Originally Posted by Maxwell
That's not an accurate comparison, mixing a v-8 with a v12 makes no sense. Even though they have the same displacement, the v-12 has two extra lever arms on the crankshaft, this will always give a v12 a torque advantage over the v8. That's another reason why the v-12 makes more torque in the lower rpm range. Sorry but can't mix apple and oranges.
Obliviously the turbo has little parasitic drag on the engine as compared to a supercharger, so there is a lot to be gained from turbos, but I'm still on the fence when it come to reliability of a turbo vs S/C engine.
While it's true that the V8 and V12 comparison isn't perfect, it's the quickest example I could come up with. Similar sized engines but one has two extra arms and the other has much better flowing heads.
If you want to look at reliability, I can give you a few examples.
How many millions of miles do over the road diesel trucks run? How many of them have blowers? How many have turbo diesels?
How many Ford Powerstrokes, Chevy Duramaxes, and Dodge Cummins have superchargers? None. They're all turbo.
All Formula 1 cars are turbocharged. They run for hours on end and scream up to 20,000 rpm.
Top Fuel dragsters are supercharged and only turn about 900 revolutions at full throttle before being torn down and rebuilt (but they're just a wee bit extreme). Yep. 900 turns of the crank. The engine turns less than 550 times to get the car 1/4 mile down the track. Fairly impressive, but extremely short lived.
How many moving parts in a turbo? One. It's a shaft with fixed fan blades on each end. Ball bearing turbos obviously have one bearing race at each end. These parts are so light weight and create so little friction that they often spin in excess of 130,000 rpm. There are very few points of failure.
How many moving parts in a supercharger? Start counting because I don't want to. Don't forget the exterior drive belt and idler/tensioner. There are lots of heavy parts spinning in there. Numerous points of failure in these.
Have you ever seen a blower explosion at a drag race?
Have you ever heard of a turbocharger exploding?