Supercharger Vs Turbocharger

One definition of a Supercharger is "any piece of equipment that compresses the air being delivered to an engine, allowing the combustion chamber to be overfilled without enlarging the space. Reading this carefully you can see that a Turbocharger could be classified as a Supercharger since it does the same thing. In fact many people consider them to be identical in their goals, but different in their approach to increasing horsepower.

Some cars come equipped with a Supercharger and even more cars today come with a Turbocharger. This is becoming standard for many cars with smaller engines. Car manufactures want to increase the power from their cars without increasing the engine size.

You may also know that some people have added an after market Supercharger or a Turbocharger to their car. While both devices will increase the power of your car there are some critical differences between a Supercharger and a Turbocharger.

However there are some key differences between the design of a Supercharger and a Turbocharger. A Supercharger is typically driven by the engine, mostly with a drive belt, but sometimes with a chain or gear arrangement. A Turbocharger uses exhaust gases to turn a turbine which in turn compresses the incoming air. So both systems are designed to compress the air and make more oxygen available to the engine. The more oxygen the engine takes in the more power it can output. The key difference is how each device is driven.

If we were to compare them side by side, the Supercharger has several advantages over the Turbocharger.

Because the Supercharger is powered directly from the engine, there is no delay before the Supercharger starts compressing the incoming air. As soon as your revs increase so does the power, this is not true for a Turbocharger.

A Turbocharger on the other hand, has a delay until the exhaust gases have had a chance to build up before there is enough gas flow to power the turbine and then the compressor. Since a Turbocharger will have a built in delay which means that you do not get an instant increase in power when you stomp on the gas pedal. A newer designed Turbocharger may have shortened this design limitation, but there is still some amount of delay between asking for the additional power and actually receiving it, unlike the performance of a Supercharger.

A Supercharger also has less of the potential heat-related problems of a Turbocharger. This means the Supercharger runs at a greater efficiency level than the Turbocharger.

Another advantage is that for a small car with a small engine this installation of a Supercharger can actually increase the gas mileage of the vehicle.

A Turbocharger is often considered more efficient than a Supercharger because they are using the "wasted" energy of the exhaust gases in the exhaust stream as their power source. On the other hand the fact that a Turbocharger causes an increase of back pressure in the exhaust system, which steals power. Also a Turbocharger gives less boost until the engine is running at higher RPM.

When considering if you want a Supercharger or a Turbocharger, keep in mind that you will find that a Supercharger is easier to install than a Turbocharger, However it is more expensive to purchase an aftermarket Supercharger than a Turbocharger. Either one is a way to increase the power of your car. But again a caution, you must be handy with basic mechanical tools and follow the instructions. Or you would be better off by having a professional do the installation.