whats the difference between suppercharged and turbocharged?

Answer 1

Both are forms of supercharging, or feeding compressed air into the engine's cylinders to provide more oxygen for combustion, thus creating more power from the engine.

A Supercharger is mechanically driven by the engine, either through a rubber drive belt, or from a gear box, while a turbo charger is driven by the engine's exhaust turning a turbine wheel.

The Supercharger tends to be more effective at lower engine speeds, while a turbocharger is more effective at higher engine RPMs.

Answer 2

a supercharger uses a belt to drive the compressor to create boost, where as the turbocharger uses exhaust energy to spin a turbine that is connected to a compressor to create boost.

a supercharger has several different types;

rootes
axial flow
radial flow
screw type

the rootes type and the screw type superchargers have the advantage of giving you near instant boost when you stab the throttle. they also build boost in a linear fashion. they however have the lowest adiabatic efficiency, which is a $50 word that basically tells you that when boost is created, it also creates heat. the lower the adiabatic efficiency , the more heat is created for the same amount of boost.

the axial flow compressor is rather inefficient as creating boost in so far as it has a low pressure ratio, thus requires several stages to build boost. it also has better adiabatic efficiency than the rootes and screw type blowers.

the radial flow supercharger is basically the compressor section of a turbocharger that is driven by the engine through a gear box that raises the compressor rpm to where it can build boost efficiently. the adiabatic efficiency approaches that of a turbocharger, but it also builds boost like a turbocharger. where a rootes type blower builds boost in a linear fashion, the radial blower and the turbo build boost much more rapidly.

the turbo uses exhaust energy, and some will tell you it is free horsepower, but that is not the case. in fact using a turbo increases exhaust backpressure, which is why many people use a larger exhaust pipe to overcome this.

as for turbo lag, that can be virtually eliminated by sizing the turbo to one that is smaller than you would normally use, and use a wastegate to control the boost pressure.

Answer 3

Superchargers are driven by a belt or chain from the engine and are therefore responsible for some parasitic drain. Turbochargers are driven by exhaust gases and are therefore more prone to a phenomenon known as "turbo lag" (they spool up slower than a supercharger, but there is no appreciable difference, once they're both "on". Most drag racers prefer superchargers since the lag time will cause them to lose; the starting line is where most drag races are won or lost!). Thanks for asking. Good luck!

Answer 4

a supercharger is belt driven from the engine and turbocharged is exhaust gas driven, both do the same thing and blow more air into the engine than the atmospheric pressure would allow

Answer 5

A supercharger is run off a motor (elec or belt driven) and is always on, a turbo runs off exhaust gases and only engages when you hit the pedle hard (thus lag). Race cars normally have supercharges, daily drives have turbos.

Answer 6

Supercharger = belt driven
Turbocharged = exhaust driven

Answer 7

turbocharger more power, lag
supercharger decent power, no lag

Answer 8

both not good for reliability