Which is the better/more available of the two systems in the long run and why? Post recommendations*

 

More available? Supercharger kits are more available

Better, imo is turbo. Better power, non parasitic loss, better controllability, softer on internals, more flexibility in design

 

I vote supercharger.
-Simple Belt driven & boost is always predictable,
-no punching holes in oil pans and no feed lines,
-less heat than a turbocharger and no exhaust restriction.
-instantly in boost the second you put the pedal down.
-Dont have to worry about how your gonna run a down pipe out to a muffler.

Theres pro's and cons to each system, it just depends which you want to deal with and what your looking for.

 

 

They dont because rules wont allow them to. Also they lose the downforce the exhaust provides

The fastest door car in the world runs turbos

 

118mm, nuff said...

- Rob

 

Haha


Couple things to consider.

Centrifugal is boost by rpm for the most part. At a certain wot hit it may make a lb or few of boost relatively instantly but it takes rpm to get it going into your target boost. Somewhat similar to a turbo.

A turbo can light off very quickly if done right. Street turbo setups you have to size small for response. Drag race spool is not important as much because you will be using a trans brake and will have it spooled before leaving the line. My friends 98 mm single wont spool on street from a first gear roll lol at track on tbrake it takes 3 seconds to be on launch boost and it runs 1.15 60 ft on a 275 radial. 7.40’s car in 1/4

Twin screws, roots, and whipples are awesome in that they do provide instant power. They feel like much bigger na motors in a sense with responsiveness. But they sit tall and usually cost alot for the hp they provide. A smallish 900$ s480 turbo will make 1000 hp. You’d need a huge whipple to do that and it will be well over 5-6 grand for blower alone

If you can fab and weld pipe, a turbo makes most sense bang for buck. Can mount it anywhere front or back, and it will work. Centrifugal blower kits are great for guys who want bolt in in a weekend. But also dont want to deal with a more crowded engine bay with piping that a turbo has.

They each have there plus side and minus sides. Depends on the goal but i am a fab capable guy so i will turbo everything. I had around 1.8k into a rear turbo kit for my stock 305 car and 600 of that was turbo and oil scavenge pump. And 200 in a old used meth injection kit to keep it cool. Ran off the wiper bottle

 

Its all about what your goals are for the engine/car really.

 

Justin and I are a little biased in favor w/turbo's lol...

I'll give superchargers their due. Two seem to come to mind;

Brian's;


... and we can't forget good ole Polly.

... at the end of Polly's run, it sounds like the cameraman was suddenly attacked by a refugee LMAO.

 

alot of it depends on the car. a supercharger is limited to certain locations since it has to be driven off of the balancer. this not only limits the blower location, but also the inlet piping possibilities and what kind of air is being pulled into the blower, sometimes hot air right off the header. also, there is usually a constant fight with belt slip once you get serious with boost, along with crank snout problems and needing double keyways/bbc snout.
Many superchargers do use an oil feed and require an oil drain into the pan, same as turbos. if you just want ~8-10lbs of boost, there is probably a plug and play blower setup you can use. you can bolt it on and be done.

turbos in my mind are mostly just a pain on the hot side piping and putting much more heat into the engine bay than a supercharger. but you can put it in more locations and the head unit itself is cheaper than a comparable supercharger. no belt drive problems and no expensive cog/gear drive setups required. Hot side will be a few hundred more expensive though vs blower. no crank snout issues.

 

And he went turbo now

 

 

Sorry for hijacking, but it's pretty relevant to the OP's question:

What about tuning for a street system? I've got a forged bottom end on my 400hp "ish" 383 TPI. With TPI, it would be tough to push it TOO much farther n/a. A little boost would go a long way on my set up.

 

I love either setup centri or turbo for tpi. Boost per rpm on centri’s extends the tpi range. You get a humongous torque curve since tpi produces big torque naturally then the boost comes in.

383 tpi manual trans d1sc car i tuned made something 550 whp and 580 wtq? I cant remember exactly but that was on like 8 psi. Revved to 6000 and was flat up top in power from 4000 to 6000. Thats a long hp curve. It hit 12 psi at 6000 It was a monster

A small t4 single turbo could get those same numbers as well and spool almost instantly when sized right.

Either one would be great

 

One of the things I regretted not doing was dynoing my TPI engine prior the turbo. I mean I guess I still can, which would only take a few hours to put back to naturally aspirated, and then back again to the turbo, but I already sold my long tube headers not too long ago so it would kind of defeat the purpose at this point. Will never hear the end of it if I bought another set, that's for sure, because I just sold them for less than half of what I paid for them lol...

Still very tempted though.

- Rob

 

Yep.....I'm just sitting here nodding....

That sounds good to me.

 

What's the application?

Top speed? Quarter mile? Street car that doesn't break speed limits? Towing?

Everything has pros and cons.

-- Joe

 

LOL, the announcer sounds like the Swedish chef from the muppets...

The question is a loaded one in so many ways:

• they're both the same thing, a turbocharger is just short for exhaust turbine powered supercharger
• how do you define best?
• what's the application?
• packaging is different for both, is there an advantage there?
• you can literally make more power than most people/chassis can use with either so does it matter?
• in most ways, positive displacement and roots-type supercharger are more different from centrifugal superchargers than turbos are from centrifugal superchargers

I personally own 3 turbocharged vehicles, have owned 5, I've never owned a supercharged one, I've built 6 supercharged vehicles for other people (helped with, machined or welded something with many more), I've raced more different supercharged vehicles a the track then turbo but I've raced the turbocharged ones more times...

What would I pick? The 305 in my TA is getting a turbo... I'm not sure that answers any question besides what would I pick for that car

 

LMAO, you nailed it, he does!!!!