Turbo Questions

[Biggness]

Please pardon my ignorance for the following as I’m trying to educate myself on this:

I’m leaning heavily towards a turbo setup for street use purposes for my 2020 5.0/a10, but keep getting recommended either a Whipple or Paxton setup citing “maintenance and upkeep” of a turbo setup.

What is the maintenance and upkeep of a turbo? I asked my shop guy and he just kinna mumbled “vacuum lines…” lol

For a better scope: I will be pairing whatever boost I choose with a triple pump fuel system/injectors and running e85 on my shop guy’s tunes.

Also, what are the available kits? I know about On3, Hellion, and Pickle Performance swears by LPF with a Sai Li fuel system.

Basically just looking for street fun paired with minimal headache with reliability across the whole drivetrain, all things considered.

Thanks!

 

[AfricanSnowOwl]

I think that's just an excuse supercharger guys who wish they had gone turbo use. In reality, it's a supercharger setup that has more upkeep and maintenance... oil changes, belts.

 

[Zrussian13]

I've been turbo'd for a year and a half and put 29k miles on my set up already. I've only had two issues. One pin hole in the intercooler I had to patch and an exhaust manifold bolt snapped and caused an exhaust leak I had to replace. With the amount of driving I do Im guessing I would have had a few things come up regardless of what type of boost I went with. Best bet is go with a good quality kit regardless of what type of boost you decide on and you shouldn't have many issues if it's installed correctly. I'd stay away from the cheaper turbo kits like on3 personally.

 

[LS1Coupe]

Superchargers are much easier to install, less complicated oiling systems and normally less expensive.

I went with the low mount Hellion. The main reason is I like the fact I can adjust the boost controller down low when my Wife drives the car and raise it up easily when needed. I also do not want any more under hood heat than there already is so a top mount was out of the question.

That being said I am sure any of the superchargers out there could have gotten my the ET goals that I am after.

 

[Cory S]

I’ve tried turbos. I can’t do lag. ANY lag.

For the street, supercharging is much more fun. 24 years of trying all of them.

 

[noshine4mine]

Don't forget, when you start making serious boost with a super charger you will be changing pulleys/belts. You will be dealing with belts, SLippage or breakage. I am reffering to 14 or so pounds of boost.

The truth is the turbo is going to drive like a normal car until you smash the pedal, once it spools up you are going for a ride. Superchargers will make power all through the RPM range. I have a Hellion kit running only 8PSI and in town it is pretty much useless. If I floor it, there will be lag before the boost comes in. From a dead stop I will be doing 100 in 7 seconds. I am pretty sure that is going to get the car confiscated if you do it in town. With a supercharger you will be able to blip the throttle and break the tires loose for grins, which in my opinion would be more fun in a town setting where the speed limit is 45- 55 mph. How ever comparing apples and apples. a supercharger car running the same amount of boost will get out quickly (also assuming you are not leaving in boost on the turbo car) I am talking street car not a dragster with a 2 step and transbrake, but the nature of the parasitic loss of spinning the supercharger will show when the turbo car come freight training by you. (go easy super charger guys, I get there are a lot of factors but everything being equal and distance to finish line being long the turbo car is going to pull hard on the big end.)

You cant go wrong picking either one. Maybe you like supercharger whine (at low boost you will probably not hear the whine), usually you have to spin the supercharger very fast. or maybe you like the pssssh of a blow off valve. I love that sound. Also consider the routing of the waste gates on a turbo car. My Waste gates on the low mount turbo kit vent to atmosphere, Translation.... loud AF when the car is in boost. The superchargers on production cars are ussually smaller than a 3.0l whipple so you can hear them because they are spinning fast to make the boost. Then you have the centerfugial superchargers, they will be pretty loud from gear whine and the blow off valve.

There was a truck getting tuned when I had my car tuned. The truck's blow off for his paxton was louder than my car's exhaust at wide open throttle, it hurt the ear. Granted he put the nuttiest BOV on it he could find.

TLDR:
I like turbos because my car gets normal mileage during normal driving which I do 99% of the time and pump 93 aint cheap.

 

[SpeedLu]

Don't forget, when you start making serious boost with a super charger you will be changing pulleys/belts. You will be dealing with belts, SLippage or breakage. I am reffering to 14 or so pounds of boost.

The truth is the turbo is going to drive like a normal car until you smash the pedal, once it spools up you are going for a ride. Superchargers will make power all through the RPM range. I have a Hellion kit running only 8PSI and in town it is pretty much useless. If I floor it, there will be lag before the boost comes in. From a dead stop I will be doing 100 in 7 seconds. I am pretty sure that is going to get the car confiscated if you do it in town. With a supercharger you will be able to blip the throttle and break the tires loose for grins, which in my opinion would be more fun in a town setting where the speed limit is 45- 55 mph. How ever comparing apples and apples. a supercharger car running the same amount of boost will get out quickly (also assuming you are not leaving in boost on the turbo car) I am talking street car not a dragster with a 2 step and transbrake, but the nature of the parasitic loss of spinning the supercharger will show when the turbo car come freight training by you. (go easy super charger guys, I get there are a lot of factors but everything being equal and distance to finish line being long the turbo car is going to pull hard on the big end.)

You cant go wrong picking either one. Maybe you like supercharger whine (at low boost you will probably not hear the whine), usually you have to spin the supercharger very fast. or maybe you like the pssssh of a blow off valve. I love that sound. Also consider the routing of the waste gates on a turbo car. My Waste gates on the low mount turbo kit vent to atmosphere, Translation.... loud AF when the car is in boost. The superchargers on production cars are ussually smaller than a 3.0l whipple so you can hear them because they are spinning fast to make the boost. Then you have the centerfugial superchargers, they will be pretty loud from gear whine and the blow off valve.

There was a truck getting tuned when I had my car tuned. The truck's blow off for his paxton was louder than my car's exhaust at wide open throttle, it hurt the ear. Granted he put the nuttiest BOV on it he could find.

TLDR:
I like turbos because my car gets normal mileage during normal driving which I do 99% of the time and pump 93 aint cheap.

A centrifugal supercharger drives exactly like a normal car too until you stomp on it. Normal acceleration and normal gas mileage.

 

[illtal]

A centrifugal supercharger drives exactly like a normal car too until you stomp on it. Normal acceleration and normal gas mileage.

First part is true second part not so much.
Remember it's a continuous belt drive situation. It's using power at all times.

I highly doubt your still getting 26-27 MPGs with a superchager no matter the type. This can be seen in the fueling.

 

[Cory S]

First part is true second part not so much.
Remember it's a continuous belt drive situation. It's using power at all times.

I highly doubt your still getting 26-27 MPGs with a superchager no matter the type. This can be seen in the fueling.

A good friends 9 second 4200lb D1X/10R80 2019 car averages 24.9-25.7mpg many times calculated at the pump when he goes on 300 mile weekend trips just cruising.

 

[Zrussian13]

A good friends 9 second 4200lb D1X/10R80 2019 car averages 24.9-25.7mpg many times calculated at the pump when he goes on 300 mile weekend trips just cruising.

That would make your friend at least 3 tenths short on the mpgs stated above!

 

[[email protected]]

Like others said, a supercharger is easier to install, but an A10 will make great use of turbos. I know several people with Hellion setups and they are all very satisfied. Turbos also give you much more control over the amount of boost, no pulley/belt changes and less stress on the crank. Do what you want to do, but make sure the shop installing also wants to do it. Feel free to give Lethal a Call and I'd be happy to go over some options.

 

[SpeedLu]

First part is true second part not so much.
Remember it's a continuous belt drive situation. It's using power at all times.

I highly doubt your still getting 26-27 MPGs with a superchager no matter the type. This can be seen in the fueling.

I get around 25mpg on the interstate at 70-80mph. Not perfect but I'm happy with it. Now in town? More like 12mpg.

 

[illtal]

I have 3.55 gears manual. Coincidentally that figure was better than my Honda civic SI from back in the day. Stock I only got a best of ~28 MPG going out of some mountains cruising. Flat land ~27MPG with a speed of 76-77 MPH.

My combined MPGs. Have never been over 21.
Boosted it is a minimum of 3-4 MPGs on both hwy and city.

Unless you have a blower that is literally nearly as efficient as a stock engine, it's BS. Or, with
only a 1-2 MPG loss then you guys got magic boosted cars.

I guess you guys always drive downhill with ambients of like 60 degrees.

Hell, 12 MPG in the city is good shit. That has to be some boosted driving lol.

It makes sense on a turbo car that as long as you stay out of boost you can get similar MPG totals because there is no parasitic loss.

 

[Crew4991]

What is the maintenance and upkeep of a turbo?

Really depends on the type of person you are. Some would say, shove that bad boy in there and let the engine fly! While others would disagree and say...

 

[SolarFlare]

Im just here for the comments...