Not sure this is the right thread but I figured it might be...
Whats the difference between the two? From what I know they both work on the same principle...Add air/fuel mixture under pressure to the cylinders (increase compression, more power).

Turbos are run by exhaust gases (thus turbo lag)

Superchargers are run by a belt or gears from the engine itself, thus are always "on" or running.

ummm, thats all I know about them. I was trying to explain the difference to my wife because we saw a turbo charged car and a supercharged car sitting next to each other at a light this morning. I realized that I wasn't quite sure myself.
help?

 

Ok the difference is:

A supercharger runs on a belt that drives it off the engines power. It takes power to run it but in turn makes more power.

A turbo runs off the the engines exhaust and doenst cost any power from the engine and builds even more power. A turbo doesnt rob any of the engines power to make more, while a supercharger does.

People will argue back and forth as to which is better or which makes more power but it all comes down to what you like better or what works better for your application.

Nitro

 

Blowers look nicer, and NOTHING can reproduce that AMAZING blower whine!

-Andrew
f250_64(No Email Addresses In Posts!), same for yahoo messenger

Nothing, and I mean nothing, stirs the soul, saying I'm a bad **** like lettin'em rip with a window shaking, fuel gulpin, carbon monoxide belchin, attention gettin, V-oh my LORD!-8!

 

Andrew, I guess thats what they thought when they put that 671 in my 40!!! because you surely can't use that much power in that truck. John

 

Whoa, Nitro...a turbo doesn't cost any horsepower? just to clarify, it does work off exhaust pressure, which the engine has to push, to create boost, right? I admit that it may be less than a belt driven supercharger, but it it low enough to say that it "doenst cost any power from the engine?"

1989 F-150 : 5.0, shorty headers, Flowmaster cat-back, K&N filtercharger intake, March pulleys, "Multi-brand" performance ignition, soon to be Mass-Air...doesn't know she's not a Mustang

 

A turbo does create a little more back pressure so it's not exactly "free" horsepower. There's a good article on the differences between the 2 at:

http://www.members.tripod.com/tomak3/page10.html

Admittedly this guy is a turbo kinda guy but he makes some very good points and his explanations make sense.

 

Bill, Thanks for the link, Mike