super chargers vs. turbo chargers

 Superchargers and turbo chargers can both be added to almost any internal combustion engine to give them extra power. The most common application in which we see super chargers and turbo chargers used is on cars and trucks. since super chargers and turbo chargers are both used for the same thing, many people argue on which can give you the best results in some additional horsepower for their vehicle.Both of these bolt on applications are considered forced induction systems, this means that they literally force more air into the intake manifold of the engine which causes the engine to produce more horsepower.   Many cars and trucks come stock from the factory with superchargers and turbochargers, especially within the last four or five years but which one is better?  

There are multiple types of superchargers but the most commonly used type of supercharger is a roots type supercharger. The supercharger bolts on top of the engine and has a pulley on the end of it, there is a belt that connects the pulley from the supercharger and the crankshaft of the engine. As the rpm's from the engine get higher the crankshaft spins faster which spins the pulley on the supercharger causing it to force more air into the engine. Since the supercharger is active as long as the crankshaft is turning, this makes it impossible for a supercharger to ever give your car better gas mileage or even keep the gas mileage the same. That being said, superchargers are a very easy way to boost your horsepower 100 or more very simply.

Turbochargers can give you close to the same results as a supercharger but the way that a turbo charger works in an entirely different way. A turbo charger sits somewhere along the exhaust manifold system. A turbocharger has a snail shell shape to it and uses the force from exhaust fumes to spool up the turbo which then forces air into the engine causing the engine to put out more horsepower just like the supercharger does. The only downside to the turbo is that there is a delay because of the time needed for the exhaust to spool up the turbocharger but this also can save you some gas.

Now days most all diesel cars and trucks some with turbochargers on them, this is because diesel engines produce much more torque than gas engines do but at the same time they don't have as much horse power. Once you add the turbocharger to the engine these cars and trucks are able to push the engine much harder producing lots of horsepower and already having tons of torque out of a much smaller displacement engine that is more efficient. Within the last two years many car manufacturers have been putting a smaller engine in their cars and adding a turbo charger to it. this is beneficial to the gas mileage of the car because the smaller engine uses less gas but with the added turbocharger the horsepower stays the same as it would have been with the larger engine. An example of this would be the change that BMW made in 2011 to many of their cars, one in particular is the BMW 528i. This car used to have the inline non turbocharged six cylinder, in 2011 BMW started putting a four cylinder turbocharged engine in the car that was as fast and powerful if not better than the inline six cylinder engine.

Between superchargers and turbochargers i prefer a turbocharger. I have had lots of experience with both the supercharger and lots of turbocharged engines and the Turbocharger just makes more since to me. There is more to go wrong with a supercharger such as throwing the belt off and blowing the supercharger up. I have a 260 horsepower jetski with a supercharger on it and one day i was riding it and the belt shredded which caused the supercharger to blow up. Another con to the supercharger is how much worse it makes your gas mileage, at all RPM ranges, low to high on the engine, it constantly needs more gas than usual. That being said on marine applications like boats and jet ski's i prefer the supercharger because of the acceleration you have from the lower RPM range. On cars and trucks i prefer the turbochargers because while they give you such a boost of horsepower and performance the turbocharger does not engage until you give the car some gas causing more exhaust to flow through the exhaust system spooling up the turbo. This means that while at highway speeds or just a constant speed through town without slowing down or speeding up the turbocharger is not engaged causing your gas mileage to stay the same if you want it to.

All of this being said i would rather not have a supercharger or turbocharger, I think it is just something else to go wrong with the car. In my opinion there  is no replacement for engine displacement. In my family we have twin turbo powered cars and have had supercharged vehicles too and i find the horsepower and performance of a car without forced induction systems to be more impressive. Even though the sound of the blow off valve on turbos sounds cool i would rather have raw power but between superchargers and turbochargers i prefer turbochargers.