How does a supercharger work?

[jshkrauss]

Hi. I've been looking at some stuff from Active Autowerke lately, and the supercharger, and turbos caught my eye. The thing is, I just don't really know how either really works. If anyone could tell me what exactly a supercharger, or turbo (Im more interested in the SC) really do in your engine, and how it translates to more power, I'd be very thankful.

thanks.

-J

[dj_audigy]

www.howthingswork.com

[Duke]

the quick version, it contains a turbine which is rotated by a belt. the turbince compresses air and then is mixed with the fuel. This will give a richer air/fuel mixture which creates a bigger explosion in the motor which turn the camshaft faster. and then it goes on from there

[villlein]

ok, so whats the difference between a turbo charger and a supercharger?

[onebadm5]

on a turbo, the turbine is driven by exhaust gas, where as on a blower, it's driven by the engine crankshaft via a belt.

[klasic]

Originally posted by Duke
the quick version, it contains a turbine which is rotated by a belt. the turbince compresses air and then is mixed with the fuel. This will give a richer air/fuel mixture which creates a bigger explosion in the motor which turn the camshaft faster. and then it goes on from there

Wrong, this would be deadly for a motor.

Air / Fuel ratios are so very important in getting a motor to run correctly, and you still want to be at the same ratio with a turbo, supercharger, or a n/a motor. You are getting more air and more fuel into the motor with a supercharger, not just making a mixture more rich. Too rich will rob you of a lot of hp, and damage the motor, just like with too lean you see a lot of busted headgaskets and worse.

And no it dosn't spin the cam shaft faster, nor the crank shaft, the motor will go through the same rev range as before, but the hp and torque curves should be higher (depending on the layout of the turbine and pullies you can change where the hp will be added).

Lastly, it might not be a turbine, there are different types of supercharger, the blower is just one one of them.....

[frank1975]

Blower is a slang word for a supercharger. There are centrifugal & roots type blowers (and probably a couple others I don’t know about). A centrifugal blowers power is nonlinear good for cars that already have good low end, a turbo will have a lag time before it creates more horsepower because its driven by exhaust.