What Is A Supercharger And How Does It Enhance Your Vehicle?

By James Chapman Jr.

Another way to add power to your vehicle is to make a normal-sized engine more efficient. This can easily be accomplished by inserting additional air into the combustion chamber. Having additional air gives you the advantage of having more fuel and this triggers a bigger explosion and greater horsepower. If you want to achieve a forced air induction then adding a supercharger will be one of the best ways to do so.

A Supercharger is simply an air compressor which helps push more air into the engine. A supercharger is any device that pressurizes the air intake above the atmospheric pressure. The supercharger is used for supercharging the internal combustion piston engines. The air is usually pushed through a mechanical connection to the engine then the power of the compressor to compress air increases leading to the finally step of going to the cylinders.

What is the Main Advantage of Superchargers?

The big advantage of superchargers is that they produce additional power from less engine speed and avoid suffering from the inherent lag of turbo. The charge temperature is lower than an equivalent turbo application and cooler air increases the amount of oxygen which leads to an increase in the amount of fuel that can be burned, releasing more power. The superchargers are available in a variety of street and race only configurations.

Root type blowers are most common and because they pump a given volume of air into the manifold they became known as positive displacement pumps. They come with a pair of 2 and sometimes 3 lobe straight cut rotors and they are available in many different sizes. The longer the blower case or the larger the rotors increases the amount of air delivered to the motor. It also requires no extra maintenance on the part of the driver.

Additional Advantages

No ordinary shut down procedures need to be made because it does not depend on engine oil to run and requires no drainage. Today, it is only used in gasoline fueled engines in order to prevent common problems associated with high temperature exhaust gas from occurring and to be compatible with LPG or methane

It is also easy to install as it can be attached to both the top and side of the engine, but keep in mind that it does require substantial modifications to the engines exhaust system. The super charger is more expensive to make than turbo chargers.

Other beneficial advantages of supercharging your car using a super charger over turbo charging are instant throttle response and more boost at low engine speed. Since it is belt driven of the crankshaft, it can deliver boost the instant the throttle is opened. Cost and reliability advantages are also claimed for super charging.

These can be a straight-bolt on installation, and it works well with stock heads, cams and pistons. What's more, it delivers better low speed throttle response and torque than most engines with big valves. It is a lot more reliable and is subject to less thermal stress.
 
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