mrnokio

What is the difference in performance between a turbocharger and a supercharger? I have no clue about what they would do to a cl-s.

Water-S

okay a turbo sits on your exhast(best way to decribe this is imagine a hair dryer blowing out toward the rear end of the car through the pipe.) this ups your horsepower. but the bad thing is until the turbos kick in the car will seem sluggish(this is called turbo lag)(which i don't like)
the supercharger(which is often talked about on this board) is this thing that sits onto of your intake manifold that's what pulls air into your motor. but this time imagine a vaccum sitting on top of it. what this does is pulls in WAY more air which results in more HP. personally i like Superchargers better cause theres no lag.) cause when you speed up you don't have to wait for the it to kick in.

Type S

they are different system...turbo charger is push by exhaust air and normally the engine temperature is pretty high..need to care about boost measurment...and it is good for start up accleration..a bit tough while encounter the cornering...but u will feel more powerful by turbo charger pushing u into your seat.... but u will have to wait at some certain rpm for turbo chagger to work...and u will encounter the turbo lag quite a lot.... a better egnine oil cooler (intercooler) will be needed if u are buying the high pressure turbo kit..superchager is working by the timing belt.... it works once the timing belt is working..so u will start feel the power increased...i personally like superchager better..and the engine temperature is not that high...and power output is evenly....
that is pretty much it.. it is up to your choice to buy the turbo kit or superchager kit..

mrnokio

Thanks Guys! Is there an estimate for hp gains for each type of charger?

Pull_T

I'm going to go fairly basic here...

Both a Turbocharger (Turbo) and a Supercharger (s/c) are air pumps that force air into the cylinders. This extra air is coupled with additional fuel to create a more powerful combustion.

Turbos are driven off of the exhaust, basically there is an impeller (think fan-blade) in the exhaust that spins as the spent gases are forced from the engine. There is another impeller driven by the exhaust impeller that forces clean air back into the motor. Exhaust gases are not put back into the motor. A twin-turbo works the same, only with two sets of impellers, one on each manifold.

A s/c is driven by your belt. As the belt spins, it sucks air into your motor.

For most applications, a s/c will be less expensive than a turbo, namely because there is a lot more duct work required and it is eaisier to design and install. Also, for most applications, the tuning of your car's computer is more complex with a turbo.

bioyuki

If you want to tune a turbo just adjust the boost. For a S/C you have to take the thing off and change the timing belts. Once you get a turbo set up its a lot easier to tweak.

ReflexRacing_com

Yeah ROB, didn't you know that? DOH!!!!


I could have told you THAT!!

~sarcasm~

Wasup robbo??

CSAP PRIDE bby!!

scalbert

it has already been mentioned the differences in turbos and SC's, turbo is exhaust driver whereas a supercharger is belt driven off the crank. Both are used to force more air into the engine than what it can naturally ingest.

But there were some misinformation about the two also presented.

Turbos are mounted on the exhaust manifold for the most part. But SCs aren't always mounted on the intake manifold, typically only roots styles are done this way. Centrifugal can be mounted anywhere in the compartment.

Both SCs and turbos increase the heat in the intake and engine. This occurs because the air is being compressed and anytime you compress air it heats, (Ideal Gas Law). Now there are varying efficiencies and typically a turbo is more efficient (higher rpm with a design that is more conducive to this), hence heating the air less. But since it is driven off of the exhaust there is backpressure and some of the heat may transfer from the turbine side to the compressor, but this is minimal. Plus, most turbo systems use an intercooler. The reason most SC systems don't use an IC is because they are typically running lower boost which heats the air less.

To increase boost on a turbo you vary the pressure applied or bleed (depending on type) to the wastegate (which regulates the amount of exhaust gases hitting the turbo turbine blades). To increase boost on a SC all that is typically needed is to change the primary compressor pulley to a smaller size. You don't need to pull the drive belt.

Lag is often talked about in turbos but is normally misunderstood. Is comprised of throttle response (which all cars have NA and forced induction) and boost threshold (the minimum RPM where the engine delivers enough exhaust gas to the turbine in order to spin the compressor fast enough to get above atmospheric pressure). But below this the car is operating at the nearly the same level as an NA car. So lag really is the time before the boost supplying torque increase where the car operates like it would as a NA vehicle.

Which one is better is greatly debated and really comes down to the needs. IMO turbos are better suited to both street and course racing whereas roots style SCs are better for drag racing. But in the end, turbos are more efficient overall typically only having a parasitic loss of 5 hp max where some SC systems take up to 50 hp to operate. But due to the complexity of a turbo system they are used less in aftermarket applications.

Pull_T

Sorry, Scalbert, I was trying to give a very basic description of them, that's why I did not go into the types of s/c's.

Roots blowers are not the only type of blowers that replace the intake, twin screw would be another of these positive diplacement blowers.

spiroh

Actually a turbo setup is A LOT harder to tweak then a SC.

Spiro

Ultimac

Here is a ?? for you turbo/s-c experts..Can you have CAI and a S/C, because if a s/c goes on the intake there probably wouldn't be room for the two. Also since you can't use headers and a turbo together, can you use a s/c and headers together.

Rescuer

supercharger

Ultimac

Also as far as adding a turbo it can be exxxxpensive especially if it is done right. You are talking about changing your pistons and some seals. (I.E. turbo prepping an engine)unless you want to just put wear and tear on your engine,besides do you really want a cloud of black smoke coming out of the back of your car everytime you get on it.

moomaster_99

Superchargers still have an intake pipe...maybe a different design than the original...but they still have one...and it is a form of CAi usually. The Headers are perfect for SC apps. Another reason why Comptech chooses to go with an SC v. A Turbo is so they can continue to sell the headers.