I’ve been a car guy for quite some time but I’m a bit embarrassed that idrk how they exactly work. All that ik is that they give you boost and that somehow makes you faster 🤦♂️
In: Engineering
The amount of power an engine produces on each stroke depends mostly on the amount of fuel and air you can get inside the cylinder. For fuel it is quite easy, you just pump in more using a small fuel pump. But that extra fuel has to be accompanied by a proportional increase in the amount of air, as there is an ideal ratio of fuel to air that provides the most amount of power.
This is where you run into a problem. You see, naturally aspirated engines (not turbocharged or supercharged), use the weight of the atmosphere to push air into the cylinder. So the only way to get more air into a cylinder, would be to change the atmospheric conditions, which may prove to be difficult.
This is where forced induction comes in. Basically, you use a small fan to force more air into the cylinder. Add more fuel – and bam, you’ve increased the power output with the same displacement engine.
Both turbochargers and superchargers have this small fan. Where they differ, is what makes the fan spin. Turbos use the exhaust of the engine to spin the fan. The advantage, is that the energy is “free”. The exhaust gases would be wasted otherwise. The disadvantage is that it may take some time for the engine to increase its RPM and put out enough exhaust to make the turbo effective. Superchargers are connected directly to the engine (usually through some pulleys), so as soon as the engine RPMs increase – the fan spins up immediately, making the whole system more responsive. The disadvantage is that superchargers are generally less efficient, as they usually rob the engine of a bit of power, to then increase its output through forced induction.
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