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*The Science of

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To Turbo or not to Turbo?April 20th, 2010

Yes, that is a Civic vs a $200k+ Lamborghini.

Editor: David Godfrey

Red-Line’Ð Magazine

Hot n’ Cold

Turbo Continued...

Turbochargers

of the engine, thus more fuel is burned. “Turbochargers use a small turbine attached to the exhaust pipe to spin a compressing turbine in the incoming air stream (air that is introduced from the air filter).” Turbochargers are fan pumps, driven by the gases in the exhaust of an engine. Turbochargers consist of “turbines and compressors on a shared shaft”, where the compressor draws in ambient air and pumps it into the “intake manifold”(Edgars, Julian. Turbos and Superchargers A Comprehensive Guide to Forced Induction) at an increased pressure (as the air is heated), resulting in a larger mass of air entering the engine’s cylinders. The forced air into the cylinders of the engengine produces a “boost”, and in order to achieve this boost, the turbocharger uses the exhaust flow from the engine (the excess gasses not used in the engine that would normally be shoved out of the back of the exhaust) to spin a turbine, which allows the air pump to spin. Superchargers differ from turbochargers in the respect that they are powered mechanically by a belt, gear, shaft or chain connected to the engines crankshaft, not from ex-haust gasses in the engine.

Supercharged KryptoniteApril 18th, 2010 Turbo chargers are more advantageous than superchargers, as

more and more vehicle companies are producing vehicles with super chargers rather than turbo chargers. The main problem with super char-gers is that they are thermally not as effective as their alternatives. Turbo chargers rely on the exhaust gasses of the engine, and do not take away from the overall power of the engine as supercharger do, be-cause the “exhaust gasses that turbochargers utilize would normally remain unused in a standard naturally aspirated” (Moran, Mike. "Twin-Turbo Big-Block Chevy - Horsepower." Car Craft Nov. 2009: 1-1. Print) engine setup. Very few standard car models for the 2009 vehicle year use superchargers, most popular would be the Chevy Cobalt (a perfect example of American vehicle inferiority), as opposed to turbo charger like the Volkswagen GTI, or the cheapest supercar ever, the Nissan Skyline GTR.

Red- Line’Ð*magazine

Hot n’ ColdApril 19th, 2010

The final basic form of car performance modification involves the widely popular “air induction and intake system”. There are two different forms of air intake systems. These systems include, a “cold air intake”, and “warm air intakes”. A cold air intake is mostly widely popular, being as it is the cheapest of all intake alterna-tives. Car engines can basically be thought of as massive “air pumps” that produce power and the car to ac-celerate. Unlike superchargers or turbo chargers, air intakes are replaced from all engines. Every engine must have an air intake, whereas it is functions as a sort of funnel for air to reach the engine. Air intake systems must be properly tuned to provide the highest maximum extent of efficiency for the engine, to produce the most power. Stock air intakes only go so far, unless of course you’re driving a Ferrari, where you shouldn’t even dream of altering any stock parts. Modernized air intake systems contain a pyramid of parts, whereas air filters, mass flow sensors and throttle bodies are components of these systems.

A cold air intake brings lower temperate air into

a car’s engine, thereby increasing engine power

and efficiency. Going with the basic principles

that cold air is more dense, so more oxygen is

contained in the same volume as warm air.

More oxygen produces more power for the

engine. Many people utilize aftermarket air

inintake parts because of the restrictive stock

components. Warm air intakes, therefore do not

provide increases in overall power, but provide a

dramatic increase in fuel efficiency. Because

warm air contains less oxygen then cold air, less

fuel it utilized to travel the same distance as with

stock components.

In an Absolut world, you would always taxi back home.

Please drink responsibly

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Exhausts are tubes that run into the engine and alleviate exhaust gasses that aren’t utilized by the actual engine. Theoretically, adding an aftermarket exhaust to a naturally aspirated

engine will not significantly increase the power output of the engine, because exhausts simply help remove exhaust gasses. If we refer to turbochargers, we can see that exhaust systems would undoubtedly benefit an engine where a turbocharger is used. Since turbochargers uti-lize exhaust gasses to produce more power for the engine, and exhaust systems provide more efficiency and exhaust gasses to flow into the engine, then an exhaust system on a

tturbo charged engine would produce more power after installation than a naturally aspirated engine, where the increase in exhaust gasses is not utilized. Now mufflers, do just what their names do. They muffle the sound produced by the engine as it leaves the exhaust pipe. This muffler has a chamber where sound is resonated and sound waves hit one another, thus

cancel one another out. The sound is greatly reduced. This is why aftermarket exhaust sys-tems are viewed in some states and in some applications as illegal, whereas the sound pro-duced by the actual exhaust is overly loud. You can be pulled over for having an overly loudaftermarket exhaust system on your vehicle, and be ticketed. Aftermarket exhausts can still be utilized, although “silencers” must be in place when driving around city streets and neigh-borhoods to avoid unwanted police attention. Sadly, these silencers can restrict airflow and

thus impede power produced by the engine.

April 20th, 2010