Is one major power adder better than the others in terms of torque increases. What I'm asking is...are superchargers known for adding more torque than nitrous.? Or are turbos known for making more torque than superchargers? Is there anything like that, or are they all pretty equal as far as hp/tq increases.

from my understanding with nitrous the increase is lateral to the shot you use.... but i'm sure one of the higher gurus will chime in at anytime here =) Something that I would be interested in knowing aswell


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It really would depend on what size turbo or supercharger, and what type of supercharger you're using.

Nitrous is more expensive in the long run though. You dont have to re-fill boost.

This is a question many people ask, Nitrous is a direct hit of power for a certain rpm, as the same with boost. Everything depends on engine build aspect, Higher RPM engines or small engines will beneift from nitrous or a turbo due to the displacement. A Short stroke small bore will rev faster due to less weight, but they will always lack in torque. most cars under 3.0 will benifit more from turbos or nitrous due to the fact they don't need power to msake power. A bigger engine it is better to supercharge or turbocharge because of its long stroke lower RPM capabilities. More airflow and more power to begin with makes this possible. There is no replacement for displacement, every engine can be built to handle boost or nitrous, but when you compare a 454 to a 130 cubic inch engine, the flow cannot compare.

it doesn't matter what engine you have, here's the power adder break down:

NITROUS:
dry shot - straight nitrous, not suggested since fuel system needs to react to a sudden lean spike.. bad things happen.

wet shot- nitrous and fuel sprayed at same time. safer as far as air/fuel ratio goes

direct port - one nozzle per cylinder with nitrous and fuel feed lines. a wet shot for each cylinder, this is how to get the most power from a nitrous system, and the best for equalizing all the cylinders in terms of power.

depending on if its a purged system or not, power can be progressive or a kick in the ass. if you dont purge the nitrous system, the power will gradually come on as you hit the button. if you do have a purge solenoid on the system, power will be a kick in the ass when pushing the button. you can take this further by controlling the nitrous and fuel solenoids via electronics (progressive controllers)

SUPERCHARGER
roots - belt driven positive displacement supercharger. the most common used and the M62 and M45 is this type. roots superchargers take power away in order to make it (parasitic loss) but boost is instant. this has the result of making your engine feel like a larger displacement version of itself. known for being torque oriented

centrifugal - belt driven turbo. this is more common on V8s. since this 'turbo' is connected to your engine via a belt, as your revs climb, your boost climbs. centrifugal powerbands tend to be linear. has a 'turbo feel' but still experiences the loss of a supercharger due to parasitic loss.

TURBO
all turbos despite design variances work in the same basic way. a turbine is spun by your exhaust gases, which in turn spins a compressor that compresses incoming air before it gets to the motor. Turbos can behave however you size them to. Larger turbos tend to have longer spool times, but can flow massive amounts of air. Turbos have excellent adiabatic efficiencies as compared to their supercharger counterparts. You can make a turbo have great response for streetability, or killer top end for the racetrack. They are the most efficient out of all power adders, utilizing waste gases as their power source, they never run out of 'juice', and are a self contained self supporting system.

more exhaust -> turbo speed increases -> boost increases -> power increases -> more exhaust made -> turbo speed increases -> etc etc

Well, horsepower is just a function of torque and RPM, and torque is determined by the stroke multiplied by the force of the explosion in the cylinder (which is determined by the amount of oxygen and dynamic compression in the cylinder)...

So, what kind of torque are you looking for? High end or low end. A turbo charger will give you the highest top end torque and horespower due to their nature of needing to wait for the exhaust gases to pass before it can compress more air (as pj explained), which is why it typically takes more time to reach full boost than a supercharger.

Nitrous is an almost instantanious increase in oxygen in the cylinder, it doesn't need an external cooling device like an intercooler or aftercooler to decrease the air temps like a charger will. So, technically, if it is the highest low end torque you are after, it is hard to beat a shot of nitrous with a 4 cyl.


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"Youth in Asia"...I don't see anything wrong with that.

I'm not sure my question was really understood entirely though, but I took bits and pieces from each response and they answered my question.

Thanks for the responses.