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Turbo vs Supercharger

Decent Essays

Kevin Snyder
P. Crumrine
WR-121
07-21-2013
Forced Induction Debate

One of the most commonly used ways to give a vehicle more horsepower today is forced induction. There are two different types of this forced induction, which brings us to Forced Induction Debate. The conflict most people face when deciding what they would rather install on their car is what is better, a turbocharger or a supercharger? Both turbochargers and superchargers have advantages and disadvantages, some of which are similar. Choosing the right kind of forced induction for your vehicle will depend upon your vehicle and your power preferences.

The first type of forced induction is the supercharger. A supercharger is mounted to the engine and is driven by a pulley …show more content…

The smaller the turbocharger, the less lag is produced. When a supercharger is activated, there is absolutely no lag at all because it is connected directly to the crank. This means that superchargers are able to produce boost at very low levels of rpm, giving the engine more power the whole time the supercharger is running. This is very important for those people who drive the supercharged trucks that are heavier than most cars and are usually hauling heavy loads in the back of the truck or on a trailer.

The turbocharger makes up for its lag with its ability to generate mass amounts of power to the engine. Turbochargers take barely any power from the engine to create boost. Turbochargers use the gas heat and engine pressure to create boost and give the engine more power. Most turbochargers produce 40 percent more power to an engine. So if a vehicle had a 200 horsepower engine and was running off of a turbocharger producing 10 pounds of boost, the engine would actually be running off of 280 horsepower. A supercharger produces mass amounts of boost for the engine from the crankshaft of the engine itself to compress air and make boost. While running, a supercharger uses valuable power from the engine which must be taken away from the gain of power in the long run. A vehicle with and engine producing 200 horsepower and a supercharger producing 10 pounds of boost would only make the vehicles total

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