Turbochargers vs Superchargers - Which Is Better?

[00:00] Hello everyone and welcome in this video we're going to be talking about the differences between

[00:04] superchargers and

[00:06] turbochargers more at a high-level standpoint and discussing the pros and cons of each now

[00:11] i've got a bunch of different videos on very specific types both turbochargers probably about six or so different types out there

[00:18] which I've discussed and three different types of superchargers which I've discussed in detail

[00:23] but I wanted to do kind of a high-level comparison of why a might you want to select one

[00:27] versus another and then from there you can start looking diving deeper into those individual options that you think makes sense for whatever

[00:35] application it may be now both superchargers &

[00:38] turbochargers by design help you increase horsepower

[00:42] dramatically so they give you a huge boost

[00:45] literally boost being the pressure that is added from the device whether it's a supercharger or a

[00:51] turbocharger to your horsepower

[00:52] 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

[01:01] turbocharger uses your exhaust to spool up a turbine which then

[01:05] powers a compressor which pulls in air to feed more air to your engine a

[01:10] 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

[01:18] ultimately the engine is what is powering it?

[01:20] and so it's going to be some form driven by the engine which will rotate a

[01:25] compressor and that compressor will supply boost to the engine now

[01:29] why what are the advantages of going with that turbo realm?

[01:32] well, there are a lot of advantages from an efficiency standpoint because what you're doing is you're taking that exhaust gas

[01:38] which is otherwise going to be wasted and turning it into something useful and

[01:43] allowing you to pull in more air as a result of taking advantage of using that wasted exhaust gas

[01:48] so a supercharger will not do it

[01:50] it'll act very similar to a naturally aspirated engine, and then it can't do anything useful with those exhaust gases once

[01:57] they're leaving the engine now

[01:59] manufacturers often take advantage of turbochargers to downsize their engines so they can still make high levels of horsepower

[02:06] but then it allows them to use a small engine so when you don't want horsepower you've got less reciprocating mass

[02:12] you've got less rotating mass you've got a smaller engine. That's sitting there

[02:16] whether it's idling or cruising on the highway, and it's taking less energy to do it

[02:20] it doesn't necessarily mean you'll get better fuel economy when you're flooring it when you're trying to make peak power

[02:25] you're going to use a lot of fuel, but by downsizing that engine pulling weight out of the car using a smaller engine

[02:31] there's a lot of advantages from a fuel economy standpoint

[02:34] why which is why it's so popular with

[02:36] manufacturers currently so the biggest advantage of a turbocharger being of course it adds power

[02:41] and it does so efficiently so why might you want to go with a supercharger option? What are the advantages of a supercharger?

[02:48] well a supercharger is going to have no lag

[02:51] it's not dependent on exhaust gases in order to provide boost for the engine

[02:56] it's instead purely dependent on the engine's rpm so as a result when you put your foot down with a

[03:02] supercharged car you get that power immediately rather than waiting for it like you do in a turbocharged

[03:08] application the other advantages superchargers can be tuned and so can turbochargers to an extent

[03:14] but superchargers can be made so that they give you a wide nice linear boost

[03:20] across the engines rpm range now not this style here. Which is a centrifugal supercharger?

[03:25] which tends to be top-end heavy as far as adding boost and adding power

[03:30] 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

[03:36] turbocharger you really have to choose

[03:38] where you want that power to come on you can have a ton of high end power you can have a decent mid-range,

[03:43] that levels out on both sides

[03:45] or you can have that early low end torque if that's what you want makes a lot of sense in diesel applications

[03:51] which are low revving get that low end grunt and and so but from a you know an entire curve standpoint,

[03:57] you can generally have a wider range using a supercharger of

[04:02] effective boost so another reason why they may be chosen

[04:05] so what are the disadvantages of a turbocharger well as we mentioned, there's lag.

[04:10] So there's turbo lag, and then there's also the boost threshold, so there's a certain exhaust

[04:15] there's a certain engine speed at which you produce enough exhaust gas to actually produce boost

[04:20] that's your exhaust threshold

[04:21] then once that's been overcome it takes a certain amount of time to pull in that air

[04:26] have it passed through and go through the intercooler into the engine from spooling up that exhaust

[04:32] 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

[04:38] supercharger you have to wait for it the other

[04:40] disadvantage there is that throttle control so you ask for a certain amount of power, and you wait a bit

[04:45] and so you've asked for a certain amount amount of power you may assume okay,

[04:49] that's what I've gotten and then later on more comes with it

[04:52] so your foot hasn't changed its position

[04:53] but the amount of power that you're receiving has so the

[04:57] communication through the throttle pedal is a bit different with a turbocharged car than with a supercharged car and finally

[05:04] turbochargers of course require engine oil lubrication at a minimum, and so you've got that engine oil

[05:09] and that's an extra demand which you know is going to be used to lubricate that

[05:14] turbine shaft as well as the bearings within the turbo and so that's an extra demand on your engine oil

[05:20] that's going to get very hot from the turbocharger and it's high temperatures

[05:24] so that's just another thing you have to consider is that your engine oil?

[05:28] you know will degrade faster using a turbocharger versus for example a naturally aspirated

[05:33] engine or in some instance instances supercharged cars

[05:37] which don't have oil lubrication which include root style superchargers &?

[05:44] twin-screw supercharger x' you probably don't have to have lubrication for those these centrifugal style

[05:49] superchargers will have oil lubrication, so it does again put another demand on the engine oil

[05:53] but it's not reaching the temperatures that a turbocharger is so really the big disadvantage with engine oil comes with turbochargers

[06:01] not with superchargers, so what are the disadvantages of a supercharger?

[06:05] well

[06:05] you're taking energy from the engine to make more power so rather than taking energy from the exhaust

[06:11] 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

[06:18] supercharger and as a result you lose that horsepower

[06:21] now you gain it back with pulling in more air but from an efficiency standpoint

[06:25] it's not the most logical thing to do so from an efficiency standpoint

[06:30] turbochargers make a lot of sense from a response standpoint

[06:34] superchargers make a lot of sense now

[06:36] which do I prefer well if you would asked me that question before?

[06:40] I had driven a bunch of the different cars out

[06:42] there as a result of being an automotive journalist and getting into a bunch of different press cars

[06:46] I would have told you that I preferred

[06:48] turbochargers, and I would have told you that because they are so much more efficient

[06:52] and I think that makes a lot of sense from a logical standpoint

[06:55] turbochargers make a ton of sense there. They're good today in which you can get very little lag

[07:01] you can get wide rpm ranges of effective areas with different technologies like twin-scroll turbo

[07:07] variable geometry turbos, so there's cool technology out there that kind of reduces their

[07:13] drawbacks

[07:14] but

[07:15] after having driven a bunch of the different vehicles out there and after having driven many numerous turbocharged and supercharged vehicles

[07:23] What I find is that I find

[07:25] superchargers far more enjoyable and the reason is because there's zero lag and so when you put your foot down

[07:31] you get exactly what you asked for and I think the thing that you come to appreciate

[07:36] after you start to drive a bunch of different vehicles out

[07:38] there is having a throttle pedal that does exactly what you ask it to do so with the supercharger

[07:44] you give it 50 percent you get 50 percent and your your pedal does exactly what you're asking of it in real time

[07:52] with the turbocharged car you could take that pedal mash it in real quick and

[07:56] nothing's going to happen at all because it doesn't have enough time to spool up that throttle pedal

[08:01] so you mash it in you wait and the amount of torque that you get it doesn't correlate

[08:06] perfectly with where you've positioned it with respect to time and so I think that's the big difference is that

[08:12] 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

[08:17] also all over the place and not matching it versus a

[08:21] supercharger as you're changing that position of the throttle pedal

[08:24] you're getting you're feeling that change immediately

[08:26] so it's responding

[08:27] exactly how you ask it to and that response makes you feel really connected to the vehicle so me personally

[08:33] I have enjoyed more driving supercharged cars rather than driving turbocharged cars that said there are many great

[08:41] turbocharged cars out there that do a phenomenal job of you know

[08:45] mapping the throttle very consistently making it seem like there's not a huge amount of lag that there's not a huge torque

[08:51] 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

[08:56] I've done it just overall from a feel perspective. I feel like superchargers are more fun to drive

[09:02] so thank you all for watching and of course feel free to check out the many different types of superchargers and turbochargers.

[09:08] I will include links in the video description if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below.