supercharger or turbo

[ricky1989]

hi all not doing this right away but was hoping that them who have done this could shed some light on the subject

firstly what gains are we looking at?

whats best to go for supercharger or turbo whats the difference between the pair

whats involved what will i need

and lastly what price roughly

it will mainly be used for the road but occasional track day

any help would be appriciated many thanks

 

[Beasley Clio182]

hi all not doing this right away but was hoping that them who have done this could shed some light on the subject

firstly what gains are we looking at?

whats best to go for supercharger or turbo whats the difference between the pair

whats involved what will i need

and lastly what price roughly

it will mainly be used for the road but occasional track day

any help would be appriciated many thanks

From what I can gather , both circa 5k !

depends on spec but anyway 240-260 , 300bhp is achievable with very big pockets !

Both have pros and cons really !

 

[Laine_16v]

It need not be expensive if you can do some of the work yourself. Im sat at ~300bhp with a £200 jouirnal bearing turbo and a £180 set of pistons and rods.

 

[scotty2hotty81]

It need not be expensive if you can do some of the work yourself. Im sat at ~300bhp with a £200 jouirnal bearing turbo and a £180 set of pistons and rods.

Yes but that doesn't mean the op can turbo charge his car for £380 though.

set aside £3000 ideally or il be selling a turbo conversion soon for £2000 that's probably the cheapest way to boost your clio.

 

[George182]

I am going down the turbo route - budgeting £5k+ inc diff..

​

 

[ricky1989]

seen alot more people saying turbo over charger so ye will prob go down that route my self would like 250bhp + if possible so im looking at saving 5k is that right?

 

[scotty2hotty81]

seen alot more people saying turbo over charger so ye will prob go down that route my self would like 250bhp + if possible so im looking at saving 5k is that right?

You can achieve that with standard internals and low boost turbo set up, probably for a little over half that amount.

 

[Gray]

Quite a vague post and all of those subjects have been covered multiple times.

whats your aim with the car, what's your budget?

 

[ricky1989]

would be happy to spend up to 6k on it,

I did try to search but didn't find the answers I was looking for

im not really sure what the difference is between the turbo and a supercharger the car is mainly used for the road but would like to track it occasionally.

Rather than spend the money on a faster car id like to make the clio a little different to the rest

I have no intension of selling the car as I bought it for 2k so not really worth getting rid of

ideally I could do with letting some of the guys on here who have turbos and superchargers take me for a spin obviously at my cost would pay for the fuel and would make my way to them.

there are a lot of mixed opinions about these in the search section and a lot of different results so I guess I have to see which puts the biggest smile on my face

 

[Goodj]

Supercharger for the noise and less potential issues (once it's got running)

Turbo for y0 Sik Dump Valve choo-choo noizes

IN any case, your gearbox will explode the second you try and use all the new found power. So add a rebuild into your costs...in fact, just make it part of your bi-annual service costs.

But, in all fairness, ask Chip on here, he knows all you need to know

 

[Mr R.]

Chip has been banned again.

 

[r0ss172]

IN any case, your gearbox will explode the second you try and use all the new found power

Pretty sure mine seems ok...

 

[Cub.]

£5k is woefully short if you want a 280 to 300bhp turbo that works reliably, and actually puts down the power you've spent money getting.

I discussed this at length with Chip and Mike from MWM. To get the same as Chip, with a diff was coming in at £10k (with someone else building it).

 

[Ph1 Tom]

Turbo can retain the aircon, supercharger can't

Turbo is not as easy on the gearbox like a supercharger is. But you risk the gearbox with both tbh.

Turbo gives you masses of midrange whereas a supercharger builds like a N/A motor. Just think of driving the car with a bigger engine.

The Rotrex supercharger needs maintenance, a turbo doesn't.

At the end of the day it depends on how you want the car to drive and whther you want aircon or not! Both will be very quick

 

[Goodj]

Pretty sure mine seems ok...

Had it strengthened / replaced at any point?

Or do you just avoid any gears below 4th?

Hell, the box on the old 172 was pretty much ready for the skip with just 100,000 miles of standard tune!

RE: Below
It probably didn't help that I tried to treat the Renault box like an MX-5 box when I first got it

 

[Laine_16v]

Mines holding up fine with ~300ft lb. I think these boxes suffer from damage from rushed gearchanges and old oil rather than stripping gearsets from the actual torque you push through them.

 

[r0ss172]

Had it strengthened / replaced at any point?

Or do you just avoid any gears below 4th?

Hell, the box on the old 172 was pretty much ready for the skip with just 100,000 miles of standard tune!

Nope done 98k and feels fine

 

[scotty2hotty81]

Mines holding up fine with ~300ft lb. I think these boxes suffer from damage from rushed gearchanges and old oil rather than stripping gearsets from the actual torque you push through them.

Steve stripped 3rd, there is no argument renault boxes are rubbish, and give it 1 month/1 year of boost it will fail.
mine has been fine, but it will break.

 

[Chip-mk1]

hi all not doing this right away but was hoping that them who have done this could shed some light on the subject

firstly what gains are we looking at?

On standard internals and standard CR, low to mid 200s.

On standard internals but drop the CR (thicker gasket is simplest way) high 200s

After that the rods are not going to hack it.

whats best to go for supercharger or turbo whats the difference between the pair

There isnt a single best answer.
Also superchargers fall into two very distinct categories:
Displacement type (ie the sort you see knocking around cheap off an old mini cooper etc)
Centrifugal type (essentially the same as the cold side of a turbo but driven by a gearbox not a turbine)


Biggest issues with displacement type chargers are that:
they are bulky (mini one will not get much past 200bhp and even thats a tight fit in the bay)
they dont suit high revving high comp engines generally unless slightly oversized due to the way they will cavitate at high rpm (so to avoid you run a bigger charger and gear it down)
unless you can manage to install them with a clutch arrangement, they are sapping power the entire time, even when you are off boost which harms economy

Biggest issues with the centrifugal type chargers are:
They are expensive to buy
they generally cant be rebuilt, or are very expensive to have rebuilt


Turbochargers offer you much more flexibility as they can be bypassed by the wastegate when not required, and you can easily alter the power delivery without needing to change pulley sizes etc
The downside to turbochargers is they generate a lot of heat at the back of the bay

whats involved what will i need

Depends which option you go for, but all will require:
aftermarket management,
new pipework,
bigger injectors (megane are the easy option but TBH arent very good, Ive already lost a piston to a failed one and im not alone in that by any means!)

and lastly what price roughly

Depends what power you are going for, its into the thousands not the hundred though, and very easy to do 10K or more!

 

[Harbinger]

^ Yay you're back.

 

[Chip-mk1]

^ Yay you're back.

Thanks, was just an admin error, no drama.