im new to the whole cars thing and i was wondering wat does the supercharger do exactly and wat does turbo do/how do they work...thanx guys

 

In laymans terms.. a supercharger sucks in air. Turbos push air. The eaton m62 supercharger we have (a roots type) runs very cool and can push high ammounts of boost at a low rpm speed, where as turbos run VERY hot and require turbo timers to allow proper cooling.

 

in a sense, a supercharge runs off of intake air (in some cases), but a roots type supercharger (what the 2.0SS/SC have) runs off a pulley from the engine belt. which turns the turbine, then pushes the air in the engine.

A turbocharger runs off of exhaust gas. it takes some of the air from the exhaust, and uses it to turn a turbine, which then pushes air into the engine.

hence the name: "Forced Induction".

Superchargers Pros & Cons:

Pros: Boost at Low RPM's.
Cons: Less HP gain.

Turbochargers Pros & Cons:
Pros: More HP gain than a supercharger (within reason).
Cons: Turbo Lag (takes longer until boost is reached).

 

Sorry but this isn't entirely true.

First, superchargers don't suck air in. Superchargers compress air inside the manifold. Inside the supercharger are 2 rotors that turn which are what compresses the air...the faster they turn, the more air that is compressed and the higher the pressure is over atmospheric (more PSI that is being seen).

Now, how are the rotors able to turn?

On a roots type supercharger, everything works simultaneously reliant on your crankshaft. I'll try to break this down without confussing you:

Your crankshaft, if you didn't know, is located inside your motor. Your crankshaft is what causes revolutions (RPMs) by it spinning. Connected to your crankshaft is your connecting rods and connected to your rods are the pistons. When the crankshaft spins, it causes your pistons to move up and down...this is called stroke. Basically, I want you to understand that your crankshaft is a critical part of the motor and the more RPMs you're seeing, the faster your crankshaft is spinning.

With this said, on the outside of your motor is a pulley that is connected to the crankshaft...hence...called a crank pulley. With a supercharger, it's going to sit on top of an intake manifold which one side of the charger has a small pulley on it. The pulley on the supercharger is litterally parralel vertically to your crank pulley. There is a belt that connects the two together. Now your supercharger is connected to your crank pulley which is connected to your crankshaft. As the pulley on the supercharger spins, it spins the 2 rotors inside charger, which compresses the air.

Now...the faster your crankshaft spins (the more RPMs that is seen), the faster your crank pulley spins, the faster the pulley on the supercharger spins, the faster the rotors spin inside the supercharger, the more compressed air that is being created.

Superchargers do get hot, trust and believe.

As far as turbochargers go, they work in a similar way...they don't necessarily "push" air but they compress it just like superchargers but just in a different way.

A turbocharger has two sides...and exhaust side and a compressor side. I'll break down each.

The exhaust side: If you ever look at an turbocharger, you'll see it has a flange with holes on the corners, whether it's a square looking flange or triangular looking flange, it works the same way. The holes are for bolts so they can bolt to the exhaust manifold (aka turbo manifold). As it bolts up and the exhaust leaves the motor, it enters the exhaust housing. Inside the exhaust housing is an turbine. This turbine basically determines how fast air will be compressed (other than the amount of exhaust flow or energy).

Connected to the turbine is a shaft. This shaft goes through the center section of the turbo and connects to your compressor wheel.

The compressor wheel is basically what it's name is...it's a wheel that compresses air as it spins. If you ever look at an turbo and you see an big opening and blades inside of it, you're looking at the compressor wheel and where it gets air from to compress. So basically, the faster the turbine spins, the faster and more air the compressor wheel is able to compress.

Lastly, no matter which form of forced induction you decide to go to, remember that compressed air hot and has less density. Sending hot air into a motor is asking for heatsoaking and possible damage if excessive. To cool the air down, intercooling (or aftercooling) is key. Most popular forms are Air to Air with turbocharged applications and Water to Air with supercharged applications.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Think like a second radiator specifically for the S/C

- Solo

 

Fluid is cooled through a heat exchanger that looks like a radiator. The cooled fluid is then pumped into another radiator type heatexchanger that is in the path of the intake air. The water being cooler than the compressed air absorbs the heat from the intake air temperature.

Here are a couple links to check out if ou want to read about Forced Induction techniques.

How Turbochargers Work

How Superchargers Work

 

Just wanted to touch upon a couple things...

First, superchargers are able to "boost" at low RPMs because it's reliant on your crankshaft...as long as your motor is running, you're supercharger is spinning. Now the whole low RPM thing...depends on what you call low RPM. I mean, I don't know if you care that you're able to see some boost at 2,000 RPMs or not when if you're racing it's all about the mid to top of your powerband.

The less HP gains is mainly due to it being run off the crankshaft and having it be mechanically boosted...like some say "superchargers take power to make power". Turbochargers run more efficiently and don't "take" power because they run completely off of engine waste.

As far as your turbocharger pros and cons...

It's way to general to say "you'll gain more HP over a Supercharged car" because there are too many variables you have to play into effect. Even the size, trim and amount of PSI you're pushing from a turbo is enough to change your overall scale of power difference.

Turbo lag is all about NOT matching a turbocharger properly to a motor. If the turbochargers turbines are just plainly too big to be spun so quickly, than of course it will spin slower, hence, not fully spool till an higher RPM (more RPMs = More exhaust waste). I say this because people have the misconception that EVERY turbocharger has turbo lag, which isn't true. There are turbochargers that are so small that are at full boost hitting 2,000 RPMs, there are even ball bearing turbochargers that can hit 20 PSI before an supercharger can reach 10.

 

Here is another thread the BrianMP5T made a while ago, but has a lot of valuable information.

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/forced-induction-50/forced-induction-101-a-8183/

 

Does anyone know of any place where I can get the top of the line turbo charger from, for the cobalt ss 2.4L?