2009 Questions for all other cars

HI there,

With normally aspirated engines, the amount of air entering the engine is restricted to the swept volume of the engine, that is a 2 liter engine it will burn a volume of 2 liters of Air / Fuel mixture per revolution no matter how fast they engine revs this will not change, a turbo is basically an air pump driven by the exhaust, the same 2 liter engine as mentioned will with a turbo burn an increased air /fuel volume depending on the turbo boost and the waste gate settings, this will increase the power anything up to 20-30% but there is what is called turbo lag, the turbo has to spool up and increase boost pressure with engine speed, with a super charger this same principle is instantaneously as a blower is belt driven and there is no lag in boost pressure.

Mark (mhpautos)