Turbos Vs Superchargers

[Steve]

Turbos Vs Superchargers, in your opinion which is better? and why?

[nc211]

I'm not sure which one is better, as I have never driven a supercharged car. The VW is a 2.0 liter 4 with a turbo though, my first ever turbo. I'm friggin' hooked on the turbo theory from here on out! How can you not? How can you not be a fan of some tiny little impeller that turns that little mouse under the hood into a steriod infested monster! The air here in chicago has cooled quite a bit. Mid 60's, no humidity...perfect condition for a turbo. It's like a little sledgehammer device that makes a grown man giggle like a little school girl at a Justin Bieber concert! I say slap a turbo on every car out there! If I could figure out how to do it, I'd put one on my lawn mover, and it's a push mower at that!

Mileage seems quite good as well, considering the power returned from having a turbo. I also think a turbo allows the torque band to show up at lower rpm's, but not sure.

Disclaimer: probably gonna want a warranty though, and the really expensive synthetic oil. Oh, and the premium gas hurts a little.

[pj8708]

Not an expert, but had a super charger on a a Buick 2000 Regal, and shocking as this seems, it would get up and move when that boost kicked in. MPG was awful. One of my buddies has a Buick Grand National, super charged and burning alcohol. It damn near threw me out the door window when he accelerated from a dead stop. Glad I had my seat belt on. The boost offered in that configuration is awesome.

I've never driven a turbo but hope to someday.

[bainzey]

Not an expert, but had a super charger on a a Buick 2000 Regal, and shocking as this seems, it would get up and move when that boost kicked in. MPG was awful. One of my buddies has a Buick Grand National, super charged and burning alcohol. It damn near threw me out the door window when he accelerated from a dead stop. Glad I had my seat belt on. The boost offered in that configuration is awesome.

I've never driven a turbo but hope to someday.

IMO, turbo is great for smaller engines, to get that extra "umph". The main draw back tho, is what is known as Turbo Lag, it will not give immediate boost from engine idle, also your turbo cannot continuously out put, it needs to cool/regen. Hence the invention of the turbo cooler. Many cars now have them built in, but back in the days they were an add on, and pretty much a must if you were doing any kind of performance driving. One may not really notice turbolag as much if its just daily green light rocketing and then normal diving after that. As far a Superchargers go, now if you have some decent HP and you just want it to ROAR, well this is your option, but lets just say your car will no longer be a fuel effecient commuter :-0

Main difference between the two is a supercharger is a big pump that is driven by belts or gears from the engine and can be felt almost instantly, whereas a turbocharger is a pump driven by a turbine driven by the exhaust gases of the engine. Due to the nature of a turbo charger, it will not give immediate boost from engine idle. It takes time to act. A turbo is the easier to fit, if one is retorfitting it.

[pj8708]

Not an expert, but had a super charger on a a Buick 2000 Regal, and shocking as this seems, it would get up and move when that boost kicked in. MPG was awful. One of my buddies has a Buick Grand National, super charged and burning alcohol. It damn near threw me out the door window when he accelerated from a dead stop. Glad I had my seat belt on. The boost offered in that configuration is awesome.

I've never driven a turbo but hope to someday.

IMO, turbo is great for smaller engines, to get that extra "umph". The main draw back tho, is what is known as Turbo Lag, it will not give immediate boost from engine idle, also your turbo cannot continuously out put, it needs to cool/regen. Hence the invention of the turbo cooler. Many cars now have them built in, but back in the days they were an add on, and pretty much a must if you were doing any kind of performance driving. One may not really notice turbolag as much if its just daily green light rocketing and then normal diving after that. As far a Superchargers go, now if you have some decent HP and you just want it to ROAR, well this is your option, but lets just say your car will no longer be a fuel effecient commuter :-0

Main difference between the two is a supercharger is a big pump that is driven by belts or gears from the engine and can be felt almost instantly, whereas a turbocharger is a pump driven by a turbine driven by the exhaust gases of the engine. Due to the nature of a turbo charger, it will not give immediate boost from engine idle. It takes time to act. A turbo is the easier to fit, if one is retorfitting it.

Great information.

[LEX-SV]

Having driven both (modern late model turbos and supercharged cars) I have no real preference. Although I agree I am not very comfortable owning either without a factory warranty.

I have no problem running Mobil 1 synthetic oil and Chevron premium gas (5% higher price in CA for premium gas typically), I'm used to this after owning various Mercedes/Porsche/Lexus cars.

[smooth1]

I really debated over which way to go when I boosted my IS300. So, I'm going to to say that in my opinion, turbo blows away superchargers. With a supercharger comes belts, and with belts comes problems. Whatever size pulley you use is what determines your psi, and it's always on. A supercharger does have engine drag, although not as much as before. So even when your not using it your motor is lugging it around. they have put some tech into developing some better designs. There are better superchargers out now like the Kenny Bell supercharger system I put in my 03 Explorer.

But, In the last few years there have been some big dollar car mfgrs with rejuvinated interests in the turbo because of what it offers deisel motors as well. Over the last 10 years, there have been alot of amazing developments in turbo applications. Audi is winning Lemans one event after another with thier new turbo deisel rocket, Ford just came out with a V6 turbo that offers more torque and hp then thier new 5.0 liter V8 and is the "upgrade" from the V8, meaning it costs more? It's selling. My turbo set up has a digital boost controller with 2 settings. With a push of a button I can go from 14 psi (about 380 rear wheel hp) to 24 psi ( about 520 rear wheel hp.) and still get 28 mpg around town. The turbo only goes into boost when I decide I want to. Most of the time I drive around in vacuum mode and stealth along though. I hid the intercooler behind the stock grill and I use an internal blow off valve to recycle boosted air. You'd almost never know it was a turbo IS. So because the turbo is getting alot of technology, has more versatility, and is being used more and more industry wide meaning more platform support , and also the turbo is much more efficient than a supercharger, and can make way more power than a supercharger can, I say turbo is better........