[zwatman]

what is the difference btwn turbo and supercharged? which is faster, cheaper, more available for our cars? thanks

 

[JoeKD]

ok, quick lesson in forced induction.

a turbo uses exhaust gases to spin an impeller and push (force) air into the engine

a supercharger uses a belt to spin the impeller

which works better? Supercharger is good because there is no lag time waiting for it to "spool up" and because there is not much additional underhood heat, tubo on the other hand can make incredible amounts of power

finally, which one to get for treps, nobody makes a kit just for our cars in either form and if they did the pricetag would likely be into the range none of us would be willing to pay

 

[Black94ES]

The old supercharger/Turbo debate.
I'm not sure about superchargers but you can change the boost on a turbo easily (from what I've heard). More boost, more power.

I think i've read that the a/c can be removed and a supercharger put in it's place. As for Turbo's I don't think there's enough space in our engine bays, if there is only one turbo would fit, that mean turbo lag.

 

[p3]

I'm not sure if this is completely accurate, but I don't think a turbo in an automatic would be all that great. The turbo doesn't really kick in until higher RPMs, and with these trannies it would probably shift before the turbo is at it's peak helping ability.

 

[viprman]

It also depends on which size of turbo you get. A smaller one, may not produce as much as a larger one, but the smaller turbo will spool up faster and create boost quicker. The smaller ones are used usually on smaller displacement motors that don't have a lot of power to begin with. The smaller turbo builds up boost quicker so there is less lag and the small engine (say a 2.0L) will produce its power at like 2000 rpm to get up and go. The Eclipse/Talon motor comes to mind.

Some of the bigger engines (like found in the 3000 GT VR4 / Stealth TT) use a twin turbocharger setup. The reason for this is that one acts as a "primary" turbocharger and the other a "secondary." The primary turbo is designed to get the car off of the line quicker and the secondary is to carry the car up into the higher levels of speed. I don't know if there would be enough room for a twin turbo setup in the Intrepid.

Also, with the turbocharger, new intake and exhaust manifolds will have to be fabricated. Downpipes and intercoolers will be needed. More fuel will be needed and computer to handle positive levels of pressure. This could get complicated. If I had the $$$ it would be a fun project to figure out!

I hope I added some insight to your question. I ignored the supercharger aspects because others covered it well enough, and I am not as knowledgeable in that area.

 

[TREPID 2XIST]

Some use chain driven turbos such as the old gran national

 

[Don Hardy]

CHAIN DRIVEN TURBO???????????
OK, I give up .... where does the "chain" run to? Chain goes from where to spin the "turbo"? You can see that I'm having a really tough time picturing a chain driven turbo.
Also, the boost isn't that easy to change on a turbo but on a s-charger you can simply change the pulley size to increase or decrease boost.

 

[Black94ES]

Originally posted by Viprman:
It also depends on which size of turbo you get. A smaller one, may not produce as much as a larger one, but the smaller turbo will spool up faster and create boost quicker. The smaller ones are used usually on smaller displacement motors that don't have a lot of power to begin with. The smaller turbo builds up boost quicker so there is less lag and the small engine (say a 2.0L) will produce its power at like 2000 rpm to get up and go. The Eclipse/Talon motor comes to mind.

Some of the bigger engines (like found in the 3000 GT VR4 / Stealth TT) use a twin turbocharger setup. The reason for this is that one acts as a "primary" turbocharger and the other a "secondary." The primary turbo is designed to get the car off of the line quicker and the secondary is to carry the car up into the higher levels of speed. I don't know if there would be enough room for a twin turbo setup in the Intrepid.

Also, with the turbocharger, new intake and exhaust manifolds will have to be fabricated. Downpipes and intercoolers will be needed. More fuel will be needed and computer to handle positive levels of pressure. This could get complicated. If I had the $$$ it would be a fun project to figure out!

I hope I added some insight to your question. I ignored the supercharger aspects because others covered it well enough, and I am not as knowledgeable in that area.

From what i've read, small turbos can produce just as much boost as bigger ones, it's just that it's inefficent because it builds up much more heat, so even though same levels of boost, it's feeding hot air instead of cold.

Also from what i've read, twin turbos are used to eliminate turbo lag, the turbo's spin at different rates elminating mid-high rpm lag.

Intercoolers are only needed if you have high boost levels so that the boost provided is efficent (cold instead of hot)

My 2 cents.