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by philipp2000 on October 12th, 2006

philipp2000

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Can a car be turbocharged and supercharged at the same time?

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Answers. 16 helpful answers below.

  • by Mike on March 16th, 2008

    Mike

    Yes it can be done and there are advantages to doing so.

    Just ask VW, theyve done it to their golf on a 1.4 liter engine. I suspect the reason is one of fuel efficeincy without the lag of a turbo system. That is, turbo=more effient (generally) and supercharger= more responsive down low. Mix the two together and you get a responsive small literage motor with decent hp up top.
    They switch their supercharger off once above about 3500rpm to avoid excess fuel consumption...and by that pint, the turbo is making the required boost anyway.

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  • by Anonymous on February 19th, 2008

    Anonymous

      By definition, a car that is turbocharged is supercharged.  A turbocharger is a kind of a supercharger.  Specifically, it is a supercharger that is powered by a turbine driven by the motor's exhaust.  There are other kinds of superchargers as well, powered by sources other an an exhaust-driven turbine.

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  • by Maximum Displacement on February 22nd, 2007

    Maximum Displacement

    Well, this Holden Torana is.

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  • by sloppywet on March 16th, 2008

    sloppywet

    the supercharger is usely intake side an the turbo is on the exhaust side super charger forces air in the turbo forces air out add nos an you go fast ! better watch the tac'

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  • by Robert on February 18th, 2008

    Robert

    it is actually possible. and it has been done in the past. if you do a search on google for rally "group B". or look for the Lancia Delta rally car. they took the 1.8 L 4cyl engine and turbocharged and supercharged it. they were able to crank out over 500hp. It was able to get to 60mph in 2.5 seconds on gravle. they were shortly banned beacaus the cars were "too fast to race" the drivers had a hard time keeping them on the road. you can find video footage on google video and there is a movie about them called too fast to race. really good movie. hope this answers your question.

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  • by TheJoker on July 21st, 2009

    TheJoker

    Yes it can, the only one I can actually think of right now is the VW Golf GT, it has a 1.4 turbo & supercharged engine..... it's as rough as bollocks!

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  • by Jdw_539 on July 21st, 2009

    Jdw_539

    You can turbocharge and supercharge a car, as the Zenvo ST1 have proven.
    With a 7.0 litre V8 engine, which has a root supercharger and also a exhaust powered turbocharger.
    Not quite sure how it is all put together but i'm very interested in it.
    It is now out of the prototype stage and is being put into production.
    With 1,104bhp, its extremely close to the Bugatti Veyron and Koenigsegg CCXR
    Check it out at
    www.zenvoautomotive.com/

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  • by Anonymous on August 12th, 2009

    Anonymous

    Yes. There are significant issues however with doing it. The engine uses horsepower to run a Supercharger (parasitic drag loss) however a Turbocharger uses spent exhaust gases. You can force induce an engine with a supercharger then recycle the power out of the exhaust with a set of turbos, however you would need a very highly adaptive computer, a large and effective fuel system, and you would need a motor with precise internals and high end parts. Your bypass for boost would have work in conjunction with your supercharger and turbochargers. Essentially you would run a speed density system. Big stuff 3 or f.a.s.t. system. You would have a very serious vacuum schematic also.

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  • by Anonymous on January 30th, 2009

    Anonymous

    yes it can. You can but on a supercharger and a turbocharger on a car but it a lot of work but it is worth it. It takes all the pros and cons always from turbochargers and superchargers.

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  • by FoxHound303 on March 28th, 2012

    FoxHound303

    Well I am actually building up a car with this set up currently... But its a 4 cylinder.. You have to use a twin screw/roots blower for the easiest set up... Pick your power level before deciding on parts... Build your engine for a turbo.. Remember your valve springs and cam grinds are also very important to what you will be doing with the power... My reasons for doing so is I have an awd turbo DSM.. It has a small motor and putting a larger turbo on it is not daily driven smart... Turbo's and Superchargers do the same function but in different ways and act differently as well... With both you will hear people Brag about "i run 24psi" This is rather pointless... Its said best with any turbo can make any psi.. its key is in what air flow it puts out at that psi on your engine... With that in mind remember a turbo is more of a power switch... Almost all turbo'd engines have what is a snap on power effect and once its going its going hard.. This is due to the ability to control flow with the wastegate.. once its spooled it will do everything possible to keep that power... With superchargers its driven off engine speed not exhaust pressures.. So the supercharger will exibit similar spool up characteristics but superchargers add power to engines on a more lineal bassis.. and always spool up at a lower rpm than turbos can. this is due to the fact the turbo engine has to draw in so much air to make it to a spool up point where the pressure ratio actually can over power the vacuum of the engine and begine pressure.. The supercharger is geared to spin way faster than your engines speed, and will over power vacuum quickly.. Keep in mind a centrifigal supercharger works like a turbo compresser and is more efficent than a roots blower and spools more like a turbo.. So the question is really if you need a system this complexe for your engine... Large engine+Large turbo=More than most people need. Now if youre like me and need more power from a small engine.. This is how you do it and why.. Pick a very large turbo, one that would normally be very laggy on your engine.. Set the boost level lower.. around 8psi.. Put a twin screw blower on your intake manifold.. Run the air from your intake filter to the turbo, then to your intercooler and then to the roots blower... Your blower will act as an engine displacement increase as it is basically starting to force more air in around 2000rpm than what the engine will normally see.. What this translates to is a turbo that will spool around 3200-3500 instead of 4500. Some might ask, why route threw the intercooler then to the supercharger and not the intercooler last... The reason we use intercoolers at all is because with turbo's forcing High boost levels and being driven off the exhaust = heat exchange is killer... The compressor will blow (hot air, meaning hotter than optimal for ignition) after a given point in pressure and turbo speed. Turbo's can spin thousands of rotations a second at full speed and suffer from friction and heat issues.. so make sure you have a tough ball bearing design and liquid cooled. Also, keeping pressure low is key.. Not mandatory but you look at it this way... Start low, tune up. Ultimately you will be runing an air multiplier ontop of another one... so if one is making pressure ratios of 4:1 and it gets compressed again on say 2:1 you have alot more air flowing in at lower pressure ratios... This results in the ability to use pump gas with larger fuel system parts.. Although higher octane gas never hurts.. When boost gets crazy you will need High octane fuel and a coil on plug system that can keep up with the demands... Also a water to air intercooler might be better for higher boost... If You want to see some ideas on this setup you can find mitsubishi 3000gt's that have twin turbo and a twin screw blower on them. As well as a mitsubishi eclipse gsx that has a 35r turbo and a eaton supercharger... Hope this helped anyone who looks at this post

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  • by Vanplor on August 3rd, 2010

    Vanplor

    Response to Daryl61 in 2006... Running a turbo with 6psi boost coupled to a supercharger with 6psi boost does not add up to 6 psi boost : )... A super charger is a belt driven system which uses the turning of the main drive pulley to turn what is usually twin screw rotors in the supercharger, the turning of these screws compresses the air into the air intake manifold. A turbocharger uses the exhaust fumes to turn a turbine which does the same job as the super charger screws, to ensure that a turbo does not press too much air into the intake manifold the turbos will use a waste gate, which is exactly what it sounds like, however the waste gate size is going to determine the psi still being pushed into the intake manifold. By using both the Supercharger at 6 psi and turbo charger at 6 psi the air that enters the manifold is already there, the equivalent being 12 psi, however depending on the specific design of both your supercharger and your waste gates you will have some amount of 'back pressure' between your intake and your turbo chargers, it is likely that if your waste gates are high performing you will stay around 8 - 10 psi, however if your waste gates are poorly performing you could continually build 'back pressure' causing great damage to the engine. (blow gaskets and such) Also I would like to correct those who say that the Turbo charger is used to speed the removal of fumes. A turbo charger is driven by exhaust fumes, in other words, the turbine is moving at the speed determined by the pressure (amount) of the exhaust. The exhaust moves the turbo, the turbo does not move the exhaust, the turbo moves air. The reason the turbo charger does not produce high output at lower speeds is because the exhaust gradually builds up as the engine is putting out more power. A super charger on the other hand is controlled by the pulley, and therefore is turning the turbines (screws) within it as soon as the engine is cranked, this is why the super charger is good for low end power, at the same time it does not keep up with a turbo on the high end because the RPM of the screws are limited to the RPM of the car, limiting the high end output. Therefor to answer the original question it can absolutely be done, and for good reason of maintaining air pressure throughout a full speed and RPM spectrum. As far as vacuuming exhaust goes I have never seen such a system in existence, however if it were the vacuuming of exhaust through a turbo would increase the turbine speed moving more air than the turbine was intended to, and therefor what would be the point of vacuuming exhaust in the first place? Well if you read this and understood than you were probably not the one asking the question, but if you found this page it is probably because you googled the question and don't know the answer, as it seems everyone who posted prior did not know. I found this by accident and felt bad about letting a bunch of people without the answer take each others advice. So please, I beg you, if what I said above did not explain, go talk to a real person with real experience. If you think I'm being an arrogant a$$, please, feel free to blow up your engine and see what an a$$ a mechanic will be then.

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  • by Darryl61 on October 12th, 2006

    Darryl61

    In short, no. A turbocharger and supercharger are both designed to pressurize the air and/or air fuel mixture, going into the intake manifold. A turbo is powered by exhaust gases, and a supercharger (blower) is belt driven, but the end result is pressure at the manifold, instead of vacuum. Though it may be physically possible to attach the two to the same manifold, they would actually work against each other. A turbo putting out, say 6 pounds of boost, would also be pushing against the blower (for the sake of argument putting out 6 pounds) nullifying it. Either one is enough to provide more than enough manifold pressure by itself.

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  • by mac1896 on February 22nd, 2007

    mac1896

    General Motors has been doing this with their 71 and 92 series V-Bank diesels for over 25 years (Marine Intermittent Duty).

    They are 2 cycle diesels that run normally aspirated with a blower. The turbos were added to bypass the blower at the higher RPM range via a wastegate.

    As Maximum_Reality has shown, it CAN be done with a car also, but the question remains: SHOULD it be done with a car ?

    <checks wallet for gas money........oops, spent it all on turbos and blower....no money for gas>

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  • by maz_sport on December 17th, 2008

    maz_sport

    Actually, Having a supercharged-Turbocharged car can be very effecetive as superchargers thend to produce boost almost instantaneously as its driven from the engine and once the turbo is upto speed (producing equal boost) the supercharger can be switched off thus removing any lag in the system. This will deliver low end response and torque whilst the turbo deliveres the power at the high end.

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  • by socal619 on February 19th, 2008

    socal619

    A guy that used to work with me, claimed that he had done that to his car. Ask him to bring it to work. He showed up the next day and said that he sold it that morning....

    Nice pic, crazy

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  • by Duneuno on July 11th, 2010

    Duneuno

    yes they can check out this link on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aSR5Vd4eRM) it is of a NISSAN SKYLINE R35GT-R TWIN TURBO & TWIN SUPERCHARGED. NOTE THAT IT IS IN JAPANESE IT A GOOD VIDEO.
    POWER ENTERPRISE NISSAN SKYLINE GT-R. TWIN TURBO & SUPERCHARGED, TEST DRIVEN BY DAI. Nissan R35 GTR, VR38DETT, Power Enterprise QUAD-charger system (Stock IHI Twin turbo & Twin Rotrex C30-94 Super Charger: 400ps x2 flow rate, at down stream of intake) as displayed at 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon. The system is designed for 700HP (670+WHP) with huge low to mid-range torque gain benefiting road course and time attack racers. This kit includes, Titanium Exhaust System - highest grade titanium available for automotive market (main pipe 89mm and dual-twin 70mm outlet), reinforced hose & T-bolt kit, and P-MAP (Newly developed piggy-back/Sub-ECU) pre-programmed and programmable to re-calibrate fuel (Air Flow less "D-Jetronics" w/ self learning), IG timing, boost, speed & rev limiter, Additional injectors, Launch control, nitrous and more. The QUAD-charger kit will be tested and tuned to perfection at several of race courses prior to the anticipated release date of April to May 2009. Dyno sheets based upon several courses will be provided for tuners base mapping.

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