Eli5: why do diesel engines tend to be turbocharged rather than supercharged or even N/A?

Question

Eli5: why do diesel engines tend to be turbocharged rather than supercharged or even N/A?

In: 7

Answer 1

I think one important point that a few people touched on but didn’t outright say is that the advantage of a supercharger is the instant throttle response. Yes modern turbochargers can have very low turbo lag, but if you’re building a car and really want that instant response, superchargers are the way to go. Diesel engines aren’t really meant for high performance driving, they’re made for consistent and efficient power output, so throttle response isn’t important.

There do exist supercharged diesel engines though. Some of Detroit Diesel’s two-stroke 71 series used both a supercharger and a turbocharger, because they worked by creating air pressure in the crankcase and therefore needed the supercharger for that instant boost.