Canadian Coupe wrote:
The supercharger has a sweet 'scream' as someone already mentioned.

right right.... but I don't think I've heard one for myself,,, hopefully it is a good scream sound and not just a loud civic-like sound,, lol.

Someone else also referenced the 'pull' of a turbocharger,,, it's true,, it's crazy, major G-force like effect when stepping on the gas. but also all these power mods makes it easier to get pulled over, boooo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lQX3cOAbes

Listen from 15 seconds onward.

loooove the scream of a supercharger, and i just think it would match so well with the cvt

Oh yah, almost forgot about the rotrex supercharger. Don't know a whole lot about them, but I think they are kinda similar to a traditional centrifugal supercharger, but with way more advanced technology. I could be completely wrong though.

But I have had experience with one on a k-powered ariel atom. And it blew away ALL of the "twin screw" supercharged atoms on the track.

Iirc, it was Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords that did an article comparing twin screw s/c, centrifugal s/c, and a single turbo. They were all installed on the same mustang and dyno'd. The twin screw s/c was the obvious winner....until just under 3000rpm's. Thats where the turbocharger blew the s/c out of the water. And just throw the centrifugal in the trash, unless your on a budget.

Just so you know I'm not "talkin": I've driven/riden in 600whp mustangs, twin screw and centrifugal s/c'd, 300+hp ariel atoms, twin screw and rotrex s/c'd, many turbo 4-cylinder cars....I won't even get into the normally aspirated monsters I've had the pleasure of experiencing...

But to people saying s/c beats turbo for daily driving...you probably haven't experienced the right size turbo for the job. S/Cing may be close to a better choice, but I wouldn't say it's a hands down comparison....

to be completely honest, my choice is even more ambiguous now that before this post. The poll came out even, and now that i know the difference between the turbo and supercharger....i want them both! Thanks for everyones help tho, ill figure something out!

pcpower wrote:guys, gals, are we forgetting the # 1 reason why turbochargers are the best.........? blow-off valves!!! there's nothing else like that hiss of air (zzzzzzssssiiiip) every time you hit the sweet spot and switch gears, it makes you feel like a total bad-a$$ with a sweet ride.

ya I know, kind of superficial, but to each his own!

you can put a BOV on a supercharger also. The only point of a BOV is to eleviate pressure sitting at your throttle body after you let off the throttle. Same principles hold true to the compressors on turbos and supercharger. However, its more efficent to run a bypass valve in either system. It takes the pressure at the throttle body and routes it to its own bypass valve. Then when the throttle is hit again, it will dump the saved, compressed air, into the piping again. This reduces turbo lag by a whole hell of a lot.

heeroguy wrote:id chose a supercharger,

love being able to have a very predictable power band and low end power, plus being the coupes pretty ballsy already i dont really want 500 WHP 350-400 would be bad *** though.

nothing wrong with either setup just know what you want from it,

2 different means of power and 2 different ways of driving.

Both setups have a "predictable" power band. Depending on the trim and type of turbo housing, you can expect a correlation of lag to follow

pcpower wrote:
right right.... but I don't think I've heard one for myself,,, hopefully it is a good scream sound and not just a loud civic-like sound,, lol.

Someone else also referenced the 'pull' of a turbocharger,,, it's true,, it's crazy, major G-force like effect when stepping on the gas. but also all these power mods makes it easier to get pulled over, boooo.

superchargers and turbos both "pull". The pull of a supercharger however, are only referenced against what the car felt like before, because there is little to no lag. With a turbo you can feel the pull much more prodominatly because of the lag that you can reference from.

Dead honest when it all comes down to it. Daily driver that you want the most life out of, go low boost s/c. Best power and most fun, go t/c. Simple

^i thought you were gonna be gone

The nuclear reactor failed today before we left. So we prolonged the expedition till tomorrow morning. You seem dissapointed

adidas2go wrote:The nuclear reactor failed today

haha sorry that came out a little worse than it actually was. The reactor itself isnt unstable. It was something to do with the cooling of it or something. At any rate, the problem is being fixed so something catostrphic didn't happen

adidas2go wrote:The nuclear reactor failed today before we left. So we prolonged the expedition till tomorrow morning. You seem dissapointed

no not disappointedi was just curious.cant wait to see your turbo

also, keep in mind that there are different types of superchargers as well as turbos... (ie. centrifugal superchargers, roots superchargers... sequential twin turbo, twin turbo, single turbo etc. etc.) although the main function of each is respectively the same... equal, they are not. of course the choice to make would vary largely on compression as well as displacement... and pretty much whatever your car can take (ha, go figure)

i would say that it is safe to assume, however, that a turbocharger is more efficient than a supercharger in that due to the aforementioned belts and pulleys, you're engine is having to do more work with the supercharger.

so in short, maybe you can do some research lols

I vote Supercharger as an everyday driver.

I've worked and installed many kits both turbos and superchargers (roots and cent.) If I were going to build a nice weekend car or track car I'd probably go turbo. I should say my last car was turbocharged so I know all too well what it's like to feel the lag and the power surge. You can get around lag with different setups so I won't use it in my argument.

The problem I have with a non-factory turbocharged vehicle is it requires a lot of work to make it reliable and run right. Most kits come with a piggy back which only works while under wide open throttle. This creates a problem whenever you part throttle boost. Let's say you get around that whole problem with a standalone engine management ($2000 ish), you still have lot of problems with heat in the engine bay. Beyond that, things always come loose and find yourself wrenching on bolts pretty often.

Don't get me wrong, like I said I had and love the turbo on my last car but maintenance is costly and a lot of tender love and care is needed to keep the car running good. I set one guy up with a Stillen s/c on his Z and the thing runs like stock, just hated wiring the thing in. You'll make plenty of power with the s/c but if you need the extra kick, by all means go with the turbo. Just throwing in my opinion with a little bit of my own history.

Robs_altima wrote:I vote Supercharger as an everyday driver.

I've worked and installed many kits both turbos and superchargers (roots and cent.) If I were going to build a nice weekend car or track car I'd probably go turbo. I should say my last car was turbocharged so I know all too well what it's like to feel the lag and the power surge. You can get around lag with different setups so I won't use it in my argument.

The problem I have with a non-factory turbocharged vehicle is it requires a lot of work to make it reliable and run right. Most kits come with a piggy back which only works while under wide open throttle. This creates a problem whenever you part throttle boost. Let's say you get around that whole problem with a standalone engine management ($2000 ish), you still have lot of problems with heat in the engine bay. Beyond that, things always come loose and find yourself wrenching on bolts pretty often.

Don't get me wrong, like I said I had and love the turbo on my last car but maintenance is costly and a lot of tender love and care is needed to keep the car running good. I set one guy up with a Stillen s/c on his Z and the thing runs like stock, just hated wiring the thing in. You'll make plenty of power with the s/c but if you need the extra kick, by all means go with the turbo. Just throwing in my opinion with a little bit of my own history.

but unfortunately, no company seems interested in a supercharger... and right now, we've got a couple great companies ready to go with the Turbos!

Robs_altima wrote:I vote Supercharger as an everyday driver.

I've worked and installed many kits both turbos and superchargers (roots and cent.) If I were going to build a nice weekend car or track car I'd probably go turbo. I should say my last car was turbocharged so I know all too well what it's like to feel the lag and the power surge. You can get around lag with different setups so I won't use it in my argument.

The problem I have with a non-factory turbocharged vehicle is it requires a lot of work to make it reliable and run right. Most kits come with a piggy back which only works while under wide open throttle. This creates a problem whenever you part throttle boost. Let's say you get around that whole problem with a standalone engine management ($2000 ish), you still have lot of problems with heat in the engine bay. Beyond that, things always come loose and find yourself wrenching on bolts pretty often.

Don't get me wrong, like I said I had and love the turbo on my last car but maintenance is costly and a lot of tender love and care is needed to keep the car running good. I set one guy up with a Stillen s/c on his Z and the thing runs like stock, just hated wiring the thing in. You'll make plenty of power with the s/c but if you need the extra kick, by all means go with the turbo. Just throwing in my opinion with a little bit of my own history.

i would probably also go with supercharger just for safety and to maintain daily driver status... never personally worked on any cars myself but have heard and experienced horror stories with friends with turbocharged vehicles... and upkeep as well as repairs are costly to say the least...

As much of a gear head as I am, my coupe will be staying N/A. I am one of those people you hear of that has their own horror story with turbos. Now if it was a factory turbo setup, I reconsider or if I had a ton of money to burn to do it right.

The s/c system I'd like to see would be a roots but there isn't clearance for one and with our engine mounted the way it is, a custom hood would never look right (example Stillen 350Z hood). I could see a centrifugal blower one day working but the boost is proportional to the engine rpm so it will never hit like a roots or surge like a turbo.

Vortec was on these forums months back with interest in putting a kit together but everyone was scared off by the price. I believe Addias was the first to get them going before he went turbo. Personally I think it was too early in the game for enough people to commit to a F/I project when everyone was concentrating on intakes, exhausts, wheels ect….

A turbo holds more potential if that hasnt already been said. for the cvt V6 Altima coupe a supercharger would work better.

I remember reading somewhere that S/C's are more efficient when at higher RPMs. Is that why people are saying S/C's are good for CVTs because of its ability to stay at higher RPMs and not shifting?

OK, to start...I am posting without reading all of the previous posts because I'm not that patient haha.

The comparison between turbo and supercharger is always raging. And, in reality, the best form of forced induction is.....(drum roll please).....BOTH. It all depends on what you're trying to do.

Do you want to claim that your car makes more power than everyone else? Then go with a turbo...A perfect example is the Toyota Supra. These cars can easily put out over 1,000 horsepower with a single turbo swap. The only problem is that their power curve looks like the rollercoaster "superman" at six flags...Pretty boring up to about 4K RPM then all of a sudden WHAM!!! crazy power.

If you want a system that will offer great power at low RPM or on a twisty race track. I recommend supercharger. Superchargers deliver instant boost. Vortech (centrifigal) superchargers are kind of like turbo's in that they still have a little bit of lag when compared to a roots or twin screw blower. These blowers typically replace the intake manifolds with a new plenum and offer instant boost. However, they are not capable of making as much power as turbo's.

Another consideration is the engine...Typically 4 cylinder engines respond better to turbo's. This is because a supercharger creates a parasidic loss due to the engine having to spin it. While a turbo is simply using the engine's exhaust to spin. However, there are cars out there such as the Lotus Elise and Mini Cooper which utilize Eaton superchargers and they work very well for those applications. These types of cars are considered track weapons and rely heavily on momentum to pull fast lap times. A strong pulling supercharger will give the car more power when exiting slower turns while a turbo is waiting to "spool up."

At the end of the day it all depends on what you are looking to do and how much you have to spend. If you want the world's fastest drag racing car then I recommend turbo's. Sit at the starting line holding at 3,000 RPM, get the turbo's spinning and when the light turns green you are ready to go. If you want a fast car to take to a road course I recommend supercharger. The instant boost will allow for improved acceleration. Also superchargers run cooler which means you will have less chance of over-heating or "heat soak."

Just like everything in life there are compromises and you need to figure out what you want to do with the car and what your ultimate goals and budgets are.

That's just my opinion though...

I want to see Vortec do something with the coupe. I had a Scion tC with the TRD s/c (centripetal Vortec) and the setup was so clean. Never really got to hot and the kit came with a full reflash so the thing ran sweet under every throttle position regardless of the temperature outside. I think it would work great for those of you with the CVT because the boost will max out and hold at whatever psi they set it at, just like a turbo when the wastegate opens up.

I just had problems with the seals on the extended shaft the drove the s/c from the pulley side of the engine failing. The result was oil leaking. The great part about that was I'd just pull it into the dealer and say give me a new one under warranty, labor and all.

adidas2go wrote:haha sorry that came out a little worse than it actually was. The reactor itself isnt unstable. It was something to do with the cooling of it or something. At any rate, the problem is being fixed so something catostrphic didn't happen

lol ever heard of Chernobyl?