Hey all is it possible to turbocharge my truck within reason of price with a belt driven turbocharger? Do they even make a belt driven centrifugal blower? The reason i ask is because supercharger are too much hassle and money, I just thought a belt drive turbo would be a little more practical and cheaper.

Thanks!

 

A belt driven turbocharger would for intents and purposes be a supercharger, limited by the rpm of the engine at all times. As for $$$, a Whipple blower versus a turbo charger, no other hardware, probably isn't that much different. Reasons turbos do much better is because they run off the exhausts gases spinning the turbo impeller in the exhaust circuit thus spinning the intake turbine to pull in air at higher rates than a supercharger can.

Also, turbos don't drag on the engine like a supercharger will, although the supercharger can help put out more HP and TQ than what is lost by its install on an engine. Also, any blower of any kind that you want belt driven will require hardware on your block to accommodate a new belt driven accessory as well as a longer belt, unless you do something like replace a tensioner with the blower.

 

Alright, well I guess my idea would be to run it belt drive, and just have it increase flow through the intake tube. So it would be i guess a small version of a supercharger. Would that idea be at all, effective and possible?? So i guess it would be a setup like this:

cold air filter on supercharger intake, supercharger exhaust to maf and intake, then to throttlebody and intake manifold.

 

I guess this would be what I would want to do, but is there a cheaper alternative???

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ProCh...spagenameZWD1V

 

About the only reason I can see you looking into this is due to the cheap price that you can pick up a turbo head unit for would I be correct?

I have seen a turbo head unit converted to be belt driven through the use of gears(this was done by a big shop with lots of equipment at their disposal) but by the time you spend the money doing that you just assume buy the supercharger.

It is possible to save money on a s/c kit if you have some fabrication skills, I have seen people purchase a used head unit and fab up their own mounting brackets, intake plumbing ect. but unless you know what you are doing and have access to equipment needed it would just be easier to buy a system already put together.

Turbos will trump most s/c's for a few reasons. First your max boost on a s/c will come in high up in the RPM's. Seeing as it is a belt driven system the faster the motor turns the faster the blower turns so the s/c can't max out way before the engine does otherwise the s/c will just keep building boost. On a positive disp. blower(Eaton, Screw type) the boost would be instant however they put out a specific displacement of air per rev. no matter if the motor is turnning 1500rpm or 7000rpm. The problem is that by design most will start to run out of breath, and on the other hand trying to launch with that much added tq off the line is a PITA if the car/trucks suspension and tires aren't up to the task. Turbo charger systems run off of exhaust so there is no parasitic loss due to using the engines power to turn it. Being it is exhaust driven you could see max boost as early as 2500rpm if the system is sized right. Also the turbo system can dump the extra exhaust to maintain a pre set boost level, in other words once the exhaust gets the impeller spinning to your pre-set boost limit it will bypass the impeller with some of the exhaust gas rather than continue to spin it faster and faster.

I have heard recently that they are designing a blow off system for centrifigual s/c systems so that you can pully them for lets say 20psi but vent anything after 10. This would give you max boost earlier in the RPM range and keep it going until red line. The only downside I have heard of is that once you get past your max boost you are wasting hp to keep the s/c going towards its 20psi pully rating. Also you are putting additional stress on the head unti itself by spinning it faster than what you need??? I really would need to see a dyno graph to tell if it is worth it or not.

 

That is for a brand new kit, but a cost alternative way would be to catch an item like a removed S/C hardware kit due to someone selling their truck. I have seen them on eBay before. Just luck sometimes, but usually costs less than a full new kit. Just inspect the parts if prior to install if you go that route.

 

Maybe I should just forget the idea, if its going to be alot of money. I dunno, was an idea I was throwing around for something I could make myself, IE: buy the charger and fab it to my truck...propably waste of money and time without proper knowlege and tools to do it.

 

Maybe I should do a MAF upgrade with injectors?????

 

You can but it will be a wast of money without a supercharger!!!
Might as well get a throttle body spacer.

Phil

 

Well i guess I'm just going to work on getting my CAI some colder air then.....

 

Fixed. Turbos obey the First Law of Thermodynamics still.




They already have BOV's for centrifugal superchargers. As long as you aren't running a draw-through MAF setup you can use a BOV to vent to the atmosphere. Could also run a by-pass valve without recirculating to the intake side of the supercharger too...if you can put up with the racket.

 

All centrifugal blowers that will go onto your truck are belt-driven (ATI, Vortech, Paxton, Powerdyne).

Not sure if I understand your post, but a centrifugal blower is a supercharger and is also basically a belt-driven turbo.

 

Just get a Turbonator!

 

Thanks bluejay! lol

I think I'm gonna skip the supercharger/turbo idea for now and just concentrate and a true cold air gathering design for now, maybe upgrade from stock injectors too.

 

No need to upgrade your injectors.

Just start off with a tuner, exhaust, and intake.