Newbie TURBO Q's *SORTA LONG*
 

I have two questions:
(2002 Protege ES 2.0l)

1. What is the difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger?
I heard that turbos are more expensive, and only provide higher end power, and that superchargers are cheap, and provide for higher low end power. (Acceleration) Is this true?

2. If I were to purchase a turbo/supercharger kit, would my car have to already be modded to accept a turbo/supercharger, or does the kit come with everything, and it would be safe to use on a stock protege. How is car reliability with a turbo/super? (Lets say you wouldn't be racing all the time, driving normally for most of the time <Below 4500 rpm>, and maybe really put it to use maybe once a week.)

3. My car's an auto, would it still be possible to get a turbo/supercharger installed to it? Or is there just no hope for me at all?

hehe i suck at labling...and grammAr...

1. Super chargers are belt driven, basically its made for a specific engine because of the way it hooks up. Super chargers are power ALL the time, while turbo is power WHEN you want it, ie wot or close to it.
From what ive read supercharges are more lowend because once you get going to a certain speed the belt driven supercharger cant keep up with your engine while turbos can last way up in the 9k rpm range.

2. They both have to be aviliable for your engine, i dont think there is a universal turbo kit, and turbo kits are a lot more abundant then superchargers. Car should just be faster with either in it, but if its not a full time racing car and you wanna save on gas i would say the turbo, you can drive that around without ever having to dip into boost.

3. Yea you can be turbo'd just have to let off the gas a lil when gears are changing. Theres actually alot of domestic autos that are turbo'd

hope that helped :D

Re: Newbie TURBO Q's *SORTA LONG*
 

1. Turbo is spooled off the exhaust gasses from your engine. Superchargers are run by a belt like your alternator, AC, etc. Generally, the size of the turbo depends when you'll reach 'boost' i.e. power. The larger the turbo, the more exhaust gas (read: higher RPM) it will take to 'spool' the turbo to begin sucking in lot's of air. The price difference between turbo and supercharged is negligable.

2. I don't know what year car you have, but there are good turbo solutions for 1st and 3rd gen proteges. For the 1st gen, there really isn't a 'kit' avaliable, but you can find most of the necessary parts easily. For the new proteges, BEGI makes a (as far as I know) bolt-on kit that has everything you'd need. I'm not aware of any superchargers avaliable for protege's right now.

3. Sure you can get a turbo installed on your car, but it may require more hardware. Lots of power (actually, torque) puts lot's of stress on your transmission, and you'd probably need some sort of tranny cooler to keep it from damaging. However, if you wouldn't beat on your car all the time, you should be alright.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.