1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,600
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:08,760
Speaker 1: where smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question, what

3
00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:12,760
Speaker 1: is the difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger on

4
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,040
Speaker 1: a car's engine. Let's start with the similarities. Both turbo

5
00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:22,720
Speaker 1: chargers and superchargers are called forced induction systems. They compress

6
00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:26,239
Speaker 1: the air flowing into the engine. The advantage of compressing

7
00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,040
Speaker 1: the air is that it lets the engine stuff more

8
00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,600
Speaker 1: air into a cylinder, and more air means that more

9
00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,080
Speaker 1: fuel can be stuffed into so you get more power

10
00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:40,360
Speaker 1: from each cylinder. A turbo or a supercharged engine produces

11
00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,680
Speaker 1: more power overall than the same engine without the charging.

12
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:47,559
Speaker 1: The typical boost provided by either a turbocharger or a

13
00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:51,560
Speaker 1: supercharger is six to eight pounds per square inch. Since

14
00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: normal atmospheric pressure is fourteen point seven p s i

15
00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,200
Speaker 1: at sea level, you can see that you're getting about

16
00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:02,080
Speaker 1: fifty more air into the engine. Therefore, you would expect

17
00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,000
Speaker 1: to get more power. It's not perfectly efficient, so you

18
00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,240
Speaker 1: might get a thirty or forty improvement instead. The key

19
00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:14,520
Speaker 1: difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger is its power supply.

20
00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,680
Speaker 1: Something has to supply the power to run the air compressor.

21
00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:21,840
Speaker 1: In a supercharger, there's a belt that connects directly to

22
00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,360
Speaker 1: the engine. It gets its power the same way that

23
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,120
Speaker 1: a water pump or an alternator does. A turbocharger, on

24
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,200
Speaker 1: the other hand, gets its power from the exhaust stream.

25
00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,440
Speaker 1: The exhaust runs through a turbine, which in turn spins

26
00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:38,600
Speaker 1: the compressor. There are tradeoffs in both systems. In theory,

27
00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:42,320
Speaker 1: a turbocharger is more efficient because it's using the wasted

28
00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,720
Speaker 1: energy in the exhaustream for its power source. On the

29
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,120
Speaker 1: other hand, a turbocharger causes some amount of back pressure

30
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:52,400
Speaker 1: in the exhaust system and tends to provide less boost

31
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,360
Speaker 1: until the engine is running at higher RPMs. Superchargers are

32
00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,320
Speaker 1: easier to install, but they tend to be more expensive.

33
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,000
Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast?

34
00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,080
Speaker 1: If so, please send me an email at podcast at

35
00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:08,800
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and

36
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:13,960
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.