[0:00] Hello everyone and welcome in this video we're going to be talking about the differences between
[0:04] superchargers and
[0:06] turbochargers more at a high-level standpoint and discussing the pros and cons of each now
[0:11] i've got a bunch of different videos on very specific types both turbochargers probably about six or so different types out there
[0:18] which I've discussed and three different types of superchargers which I've discussed in detail
[0:23] but I wanted to do kind of a high-level comparison of why a might you want to select one
[0:27] versus another and then from there you can start looking diving deeper into those individual options that you think makes sense for whatever
[0:35] application it may be now both superchargers &
[0:38] turbochargers by design help you increase horsepower
[0:42] dramatically so they give you a huge boost
[0:45] literally boost being the pressure that is added from the device whether it's a supercharger or a
[0:51] turbocharger to your horsepower
[0:52] so you're going to have an improvement in horsepower significantly more power using turbochargers and superchargers they go about it in very different ways a
[1:01] turbocharger uses your exhaust to spool up a turbine which then
[1:05] powers a compressor which pulls in air to feed more air to your engine a
[1:10] supercharger on the other hand is dependent on the engine to rotate it so whether it's gear driven or belt driven or some other form
[1:18] ultimately the engine is what is powering it?
[1:20] and so it's going to be some form driven by the engine which will rotate a
[1:25] compressor and that compressor will supply boost to the engine now
[1:29] why what are the advantages of going with that turbo realm?
[1:32] well, there are a lot of advantages from an efficiency standpoint because what you're doing is you're taking that exhaust gas
[1:38] which is otherwise going to be wasted and turning it into something useful and
[1:43] allowing you to pull in more air as a result of taking advantage of using that wasted exhaust gas
[1:48] so a supercharger will not do it
[1:50] it'll act very similar to a naturally aspirated engine, and then it can't do anything useful with those exhaust gases once
[1:57] they're leaving the engine now
[1:59] manufacturers often take advantage of turbochargers to downsize their engines so they can still make high levels of horsepower
[2:06] but then it allows them to use a small engine so when you don't want horsepower you've got less reciprocating mass
[2:12] you've got less rotating mass you've got a smaller engine. That's sitting there
[2:16] whether it's idling or cruising on the highway, and it's taking less energy to do it
[2:20] it doesn't necessarily mean you'll get better fuel economy when you're flooring it when you're trying to make peak power
[2:25] you're going to use a lot of fuel, but by downsizing that engine pulling weight out of the car using a smaller engine
[2:31] there's a lot of advantages from a fuel economy standpoint
[2:34] why which is why it's so popular with
[2:36] manufacturers currently so the biggest advantage of a turbocharger being of course it adds power
[2:41] and it does so efficiently so why might you want to go with a supercharger option? What are the advantages of a supercharger?
[2:48] well a supercharger is going to have no lag
[2:51] it's not dependent on exhaust gases in order to provide boost for the engine
[2:56] it's instead purely dependent on the engine's rpm so as a result when you put your foot down with a
[3:02] supercharged car you get that power immediately rather than waiting for it like you do in a turbocharged
[3:08] application the other advantages superchargers can be tuned and so can turbochargers to an extent
[3:14] but superchargers can be made so that they give you a wide nice linear boost
[3:20] across the engines rpm range now not this style here. Which is a centrifugal supercharger?
[3:25] which tends to be top-end heavy as far as adding boost and adding power
[3:30] but twin screw and root style superchargers give you a lot of power early on you get a lot of low-end grunt whereas a
[3:36] turbocharger you really have to choose
[3:38] where you want that power to come on you can have a ton of high end power you can have a decent mid-range,
[3:43] that levels out on both sides
[3:45] or you can have that early low end torque if that's what you want makes a lot of sense in diesel applications
[3:51] which are low revving get that low end grunt and and so but from a you know an entire curve standpoint,
[3:57] you can generally have a wider range using a supercharger of
[4:02] effective boost so another reason why they may be chosen
[4:05] so what are the disadvantages of a turbocharger well as we mentioned, there's lag.
[4:10] So there's turbo lag, and then there's also the boost threshold, so there's a certain exhaust
[4:15] there's a certain engine speed at which you produce enough exhaust gas to actually produce boost
[4:20] that's your exhaust threshold
[4:21] then once that's been overcome it takes a certain amount of time to pull in that air
[4:26] have it passed through and go through the intercooler into the engine from spooling up that exhaust
[4:32] so there's there's a lag associated with it so when you put your foot down the power is not immediate like it is with a
[4:38] supercharger you have to wait for it the other
[4:40] disadvantage there is that throttle control so you ask for a certain amount of power, and you wait a bit
[4:45] and so you've asked for a certain amount amount of power you may assume okay,
[4:49] that's what I've gotten and then later on more comes with it
[4:52] so your foot hasn't changed its position
[4:53] but the amount of power that you're receiving has so the
[4:57] communication through the throttle pedal is a bit different with a turbocharged car than with a supercharged car and finally
[5:04] turbochargers of course require engine oil lubrication at a minimum, and so you've got that engine oil
[5:09] and that's an extra demand which you know is going to be used to lubricate that
[5:14] turbine shaft as well as the bearings within the turbo and so that's an extra demand on your engine oil
[5:20] that's going to get very hot from the turbocharger and it's high temperatures
[5:24] so that's just another thing you have to consider is that your engine oil?
[5:28] you know will degrade faster using a turbocharger versus for example a naturally aspirated
[5:33] engine or in some instance instances supercharged cars
[5:37] which don't have oil lubrication which include root style superchargers &?
[5:44] twin-screw supercharger x' you probably don't have to have lubrication for those these centrifugal style
[5:49] superchargers will have oil lubrication, so it does again put another demand on the engine oil
[5:53] but it's not reaching the temperatures that a turbocharger is so really the big disadvantage with engine oil comes with turbochargers
[6:01] not with superchargers, so what are the disadvantages of a supercharger?
[6:05] well
[6:05] you're taking energy from the engine to make more power so rather than taking energy from the exhaust
[6:11] like a turbo you're taking energy from the engine directly so it takes a certain amount of horsepower to spin up at or a
[6:18] supercharger and as a result you lose that horsepower
[6:21] now you gain it back with pulling in more air but from an efficiency standpoint
[6:25] it's not the most logical thing to do so from an efficiency standpoint
[6:30] turbochargers make a lot of sense from a response standpoint
[6:34] superchargers make a lot of sense now
[6:36] which do I prefer well if you would asked me that question before?
[6:40] I had driven a bunch of the different cars out
[6:42] there as a result of being an automotive journalist and getting into a bunch of different press cars
[6:46] I would have told you that I preferred
[6:48] turbochargers, and I would have told you that because they are so much more efficient
[6:52] and I think that makes a lot of sense from a logical standpoint
[6:55] turbochargers make a ton of sense there. They're good today in which you can get very little lag
[7:01] you can get wide rpm ranges of effective areas with different technologies like twin-scroll turbo
[7:07] variable geometry turbos, so there's cool technology out there that kind of reduces their
[7:13] drawbacks
[7:14] but
[7:15] after having driven a bunch of the different vehicles out there and after having driven many numerous turbocharged and supercharged vehicles
[7:23] What I find is that I find
[7:25] superchargers far more enjoyable and the reason is because there's zero lag and so when you put your foot down
[7:31] you get exactly what you asked for and I think the thing that you come to appreciate
[7:36] after you start to drive a bunch of different vehicles out
[7:38] there is having a throttle pedal that does exactly what you ask it to do so with the supercharger
[7:44] you give it 50 percent you get 50 percent and your your pedal does exactly what you're asking of it in real time
[7:52] with the turbocharged car you could take that pedal mash it in real quick and
[7:56] nothing's going to happen at all because it doesn't have enough time to spool up that throttle pedal
[8:01] so you mash it in you wait and the amount of torque that you get it doesn't correlate
[8:06] perfectly with where you've positioned it with respect to time and so I think that's the big difference is that
[8:12] pedal you could be all over the place with your foot and the response that you're getting at the wheels as far as torque is
[8:17] also all over the place and not matching it versus a
[8:21] supercharger as you're changing that position of the throttle pedal
[8:24] you're getting you're feeling that change immediately
[8:26] so it's responding
[8:27] exactly how you ask it to and that response makes you feel really connected to the vehicle so me personally
[8:33] I have enjoyed more driving supercharged cars rather than driving turbocharged cars that said there are many great
[8:41] turbocharged cars out there that do a phenomenal job of you know
[8:45] mapping the throttle very consistently making it seem like there's not a huge amount of lag that there's not a huge torque
[8:51] discrepancy depending on where it you know you're putting your foot on that pedal, so I like the way that some cars out there
[8:56] I've done it just overall from a feel perspective. I feel like superchargers are more fun to drive
[9:02] so thank you all for watching and of course feel free to check out the many different types of superchargers and turbochargers.
[9:08] I will include links in the video description if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below.