porch

Most of the people on this site will recommend turbo. Both have their pluses and minuses, some of which are:

Supercharger:
-----------------
+ typically less piping and less complex
+ Jackson Racing (roots style), zero lag
+ typically easy to keep emissions legal
- parasitic drag (requires power to make power)
- lower peak power lb. for lb. vs. turbo

Turbo:
-----------------
+ efficiency (free power)
+ very good power output
+ efficiency
- can be complex for newbie
- hard to keep emissions legal

There are many more, some of which will have to be personal decisions for you if you plan on going forced induction. You need to set a goal of what you expect of your car first, this will help you very much in deciding which way to go.

HTH

bigTom

TURBO
but then again i am biased... i guess u can say i am anti-supercharger for the reason that it has its limits... u basically get x amount of power from the supercharger and thats it... then if u modify it for more money... u get a little more... its not like a turbo whereas u upgrade something persay and u can turn up the boost... there is basically no limit... will u ever see a sc'd street honda in the 10's?

GSRwBOOST

I'd go with a turbo again if I did it all over again. I sometimes hate the spoolup time but it's not that bad considering the end result.. mad power!

supercharger would be nice for small gains and low maitinance... and if you dont like having your hood up at least once a week, go with a supercharger.

turbo.. a little more maint requred.. easy to turn up the boost. more power potential (out of our type of cars that is)... but also requires more tuning..

HX_Guy

What kin of weekly things must be checked or are there problems that you run into weekly?

bigTom

its differant every week... maybe your oil is low... maybe ur burning a little too much and have to fill it... maybe its running funny so u check the plugs... maybe some weird rattling... a million and one things happen all the time... its ussually little **** though... its just annoying... but hey... thats the price u pay

Ricehornet

Turbos aren't always free power, the do cause more backpressure by design, which is bad. smaller turbos make more back pressure, they also dont flow enough air in the top end, but spin faster given less exhaust gas, hence better response. However turbos use up less power to make power than that of the belt driven SC.

Turbos are more efficient in a way that it doesnt heat up the air as much as a SC supposetly....since the efficiency of a compressor is the % of the ideal density with respect to the pressure it's compressed to. Turbos can be in the mid 70s, while some SCs are only in the 50s...hence more power....IC help in this area because cooling the air recovers some of the lost compressor effciency. Vortech SC has a water/air IC, good thing.

I'd say turbo if you want all out power...but it is no doubt more complex and very easy to turn the **** and go kaboom. SC for simple bolt on quick car, but get that knock sensor!

This site has more turbo cars i think, the FI board, is mostly SC, anyone know if that site is up and running again?


[Modified by Ricehornet, 2:58 PM 7/17/2001]

Ubermensch

Why would the emissions be any different on properly tuned cars? Your emissions are a function of how clean your combustion cycle is (A/F) and how well your emissions systems are working. If you're tuned properly it shouldn't be a big deal. You can always adjust things just prior to the test.

Of course from a visual inspection point of view you're probably screwed either way.

GSRwBOOST

well... i try to look at the vacume lines ever other day or so.. so they dont end up melting against something... hose clams to make sure the pipes are tight, plugs checked... no leaks, oil is good and clean, all bolts are tight, all the wires for all the damn toys are secure, fuel line on FMU hasn't come loose..

basicallly little stuff that might normally pass off if the car was stock.

not saying superchrager gusy dont do this.. but we have a little more stuff shoved in there typically...

LudeSi-93

ALL about turbo!!

Ricehornet

Ubermensch, while it is true that emission levels depend on how cleanly your burning your fuel, basically, how efficient you are bout it, running rich to deter detonation effects emissions, the turbo itself is a heat absorber, so the Cat-convertor take more time to light up....and since most cars today are pretty clean once the cat works, close to 0ppm in most catagories, the longer it takes for it to light up, increases it's overall polluted emission a lot. i guess if you plot the harmful emission vs time graph, you want the smallest area possible... and after the cat is warmed up, emission is near zero, so clearly you want it warm asap...

im sure there are other reasons, when i can remember them i shall update this post heh, oh yeah, closed loop WG, and compressor bypass valve instead of a blow-off valve (same thing, but the latter is the one venting into the air) are needed for emission passing, legally...

I forget the whole chemistry involved with emissions and cats, so i'll have to think about it and refresh my mind with a shower or somthing.....

I still think exhaust driven SC (turbo) are better than belt driven

Big Ed

Didn't Atomic have a 10 sec SC'd hatch? And how many turbo honda's are running 10's on the street .

accordking

They also ran a high dose of NOS too.

redline

Atomic's car was sc/nos and there is a few turbo only 10s daily driven what ever that means


k

newt2

No but there's an Outlaw NSX in the 8's with a (actually two) supercharger.

To decide between a turbo and a supercharger you have to ask yourself what you're looking for first. If you are mainly wanting to kick *** on domestics at the strip or on the street a turbo is the way to go for sure.