Do you want to enhance your cars acceleration and torque? Then you should definitely consider adding a supercharger or a turbocharger to your engine. Both superchargers and turbochargers do the same thing – they force more air and fuel into your combustion chamber. However, they go about it in different ways.
Superchargers are primarily belt driven while turbochargers are exhaust driven. However both substantially increase your power for a relatively small amount of money.
Superchargers – sometimes called “blowers” because they increase the volume of cool air your engine receives for combustion – are one of the easiest ways you can add power to your car or truck. Essentially they are pumps that force additional air into your engine by pressurizing it.
Although usually simpler to install than turbochargers, they are a bit more expensive. Yet they are easier to install because they have fewer parts than turbochargers.
Unlike turbochargers, supercharges don’t need time to boost pressure before they deliver power. One of the reasons that superchargers are wonderful ways to increase your car’s power and performance, as opposed to turbochargers, is that you will probably need to upgrade your exhaust system if you add a turbocharger. That’s because turbochargers get their power from your car’s exhaust gas.
A supercharger is a relatively simple machine that is mechanically powered by either a chain- or a belt-drive that draws power from your engine’s crankshaft. Although driven by the engine, a supercharger will only add a small amount of load to your engine.
One of the advantages of having one of these devices is that it can give you more power at very low revolutions. Although it is a phenomenal way to increase torque and horsepower, it does come at a cost. In most cases a supercharged car will burn more gas than a car with an equivalent normally aspirated engine.
A popular addition to small block V8 engines, superchargers are a great way for you to safely add about eighty to one hundred horsepower to your engine.
Several types are available, including centrifugal type and roots type superchargers. The roots type is a “screw-type” design that provides a consistent boost. It efficiently compresses the intake charge with only a small increase in the air intake temperature.
Roots superchargers can substantially increase and broaden the torque curve. In most cases these types of superchargers are comparably priced to turbo kits.
Centrifugal type superchargers do not react as quickly as the screw type designs.
In any case, if you hear a distinctive high-pitched whine upon acceleration, you are probably listening to a supercharged car.