I have begun kicking around the idea of some form of forced induction for my 4th gen however lack adequate information. I did a search and it seems most people say a turbocharger is better for sheer power while a supercharger is more reliable. Now, I'm not out for 500whp; I just want my 0-80mph performance to improve significantly. At the same time, this car is my daily driver and I can't afford to kill it. I read the stickys and understand we can do about 300whp "safely". I wanted to know what you informed guys think would be a better alternative to satisfy my need for FI. So have at it...supercharge or turbocharge based on:

1. Car needs to be reliable (performing added maintenance is no big deal)
2. 0-80mph performance gain is the goal; top end power is not of paramount importance
3. I don't track the car often, I just want streetable power (think highway onramps)
4. I want to minimize the added wear and tear on my engine (I need it to last three more years)

~THT

 

You can't say just turbo or SC. Although the choices for SC or limited and the # of pullies are limited, the choices for turbo sizes and the type are almost limitless. I small turbo will spool like a ***** and torch a std sized SC pulley. But a big turbo won't. Keep reading I guess

 

i say supercharger b/c it wont have lag, and it'll definilty be more reliable as a daily driver. also dependin on if you care or not, a v2 s/c is pretty quiet, which is a plus for daily driving. although a turbo can handle a lot more power, and changin boost is a lot easier, however its not as reliable, and is more expensive in some cases.

 

SC technically doesn't lag, but with a centrifugal like a Vortech, you don't build full boost until redline so it might as well lag. I have way more low end with my turbo setup than I ever did with my Stillen SC.

eg, I'm at full boost by ~3200 or so w/ the turbo, that doesn't happen on the SC until redline.

If someone only cares about 0-80, a small turbo will probably be better than the SC.

 

A turbo sized properly for your application and desired use (i.e. low to mid RPM power) will annihilate a centrifugal SC for 0-80 use. A turbo with a small turbine A/R could see full boost by like 2500rpm maybe even lower depending on how you size it and whether or not it has a ball bearing center section, on a supercharger with a stock pulley you'd only be seeing about 2.5lbs of boost at that RPM. That's the answer as far as your performance question is concerned.

Reliability is more of a question of installation, equipment options (Emanage, J&S Safeguard, etc) and your tuning abilities.

 

last two posts are exactly what i was going to say. full boost comes on much sooner with a turbo which would get you much better 0 - anything times. now, if you did a custom roots supercharger setup that would probably be different but since the kits already exists, i'd go turbo.

 

turbo - more powerful, more expensive, more complex, less reliable

supercharger - less powerful, less expensive, less complex, more reliable

The reliability of a well tuned S/C vs. turbo is debateable, but there are far fewer turbo maximas so there's not nearly as much data as with the S/C. The S/C has all been figured out, so you can pretty much just bolt it on and go about your business.

 

i'd go with a turbo

 

with my t4/t04e bb, i see full boost by 3500.... it has FAR more power than the sc ever had @ 11 psi tuned.

Of coruse - it's nice to use a boost controller and just turn it up for more power too.... but there's no question that i would have pulled hard on my old sc setup. Reliability wise - as long as u do your setup safe - and dont get boost greedy - turbo is the way to go

 

s/c isn't always as reliable. i hear too many stories on here of the belt braking.

i also wouldn't say its more expensive for a turbo setup. i did a turbo setup for 1500 and there's another 3rd gen guy on here who did it for way less. for me to do an s/c setup it would cost much more. it depends on how much work you do yourself and how much time you take looking for good deals.

 

Ported Eaton M90 @10psi. 5-7psi off idle and full boost by 2500rpm.

 

teh win

10dolla

 

With the turbo not tuned on the low end, Shadow's car runs 1/8th in 9.0@83mph. It finished the quarter mile in 13.8@105mph. This was all done w/ the turbo pushing 7psi w/ the wastegate spring and the car rolling on 60lb 19" wheels w/ glass hard tires through the stock auto tranny. I lost on one run to the 60' to a bone stock 4th Gen 5spd (I was averaging 2.3-2.5 60's).

Back w/ his supercharger w/ the 3.33" pulley(9psi) the best we ever managed was a 15.1@92mph. They did screw up the fuel tuning (the aux pump wasn't hooked up) so they aren't directly comparable unfortunately. The car does pull much harder now than it ever did in the low end and it's far faster than the SC simply b/c the huge powerband difference. The person that bought his S/C pulled 287whp w/ the 3.33 pulley on an auto and 320+ w/ a 3.13 and a MEVI. We haven't hit that mark yet but we're running less boost still and our peak torque is significantly higher and lower.

Is it worth it? It took almost 2 weeks working every day to get his car up and running and it was all custom fabbed. The car has been down a lot for upgrades and we're always concerned about something breaking but the car also tore 2 SC belts and was sidelined then too. It may not be as reliable as the SC but we're generating a lot more power per boost and have room to hit 350+whp w/ just a boost controller. The car is also not a daily driver anymore so reliability isn't as large a concern. We also trailer it to far away tracks (though I did drive it 300+ miles for a show) just in case something breaks so we're not ready for the cross country run just yet.

 

teh win indeed

 

teh lose when it comes to efficiency...