I wanted to learn which performs better under cooler conditions. Is there any difference between the two in that regard or will both see equal gains in cooler weather?

 

IAT's are the key to running better. The cooler air is more dense and can create a bigger volume in the combustion chamber. So that is a hard question to answer. There are various IC options for Turbo and not so many options for our water to air IC in our car.

 

Like he said, the colder the better for each system. When you compress air it gets hot. I think roots type blowers heat soak more than a turbo becuase they are usually mounted right on the engine. There are other differences as well between how they perform. A roots type blower (like on the SRT) give great power and torque from idle up and feel like you have a larger engine under the hood. Turbos and centrifigul super chagers (like Votec) can give better top end preformance and can usually show higher HP numbers. For normal street driving I prefer a super charger since it is instant and works better in the lower RPM range and produces better low end torque. To get the best of both worlds I have seen people twin charge their engines with a roots style s/c and turbo or two turbos of different sizes.

 

Are you talking about Brake Specific Fuel Consumption? A supercharger will have a lower BSFC than a turbo system at low boost/airflow. Turbos can be significantly more efficient overall, however.

 

I would say in our application a Turbo for the simple fact no one would stick an intercooler in the valley of the block...

 

^^ Yea, what he said! ^^

 

A turbo will make more power pound for pound then all factory roots blowers and most aftermarket blowers.

 

Basicly this topic came up with a couple friends, we are coming towards the end of summer here and they believe with their turbo cars they have more to gain in winter than the SRT. I wanted to know if it was significant enough to change the outcome between our cars once we hit winter here and the temp drop?

 

I think the SRT would show more improvement in cold weather since my experience from owning both turbo'd and supercharged cars is the s/c cars get hurt more in hot weather so they have more to gain in cold weather.

 

A turbo will pick up more & better performance gains in cold temperatures. basically what the turbine does, is it forces the compressed air into the cylinder so more air means more fuel which means better performance. The colder the air the more compressed it is and the turbine can then pack even more air in the cylinder. The intercooler can also be used to cool the incoming air for more performance.


remember all turbos have lag, the time it takes the engine to to pump the air into the cylinder when u press the gas down.

Since the supercharger is mechanical there's no lag.

Turbos also save much more fuel than superchargers, becuse the engine mostly only uses the turbo when u accelerate hard. And the supercharger is always engaged, unlike the turbo.

At least that's what I think I learned when I worked my Turbo GLH, Lebaron turbo and my little knowlege of superchargers.

 

Why not add a turbo or two to your SC engine. http://www.hellionpowersystems.com/data.twinturbo.html

 

uhh......no....our supercharger is NOT always engaged

 

if you have a srt6 then you should know your stock supercharger doesnt engage until it hits 2900rpm or above. It also engages below 2900rpm if there 44% of engine load or more. So anything below 2900rpm or 44% engine load the supercharger isn't engaged at all.

Also one of the reasons why you can get good hwy mileage. I've gotten as high as 27mpg in my c32 when it was stock...when the epa rating is 22mpg.

 

to answer the op question. with everything equal..the turbo will show more power since turbos are more efficient in terms of producing hp. There both FI, ones run by the crank of the engine the other is powered by exhaust gases.

 

Over the years I have owned various cars and been involved on different forums and this debate always comes up. I have owned both turbo'd and s/c cars. On the dyno the turbo wins but for a street driven car I prefer a s/c. Turbos are great if your driving style is foot to the floor. For normal street driving a s/c will give boost instantly and even when you are just easing into the throttle from a dead stop. A s/c gives very linear boost. A s/c feels like you just have a much larger engine while a turbo feels weak until you get on the gas. To get the best of both worlds, I have seen people add a turbo to a super charged engine.

 

My 93RX7 is a sequential twin turbo. There is no lag pressing the gas results in intant power. At 4000 RPM the switch happens to open the waste gate for the second turbo and the rush continues all the way to redline. Amazing engineering!

 

Twin turbos (a small one and a larger one) is another way to have the low end power of a s/c and the top end potential of a turbo. Most aftermarket turbo kits only use a single turbo. Given the choice of a single turbo or a s/c, I personally prefer the s/c for normal driving because there is more torque when just crusiing the streets. Torque is what you feel when you take off from a stop and torque is what gets the car moving. that is why a s/c equipped car just feels like a larger engine. If I only drove on a dyno or didn't care about speeding tickets, I would go with the turbo.

 

Waldig pretty much proved that our supercharger is on 90% of the time (when the car is moving of course).

Thread here

 

its basically engages at 2900rpm or 44% throttle which ever comes first.

the supercharger being on 90% of the time is fine since most of the time your accerlating, which doesn't save any gas anyways.

He even saids at the end of the video at 3:57 time frame if you coast for 30seconds it turns off the supercharger. I'm sure MB believed if your coasting for that long, so basically no or little throttle your on a long highway with little traffic, so dont neeed all that power to accerlate and turns off the supercharger to save gas.

My original point was to contend to the other poster that our superchargers are not on all the time and more then likely probably won't save any more or any less gas then a turbo.

Turbos usually save gas because when your cruising at highway speeds your at a really low rpm and out of boost. Same with the supercharger, at least with ours since its basically turned off at highway crusing speeds.

 

This thread doesn't make much sense. It all depends on the car. If you have a fantastic intercooler, you're NOT going to see tons of gains from colder weather because your car is already built to resist the heat.

If you have zero cooling mods, then your car is going to run worse in the summer, but gave a bigger gain when it gets cold.

If your car is gaining TONS of power when it gets cold, that more than likely means you have a junk set up, because your car isn't prepared for high temps.