller turbo so you can run more PR, also bigger A/R on housing.. but this goes in a way back to IMAP/EMAP ratios

[dirtydieselguy]

I'm surprised more people haven't used variable geometry turbos on gas engines. They make a big difference on diesels, can act like a small fast spooling turbo and a large turbo in one package. Might even be able to use the VVT output on a GM E38 or similar ECM to control it.

[exvils]

When you are CI limited and need more horsepower and at same time wider power range compound is the answer.

[blakeuhl]

So the ultimate question is how much air mass can be fed to the engine. I'm curious what ambient and iat temperatures during testing were and temps between the stages and intercooling effects. Does temperature have any limitations to air mass ?

[lutek]

I’m still amazed how much of a misunderstanding goes to fresh air anti lag. The biggest issue is that everyone who is talking about it haven’t calibrated 1 or 2 cars with that system. Reality is that it only adds more turbo speed with same throttle openning. it’s not possible to run this system with throttle closed or reduced opening by 2/3 to get same results engine still needs a lot of throttle bypass. It adds more difficulties because turbo speed is much more inconsistent and will vary based on egt of course. Fuel trim is fine to control it but not enough. Done 20 different cars and turbo setup fastest evos in European hill climbs running fresh air and I’ve got a bit of data :) also anti lag is adding a lot of difficulties with downshift with paddle shift system but with top ecu’s it can be done properly.

[chuckschneider]

Stop ragging on Lycomings. I personally updated Lycomings to 1990's technology. It is called the Lycoming IE2. Fuel injected, turbo control, prop control, EGT and Turbine inlet control. Welcome to the 4th dimension calibrating for altitude.

[MuchoBoosto]

Awesome episode! One question: why were 2 smaller turbos chosen for the low pressure stage on the compound SR20 as opposed to 1?

Time for Shane to start his own podcast I think…

[j.m.]

If you want to talk about the real secret sauce then Turbo compounds need to be discussed

[curvsme]

Oh now I have a couple few ideas for an altitude sim dyno.