can you have both in your car. what exactly does a supercharger do?
2007-03-13 08:09:30 · 3 answers · asked by Vikrant S 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Other - Cars & Transportation
The way to make more power out of the same engine is basically by feeding it "more air" and "more fuel".
More fuel is easy: bigger fuel pump, bigger fuel injector or carburetor, but soon you run into the point where there's not enough air to burn all the fuel. This is where "forced induction" comes in.
Basically, you pressurized the air so you feed colder / denser air into the cylinder rather than the "plain" regular air you suck in from your surroundings. To this this, you need an intercooler to cool down the air, as well as a "charger" to charge up the air pressure, before feeding it to the cylinders.
The turbo-charger use exhaust gas (from the engine) to drive the turbine to compress the air. The harder the engine runs, the more exhaust, the harder the turbocharger can compress. However, production of the exhaust is not instantaneous, leading to what's known as "turbo-lag", as you don't feel the power immediately.
The super-charger use the engine itself (usually a belt) to drive the turbine to compress the air. As the charger's work is directly related to the engine speed, super-charger is not affected by turbo-lag, but it does sap the engine efficiency slightly at idle speeds.
The two work on the same principle.
There is no reason to have both, as the two would be very hard to coordinate, to write engine software for optimal power delivery.
There are two-stage turbos or twin-turbos of various configurations, however. Some turbos are designated to only certain cylinders (such as the infamous Nissan Skylines), while others are designated to run at different pressures and RPMs. It all depends on what the designers are after.
2007-03-13 09:21:57 · answer #1 · answered by Kasey C 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They do the same job, that is to pressurize air and inject it into the engine. A supercharger uses engine power to compress air and a turbo charger uses exhaust gasses to run the compressor.
2007-03-13 15:15:53 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
They both pump air into the eninge the difference is a supercharger is driven by a belt and a turbocharger is driven by the exhaust
2007-03-13 15:23:03 · answer #3 · answered by John B 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋