School me!
no robbed power from the engine[/B]
Superchargers run off the crank so it costs you horsepower to gain!!
While it may SEEM that the power to turn a turbocharger is "
free," such is not the case.
The fact is that in order to spool a turbo to create significant boost, a considerable amount of exhaust back pressure is created, and as we all know, back-pressure costs power. I have some friends who run Grand National Buicks with aftermarket (BIG) turbo systems, and they all tell me the same thing; creating 30 pounds of boost will result in 40 pounds of back pressure.
That back presssure robs the engine of power just like a belt-driven supercharger does. The turbo is just a little bit more efficient in doing it, so the parasitic loss is less, for any given boost level.
One of these days, if I live long enough, I'm going to remove the Vortech blower from my 360 (after taking it to a chassis dyno) and install a similar-potential turbo system and take it BACK to the chassis dyno for a side-by-side comparison. That might be really interesting!
My guess is that the turbo might be 15% more efficient than the centrifugal, but that's just a wild guess.:read2: