turbo/supercharging

[FJB203 at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-03-22 22:13:17 EST, you write:

> Ok, so now the question- What general kind of cam should you use in a
>  turbo engine? 
>  With Turbo or Supercharging can you get away with a stock cam?

Yes, with supercharging I know as a fact that you can.  Paxton (for example)
offers a lot of supercharger kits for every day cars, allowing you to make
them "sleepers".  However, the amount of blowing they do is in the 5-6psi
range, which is a decent amount of boost, don't get me wrong, its noticable,
but its not *amazing*.  In order to take advantage of the horsepower
potential, some engine modifications are necessary.  Unfortunately for the
point of this argument, this is where I have to bow out of the loop, as
engine modifications are not my thing.  A friend of mine builds them, and I
put them in my car <G>.

>  To add to this topic- it seems to me that another limitation to 
>  supercharging is that, being belt driven, you're limited to placing the 
>  supercharger 'in line' with the front of the engine. This can create
>  the affore mentioned hood clearance problems with top mounted supers, but
>  many engines/compartments don't have room for the side mounted 'paxton' 
>  style supers either. 

True, not true.  The Paxton kits come with brackets for your particular car,
and the kit I had for my truck (which was a generic kit actually) required me
to move the AC compressor from the top of the engine to the bottom, and the
Paxton went where the AC compressor was.  The height of the engine increased
a mere inch, but also the vehicle was an old Ford crew cab, which has a big
square hood, so the room was there.  I've seen people cram twin turbos under
Mustang hoods, Buick GN hoods, and at a show last year I saw someone with a
Mazda Miata with twin turbos.  Talk about cramped.

>  Now of course anything can be fabricated, but it seems that
>  turbos are more easy to tuck away in a limited area.

I would think a Turbo would be harder to install, because not only does it
have to be somewhat in the vacinity of the air intake, as a supercharger
needs to be, but also you have to intercept the exhaust flow as well.  It
almost forces you to mount it in the back of the engine, unless you get
really fancy with your header routing.  Of course, routing it elsewhere means
more pipes, which translates to even less under-hood room.

Fred