Probably pretty stupid to ask. But I was just thinking about kinds of superchargers or turbo's and intakes that can be added to the Camry Hybrid without damaging or hurting gas milage too severely. Are there any options, what about a deeper exhaust, not a stupid ricer exhaust.

 

I posed a similar question awhile back, here's the thread.

After gauging the cost and the pros/cons of upgrading where FE was concerned, I decided not to go any further, other than using a high quality air filter.

As far as the exhaust goes, I believe I've read somewhere (maybe on here) that the exhaust system has been streamlined for the greatest efficiency and directly aids in FE and performance. (someone help me out here)

I would think putting a supercharger or turbo (or nitrous?! haha) on a TCH would be antithetical to the whole purpose of a TCH (fuel economy, not acceleration/speed). The electric motor actually gives the TCH a torque (and thus acceleration) advantage as compared to the gasoline Camry. When you think about it, the greatest upgrade acceleration-wise you could do to the TCH is increasing the electrical power to the electric motor, or maybe using 4 separate electric motors (the future of electric vehicles, I doubt technically or financially feasible for current TCH owners, but don't hold me to that). Also, check out the Tesla, I saw on Top Gear that it goes 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. Pretty impressive.

So, I think I'll just stick to how my TCH performs for now. Maybe someone has some new input since I posted that question a few months back.

 

Your post didn't end with an LOL so I guess you're serious. I can't imagine any after market manufacturer designing and creating a turbocharger for a TCH since the only potential customers would be you and maybe one other guy.

Seriously, people who buy TCHs come at their purchase with a totally different mindset than how fast it gets off the line. The goal here is a great high mileage ride. Incidently, when pushed, the THC has VERY good acceleration because its high torque electric motor combines with the ICE for tire burning starts if you really want them. But I woundn't count on the PSD lasting too long if that's the way you choose to drive.

 

Completely off topic, well, maybe not completely...but this summer I think I'll be upgrading the lighting (covered in various threads on this site). I want to eek out every little volt and watt and whatnot from the battery, so I'll be switching to LEDs on all my interior lights, and hopefully digital ballasts and HIDs for the headlights. That way, when I get stuck in DC (or any other) traffic, I won't switch to the ICE because my battery has been drained.

Oh, and the Escalade Hybrid (haha, that's a funny joke) has an optional engine block heater listed on its "build your own" site. If it weren't spring/turning warmer, I'd probably invest in this too. I get the feeling the TCH would benefit more from this option than an Escalade Hybrid and its paltry 20mpg (I wonder what it'll do in real-life situations).

 

The TCH is a 187 hp engine + electric motor combo. for high gas mileage. The V6 Camry is 268 hp. So your looking for 81 more horsepower to accelerate like the V6. The TCH weighs in at 3750 pounds which helps give it that nice ride.

That brings back memories of those 455 cubic inch monster engines with loads of torque to power a car of similar weight. The Oldsmobile and Cadillac's of that day only got 13 city and sometimes 14/16 on the highway. The automotive industry has made lots of progress from those days of the 60's and 70's. Boy, would those big car fly.

Fuel injection, high energy ignition and ECU controlled timing has advanced the engines to be much smaller with still good horsepower.

Back to your question:
Turbo would be a good power booster but usually sluggish from a standing start. You would have to modify the engine. Using stronger rods, cooler running pistons and a larger cooling radiator to help when under full power.

Nitrous would be quickest but again beefing up the engine like above to handle all the extra power.

A supercharger runs all the time which is designed mostly for full power anyway. Although some large diesel trucks have used them for years just for extra power.

 

An oxygen generator/separator can be purchased for under $1000 and can be run on an inexpensive MSW inverter. Pipe the PURE oxygen into the intake manifold just upstream of the throttle plate.

 

What would that do?

 

Second that.

My 1975 Coupe DeVille had a 500 cubic inch engine and weighed in at 5200 lbs. Max HP was actually less than the TCH, I think, but the max torque was about twice as much; so take-off from a standstill was literally awe-inspiring.

Fuel consumption was less than impressive. With a full big-pipe dual exhaust conversion, friction treatment, egr modification, air intake improvement, extra high tire pressure, and even with a tailwind and light use of the A/C, I could just barely manage 16 mpg on a flat interstate trip. But 13 mpg in the city? - not in my wildest dreams !

In stock condition (pre the mods above) I could only get 10 to 12 mpg, highway; so a 30-gallon tankful was often not enough to get me through the 350-360 mile trip between Houston and New Orleans.

But now back to the TCH and the industry progress:

In recent years, my 92 Deville (4200 lbs, 4.9L, 200 hp) usually made that trip on under 12 gallons (30 mpg).

Last month I made that trip in the TCH on 8 gallons (45 mpg).

I say that until the hybrids came along most of the "progress" was really the result of lighter cars and smaller engines; i.e. improvements in economy of size, rather than true gains in energy efficiency.

With the advent of the hybrid era, we're finally making truly significant efficiency gains.

But my nose would turn into a twig and sprout leaves if I told you the ride to New Orleans was as comfortable in the TCH as in the 75 Caddy.

And..........speaking of dual exhausts, I would bet that a "cat-back" dual exhaust conversion would be the most effective and do-able hot rod mod for the TCH. And it should bring significant mpg improvement as well as extra power.

And don't think that duals are only for "V" engines. One aftermarket cat back dual conversion for a 4-cylinder Audi claims a 10% boost in HP, and Toyota is actually planning dual exhausts on some upcoming 4-cylinder engines specifically for mpg gain.

 

HSD throws up a number of challenges to making use of any increase in ICE power and actually delivering it to the ground. Unlike a conventional automatic tranny where you could simply increase line pressure to get the thing to tolerate the power increase for a while, with the TCH will need to have MG1/MG2 join in the increased power dance to get the added torque to the ground. This would require, most likely, the original source code (or some REAL good hacking) for the control computers, for them to create changes to the counter-torque MG1 and MG2 provide. The transaxle and MG1/MG2 unit used in the RX or Highlander could serve as a model; both have considerably more power than the Camry ICE. The inverter from one of them may be needed to care for the higher current demands.

IOW, getting more power out of the ICE is easy compared to getting the rest of the system to work with the increase.

FWIW, relatively 'low-hanging fruit' for the TCH is simply getting the 25 lb/ft of torque back that the 'standard' I4 produces, relative to the Atkinson cycle version in the TCH (161 for standard, 138 for the Hybrid). Having a wider range for the intake cam timing change that would allow the ICE to work more like the 'standard' engine when the max power was needed. Due to the higher compression pistons, premium fuel would most likely be needed, as would an effective knock sensor technology. With the higher compression, getting ICE power to 165-170 HP, with the additional peak torque would 'wake things up' a bit. But getting it to the ground and keeping the ICE in its new optimum power range would still require significant engine control re-programming.

 

As long as the mods only served to flatten out the torque curve no firmware modification would be required.

You could probably do that with a variable speed/boost supercharger with control firmware to fill in the low parts of the torque curve.