In the video above, you can get more information as well as listen to the difference sounds that a supercharger vs turbo make. You can’t go wrong either way, but hopefully after reading this, you have a better understanding of the difference between a supercharger and a turbo. Many argue that the supercharger is more reliable, but we have good luck with our turbo cars and know they require more maintenance which we are perfectly ok with. Both produce tons of power, both feel great, but we like the power delivery and torque that a turbo produces. These items can make your car or truck not pass smog, and would need to be expensive to be done in an emissions friendly way, which makes them out of the budget for most people.Īt Redline360, we like turbo power over supercharged power. While a supercharger can have an intercooler and blow off valve, it does not have a wastegate. The reason is that the supercharger doesn’t have as much smog altering or modifying equipment such as a turbo usually. There are far more smog legal supercharger kits than there are smog legal turbo kits. Because a turbo is not connected directly to the engine, it can spin much faster than a supercharger. A turbo is more efficient than a supercharger since your engine does not need to work harder to power the turbo. As your car produces exhaust, the exhaust gas spins the turbine which causes the compressor to force air into the engine. Since the engine needs to literally spin the supercharger, it is not as efficient as you need to use horsepower to make horsepower.Ī turbo is similar to a supercharger, except it has an exhaust housing instead of a pulley, and runs off of your exhaust gasses. The supercharger is limited by it’s efficiency, so if you overboost the supercharger, it will blow hot air into your engine and you will not make as much power (amongst a myriad of other problems). A smaller pulley means the supercharger will spin faster so it will make more boost. The size of the pulley that spins the supercharger determines how much boost you will make. As the engine spins, it spins the supercharger and makes the supercharger force air into the engine. The more air you can get into your engine, the more power your car will make.Ī supercharger is a unit that bolts to your engine and connects with a belt between your crankshaft and the supercharger unit. They are designed to literally force air into your engine.
#SCION TC TURBO VS SUPERCHARGER FULL#
A supercharger also does not create full boost until redline, which is when the engine is spinning the supercharger as fast as possible.īoth a turbo and supercharger are forced induction systems. The turbo is more efficient as it doesn’t require engine power to spin it, so it makes more power per boost. When the crankshaft spins the supercharger, it forces air into the motor. A supercharger doesn’t work off the exhaust gas, it is attached to your engine and spins with the crankshaft. We’re not going to get into the technical details of each one, but hopefully this information will show you the difference between the two so you can decide which route you are more interested in going on your car or truck.Įssentially, a turbo sits off of your exhaust manifold, and the exhaust gasses spin one end of the turbo (the exhaust side), which makes your compressor side spin also and force air into the intake system, therefore creating air pressure. Both are different in terms of how they work, performance and cost. People ask us all the time if it’s better to go supercharged or better to go with a custom turbo kit or an off the shelf turbo kit. The ultimate question in forced induction.