supercharger or turbo?

[B-M-W 330i]

i have a 2001 bmw 330i, any suggestion on what i should shove under my good for better performance????

[4 door 330]

Supercharger is much easier to install and there are alot of kits out there. In the long run, if your willing to tune it, a turbo will make a lot more power.

[itsabimmerthing]

Go turbo. Turbochargers are far more efficent. Instead of using your crankshaft to drive a turbine, use wasted exhaust gasses, brilliant! lol

[B-M-W 330i]

how much more power dose the turbo add, and whats a good turbo to get?

[Manolito]

Turbochargers are generally more fuel efficient and quieter. Both will introduce some tuning challenges. but if you stick with a well-known kit, the tuning requirements should be well documented. Either one will shorten your engine and drivetrain life and trash your resale value, if that matters.

With regard to how much horsepower, beware the claims made by the less reputable vendors. I have seen torque and horsepower claims that did not make physical sense.

I would study the literature from the mainstream reputable vendors like Dinan and Turner and see what is possible to do as a practical matter, then go from there.

[baron310]

get a turbo because it will add way more torque than a supercharger will

[B-M-W 330i]

yeah ill defenetly will check em out

[itsabimmerthing]

Turbos are safer, more efficent, easier to work with, and much easier to upgrade. Superchargers big issue is that you get locked into one size of blower, instead of being able to easily upgrade the turbine. Instead of having to get a whole other pulley to increase boost, you can do so with the turn of a knob with turbo. In addition, turbo tuning is easier for that reason. I am not a real big sc fan, although they work well. Superchargers focus most of their power at low rpm, (positive displacement) but with a rotrex type centri supercharger it is more efficent then a positive displacement. The problem with a centri is that most of that power is focused at the height of your rpm band. With a turbo charger, boost is always a down shift away, and it builds rather quickly. Truth be told if you are drag racing, for example, you would most likely launch your car where the turbo is almost spooled right off the bat. Therefore, you hardly encounter lag. With a good wastegate, your recovery times will be excellent. I would reccomend peicing together your own kit. The problem with a "mainstream" kit, is you having something everyone else has got. But maybe thats what you want, something that has made good power, and is simple. It all depends on what you are willing to spend, and how involved you want to get. You may be boost limited due to your bottom end. I do not know the e46 comp ratio. Make sure to use good gas.

[B-M-W 330i]

well i was looking at some vids on you tube and all of the ones with high horse power seem to come from horsepowerfreaks and i was wondering if u have hear of them, but yeah i am a noobie at car perfomance upgrades but ive put a few hundred bucks into it and it seems that as soon as u start there is no stopping so figure if i am gunna do this i am gunna do it right

[B-M-W 330i]

sorry for the grammer problems and spelling, i was getting a lil excited

[TRANCe36]

Originally Posted by B-M-W 330i

how much more power dose the turbo add, and whats a good turbo to get?

If you must ask this question then get a supercharger.

- Turbo requires maintance and when stuff starts coming apart you have to be able to knwo what is what to repair it.

Supercharger you bolt on and go!!

[itsabimmerthing]

Originally Posted by TRANCe36

If you must ask this question then get a supercharger.

- Turbo requires maintance and when stuff starts coming apart you have to be able to knwo what is what to repair it.

Supercharger you bolt on and go!!

[Manolito]

IMHO - If this is a car that you need to drive to work, you do not want to go anywhere near as far as the the extreme builder cars you see on Utube. Assuming that you have the money to reconstruct your engine with carefully balanced, ultralight, ultrastrong parts, the car you build will not be for transportation, or even for racing. It will be a hobby car. The guy with the most horses has bragging rights, but he probably has a totally stock car in his garage to get him to work to pay for the hobby car. If the hobby car makes it 10,000 miles between teardowns and major investments, you did a good job on it.

If this is your main/only ride, you probably want to do lots of homework, get good parts that are made to work together, and be prudent about your horsepower target.

[T-O-M]

I think that supercharger will be easier to build in. You can buy complete kit. The true is, taht turbo will be more effective, powerfill etc, but how many horsepower and newtonmetres you plan on??? How big boost you want??? Anyway, you will solve tubes around IC...and stock engine parts arent immortal. Better valves, pistons, crank-shaft you need. Thats all hardware, second step is ECU, boost controller etc. tuning.
Good luck

[B-M-W 330i]

well i have been looking at the VF engeneered superchargers and i was looking at the bolt on stage 1 and than add a water cooling system so i can add more boost... dose that sound logical or right?