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Supercharged Vs Turbocharged

8K views 57 replies 16 participants last post by  Z350Lover 
#1 ·
Hey there people, firstly my apologies if this has already been discussed, but i did a search and couldnt find what i was looking for.

I have $20k to spend on my 350Z, and was tossing up between SC and TC.

Which would you chose if you had the choice?

which one will deliver the more significant power/performance gains?

Which one is more reliable?

Can you give me some links to Aus based companies that deal with these type of upgrades. I know of APS dealing with turbo, but what about company's that deal with SC's?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Steve
 
#5 ·
Twin Turbo's for power and low down torque plus the install almost looks stock, yes Nizpro does a great job but at $50,000 no way, for the best bang for your dollar you can't go pass APS's TT kit ($16000 fitted with 2.5" dual exhaust)with 280rwkw on a stock motor and up to 500/600rwkw or higher on a forged bottom end you have more scope. SC is also good but get it's max power at max revs and does'nt start until around 4000rpm the TT is on boost around 2000rpm. I've had the APS TT kit (the first kit fitted in the world) on my car now for 15 months and around 20,000k's no engine problems at all, just change the oil very 5000k, tune very 12 months or sooner it's up to you, change the air filters at around 20,000k (that depends on where you drive), you will need a new clutch as the stock one will not last plus wider tyres to put down all that torque 275's minimum.

That's my 2 cents worth!!

Cheers :cheers:
 
#7 ·
TT is more efficient and provides better gains at lower RPMs BUT a SC is easy to install and can be removed by a novice mechanic with one hand tied behind his back.

So my vote goes to the SC for easy removal for resale! :)
 
#8 ·
Hey there people, firstly my apologies if this has already been discussed, but i did a search and couldnt find what i was looking for.

I have $20k to spend on my 350Z, and was tossing up between SC and TC.

Which would you chose if you had the choice?

which one will deliver the more significant power/performance gains?

Which one is more reliable?

Can you give me some links to Aus based companies that deal with these type of upgrades. I know of APS dealing with turbo, but what about company's that deal with SC's?

Is $20K your total budget? And, if so, have you done anything else?

I don't know if I'd double the factory power output without doing some handling mods, but you may have already done so. At the very least a better set of tyres and aftermarket swaybars, and I'd go a set of coilovers if I could swing it.


But, if we're talking pure powertrain, I'd go an APS Twin Turbo kit for $16K and use the change for a set of high flow cats, and larger plenum (with replacement strut brace to clear the plenum). If I had money left, I'd also add a cam upgrade to bring out the turbos.


Turbochargers are always more efficient than a supercharger. While turbo'ing isn't a "free" power gain (which everyone talks about regarding parasitic loss compared to a supercharger, there's still parasitic loss from a turbo setup) its a lot more efficient than a supercharger. If people don't think that a turbo causes its own parasitic loss, try sticking a great dirty restriction on a NA car that isn't powering an air compressor on the induction side, and see how it runs afterwards.


I also feel centrifugal superchargers (the most common kit for the Z) to be technically inelegant. It combines the downsides to turbocharging with the downsides of "blower" type (i.e. a Roots style supercharger like on the old V6 Commodores) supercharging, and then adds its own downsides.

Not only do you have to build RPM to make boost, like on a turbo, but you get the greater parasitic loss of a supercharger. So it will be doughy low in the rev range, like a turbo. On top of that, you either then have to get your supercharger to make peak boost at redline to avoid detonation (which means your SC makes hardly any boost in the lower rev range) or you gear it to make boost low in the rev range and then bypass all the extra boost that you don't want. Unlike a turbo where the wastegate opens when you reach peak boost to free up your exhaust (and help reduce the parasitic loss from the exhaust restriction), your supercharger keeps causing its parasitic loss in a linear fashion even though its not providing any more boost.


So why even release a supercharger kit, especially a centrifugal one? You use superchargers because they're less invasive, and a centrifugal one because its compact (the only Roots kit I've seen, from Stillen, makes requires you raise the bonnet and replace your strut brace). The power delivery is a relatively linear to smooth exponential curve, and there's no boost "ramp on" when you come back on-throttle. This makes it a lot more drivable, although having been in ZTRACK's car the APS TT setup is hardly a lag monster.


Which one is more reliable? For $20K, you'd have a budget to ensure they both will be. But since the turbocharging route requires so many more parts over more parts of the engine, assuming both kits were built to the same quality the SC would technically be more reliable (on a "number of points of failure" perspective).

There's varying opinions about stress on the engine itself, and how since SCs deliver power smoothly as revs rise, unlike turbos which ramps up onto boost relatively suddenly at higher RPM which causes shock on the system, that its a more reliable option. That is definitely true in the past, but these days most turbo setups are comparatively low boost and spool up gently and smoothly so the differences are less marked.


You know about APS for turbo setups; the only Aussie-based supercharger outfit would be CAPA, who have a love affair with centrifugal supercharger kits. If you're going the SC route I'd recommend the Stillen kit instead. It uses the better of the two available supercharger setups. If you're sold on the compactness of a centrifugal setup, get the HKS. Its more expensive than CAPA's, but its a very complete kit and well within your budget.

For either of the SC setups I would combine with high flow cats and an APS True Dual 2.5" exhaust, and a set of extractors if I could afford them.
 
#10 ·
I will say go for N/A with 8500rpm just like mine... that rocks.. but since you have already set your topic, I am gonna stick with your topic :)

I will go for APS TT with that money and probably use the other 4K for a set of forged eagle H-beam rods (550 USD?!) and the labours... During the APS TT installation, the motor needs to be pulled out, so it shouldn't take them too long just to swap those rods out for you... APS TT has already been proven its reliability for the street use, but if you are using your car on the track, you will need many other things to cool down the engine though... but we are talking about a street setup, so my hands down for APS TT setup!

cheers,

richie
 
#11 ·
yeap APS TT gets my vote

i wouldnt bother with internals, though a new clutch would be a definite

seriouly 290 odd rwkw is more than enough for the road. Not even a 996 Twin turbo makes that power and even then its still too much power for the road and that has 4 driven wheels
 
#12 ·
i would go for sc becoz i got it in my car it is running 230 at the wheels with 4 psi
the only problem is u need the change the clutch as wht i have done..(ORC TWIN PLATE WITH FLY WHEEL) and drive fine....
sc will got power from low revs to high revs ....it got power everwhere.....but it wont got as much big power from TT but it is more responsive!!!! and at lease during hot day SC will way better than TT !
 
#13 ·
i would go for sc becoz i got it in my car it is running 230 at the wheels with 4 psi
the only problem is u need the change the clutch as wht i have done..(ORC TWIN PLATE WITH FLY WHEEL) and drive fine....
sc will got power from low revs to high revs ....it got power everwhere.....but it wont got as much big power from TT but it is more responsive!!!! and at lease during hot day SC will way better than TT !
Thats impressive.. I want more power, but i dont need monstrous amounts, id prefer to keep my clutch standard, so im guessing SC is the way to go. 230 ATW with a SC sounds good to me, considering the Z's have about what.. 145kw ATW stock? I also have heard more people say that a SC is more reliable, and reliability is what i want..

Who knows anything about the APS single turbo setup. i havent been able to contact APS.
 
#14 ·
APS single turbo is not available for aussie market... so if you want a kit, you might need to import it back from the states...

cheers,

richie
 
#17 ·
Hey champ if you dont wanna change the standard clutch then dont even go sc/tt just get NA mods, when you get over 200kw atw then you will have to start looking at chaning the clutch, and with any type of forced induction mod you will make over 200kw with really low boost. So change the clutch get a SC and away you go, easy to remove with cops etc, power anytime and any weather. You cant go wrong. I would personally love to chuck a nice big T78 in my Z, have to see how possible this is though. Im pretty sure the engine can handle it, see what happens anyways.
 
#18 ·
i can do low 13's without sc...are u sure sc can only do low 13's??
i do the low 13's with standard rubber without doing any tyre pressure or suspension..
tt can do 12's but not in auss yet right??
unless u can proff for me ..... beocz i want to know wht tiem tt can do...when compare to SC.....
i just want to know the different...not against yr system.....
 
#21 ·
Haha Yun thats so true, nah but lets be honest if I could run a 12.7 in my s15 making 195kw atw . Than a 350z making 230kw atw should be able to run the same time, even with the weight difference. And remember, the s15 can run 255's at the max to fit the standard guards, we can run 275's so all in all dont complain about traction cause the 350z should have a lot more, and I also feel (after driving mine) that it does have a heap more traction and lot more grip/control to the ground.
 
#22 ·
i can do low 13's without sc...are u sure sc can only do low 13's??
i do the low 13's with standard rubber without doing any tyre pressure or suspension..
tt can do 12's but not in auss yet right??
unless u can proff for me ..... beocz i want to know wht tiem tt can do...when compare to SC.....
i just want to know the different...not against yr system.....
low 13s on an N.A. Z? where did u record those times?

that's 1+ seconds quicker than any of the motor journo's can do, and they run 1/4 miles for a living
 
#24 ·
low 13s on an N.A. Z? where did u record those times?

that's 1+ seconds quicker than any of the motor journo's can do, and they run 1/4 miles for a living

with all due respect.. motor journalists are far from professional drivers. If they were.. they wouldn't be writing for magazines. :cheers:

and fwiw, others have run low 13's on a lightly tuned NA vehicle.

peace
 
#26 ·
What kind of cat setup does the Turbonetics single turbo system use?

I must say that the dyno graph is pretty flat, aside from a dip around 5000RPM, which is quite impressive for a single turbo setup.
 
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