Turbochargers vs Superchargers - Which Is Better?

Hello everyone and welcome to this video. We'll talk about the differences between

superchargers

and

turbochargers

from a high-level point of view and discuss the pros and cons of each. Now I have a ton of different videos on very specific types. Both

turbochargers

probably have about six different types that I've discussed and three different types of

superchargers

that I've discussed in detail, but I wanted to do a sort of high-level comparison of why you might want to select one. versus another and then from there you can start to drill down into those individual options that you think make sense for any application.

Now, both superchargers and turbochargers by design help you increase power dramatically, so they give you a big boost, literally, being the pressure that is added from the device, whether it is a supercharger or a turbocharger, to your horsepower so you will have an improvement in horsepower significantly more power using turbochargers and superchargers they do this in very different ways a turbocharger uses your exhaust to wind up a turbine

which

then feeds a compressor that sucks in air To feed more air to your engine, a supercharger, on the other hand, relies on the engine to turn it, so whether it's gear-driven or belt-driven or some other way, ultimately the engine is what's driving it. feeding?

Then it will be somehow driven by the engine

which

will spin a compressor and that compressor will supply drive to the engine. Now, why what are the advantages of using that turbo realm? Well, there are many advantages from an efficiency point of view because what you are doing is taking those exhaust gases that would otherwise be wasted and turning them into something useful and, as a result, allowing you to draw in more air. If a supercharger doesn't take advantage of the use of those wasted exhaust gases, it will act much like a naturally aspirated engine, and then won't be able to do anything useful with those exhaust gases once they leave the engine.

They often take advantage of turbochargers to downsize their engines so they can still make high levels of horsepower, but then it allows them to use a small engine, so when you don't want horsepower, you have less reciprocating mass, you have less rotating mass. You have a smaller engine. That's there whether you're idling or cruising down the highway, and it takes less energy to do it, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll get

better

fuel economy at full throttle when trying to get maximum power. We're going to use a lot of fuel, but by downsizing the engine to take weight off the car by using a smaller engine, there are a lot of advantages from a fuel economy standpoint, which is why it's so popular with manufacturers these days, so The biggest advantage of a turbocharger, of course, adds power and does so efficiently, so why would you want to go for a supercharger option?

What are the advantages of a supercharger? Well a supercharger won't have lag, it doesn't rely on the exhaust gases to provide boost to the engine, rather it depends purely on the rpm of the engine, so as a result when you put the pedal to the metal with a supercharged car you get that power immediately. Instead of waiting like you do in a turbocharged application, the other advantages of superchargers can be tuned and so can turbochargers to a certain extent, but superchargers can be made to give you a nice wide linear boost throughout the entire throttle range. engine rpm.

Now it's not this style. here. What is a centrifugal supercharger? which tends to be heavy when it comes to adding boost and power, but twin screw and root style superchargers give you a lot of power right off the bat, you get a lot of low end grunt, whereas with a turbocharger you really have to choose where to go. you want that power coming through, you can have a ton of power on the high end, you can have a decent midrange, that evens out on both sides or you can have that early torque on the low end, if that's what you want, it has a lot diesel applications that have low revs get that low end grunt and therefore from a whole curve point of view you can generally have a wider range using an effective boost supercharger, so another reason why you can choose them, what are the disadvantages?

In the case of a turbocharger, as we mentioned, there is a delay. So there's turbo lag, and then there's also the boost threshold, so there's a certain exhaust, there's a certain engine speed at which enough exhaust gases are produced to actually produce boost, that's the exhaust threshold. and, once overcome, it takes a certain amount of time. to suck that air in you get it through and it goes through the intercooler into the engine so it doesn't build up that exhaust so there's a delay associated with it so when you put your foot down the power isn't immediate like It is with a supercharger you have. wait, the other disadvantage is throttle control, so you ask for a certain amount of power, and you wait a little bit, so you've asked for a certain amount of power, you can assume that's okay, that's what I got and then more comes with it, so your foot hasn't changed its position, but the amount of power you're receiving has, so the communication through the accelerator pedal is a little different with a turbocharged car that with a supercharged car and Finally, turbochargers of course require engine oil lubrication at a minimum, so you have that engine oil and that's an additional demand that you know will be used to lubricate the turbine shaft, so like the bearings inside the turbo, and that's how it is. an extra demand on your engine oil which will get very hot due to the turbocharging and high temperatures, so that's another thing to consider: your engine oil?

Do you know that you will degrade faster using a turbocharger compared to, for example, a naturally aspirated engine or in some cases supercharged cars that are not oil lubricated and include root style superchargers? x' twin screw supercharger probably doesn't have to have lubrication for those, these centrifugal style superchargers will have oil lubrication, so again it puts another demand on the engine oil, but it doesn't reach the temperatures that a turbocharger is really the big one. disadvantage of motor oil comes with turbochargers, not superchargers, so what are the disadvantages of a supercharger? Well you're taking energy from the engine to make more power so instead of taking energy from the exhaust like a turbo you're taking energy from the engine directly so it takes a certain amount of horsepower to spin or a supercharger and As a result, you lose that horsepower, now you regain it by sucking in more air, but from an efficiency point of view it is not the most logical thing to do.

From an efficiency standpoint, turbochargers make a lot of sense. From a response standpoint, superchargers make a lot of sense. Now which one would I prefer? Well, if you had asked me that question before? I had driven a lot of different cars as a result of being an automotive journalist and getting into a lot of different press cars. I would have told you that I preferred turbochargers, and I would have told you because they are so important. more efficient and I think that makes a lot of sense from a logical point of view, turbochargers make a lot of sense there.

They are good nowadays, where you can get very little lag, you can get wide rpm ranges of effective areas with different technologies, such as variable geometry turbos twin scroll turbo, so there is an interesting technology that reduces its drawbacks, but after having driven. Lots of different vehicles out there and having driven numerous turbocharged and supercharged vehicles. What I find is that I find superchargers a lot more fun and the reason is that there is no lag so when you put the pedal to the metal you get exactly what you want. order and I think what you come to appreciate after you start driving a lot of different vehicles is having an accelerator pedal that does exactly what you ask it to do, so with the supercharger you give it 50 percent and you get 50 percent and your pedal does exactly what you ask it to in real time with the turbocharged car, you can step on that pedal very quickly and nothing at all will happen because it doesn't have enough time to accelerate it. accelerator pedal, so you mash it while you wait and the amount of torque you get doesn't correlate perfectly with where you've placed it with respect to timing, so I think that's the big difference is that the pedal can be touched all over the place . the foot placement and the feedback you're getting at the wheels as far as torque is also all over the place and doesn't match a supercharger as you change the position of the accelerator pedal you're getting.

You feel that change immediately, so it responds exactly how you ask it to and that response makes you feel really connected to the vehicle, which is why I personally have liked driving supercharged cars more than driving turbocharged cars, which I was saying there are a lot of excellent turbocharged cars out there. which do a phenomenal job of mapping the throttle very consistently, making it seem like there's not a huge amount of lag, there's not a huge torque discrepancy depending on where you know you're putting your foot on that pedal, so I I like the way some cars I've done overall from a feel perspective.

I feel like superchargers are more fun to drive, so thanks everyone for watching and of course feel free to check out the different types of superchargers and turbochargers. I will include links in the video description. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below.