Re: supercharger vs. Turbo (very long)

[Jesse Hustad <hustadj@pr.erau.edu>]

I just thought I would add my .02 on the turbocharger thing. I believe
that the turbo charger works not so much on velocity of airflow, but on
volume of airflow. If you take a stock turbocharged car and port the
turbine housing along with opening the exhaust the spool up time will be
greatly reduced. I did both of these as well as opening the intake up on
my Eclipse and they resulted in a much lower spool up time. In order to
get 11lbs (stock setting) of boost when the car was stock it needed to be
at about 3800rpm. Once the porting and opened exhaust were done full boost
could be had at 2900rpm. The manufacturers install a restrictive exhaust
on turbocharged cars to keep the maximum boost low. If a customers car has
a wastegate stuck closed it hopefully will not overboost the engine
because the turbo can't flow enough air due to the restrictions. On the
Eclipse this safety margin is increased by using a resctrictive filter
setup and a blow-off valve that leaks at 14lbs of boost. 

Jess