Supercharger vs turbocharger

Correct me if I am wrong, but the only diesel truck engines that ran the superchargers were Detroit's, (and maybe a Mack or two?) and I am pretty sure some of them had a supercharger and turbo (8v92 or 318's maybe). Most of the other engine manufacturers used turbos. The 6-71 supercharger you refer too came from the 6-71 series detroit engines, they also had 2-71, 3-71, 4-71, and several others in the 92 series etc. The first number 2,3,4,6, was the number of cylinders and the last set of numbers was the series of engine(for example a 6-71 is a 6 cylinder 71 series engine). The 92 series engines 6v92,8v92 etc were v6, v8, v12 engines with the first number being the number of cylinders and the V for the shape of engine (V instead of in-line) and the last set being the series of engine as before. As I first said correct me if I am wrong as I very well could be.

Also a turbo doesnt take power from the engine to add power it simply uses the exhaust to turn the turbine to force air in the intake. A supercharger requires a certain amount of HP from the engine to force the air. Generally speaking a turbo is more efficient. Again all of this is completely unofficial.

 

Well I wasn't around 40 yrs ago so I am not sure exactly when they started using turbo's on most of the engines, but to the best of my knowledge Detroit is the only one that used the superchargers atleast in trucks. I can't say exactly when diesel engines started using turbos in trucks, but I am sure some others on here will know. I know Cummins had turbos and superchargers on their racing engines all the way back to the 1930's.

 

I wonder what would happen if i put a turbo from a truck in my car.....maybe a cat twin turbo setup...

and Im laughing at the "turbo doesnt take power from the engine to run it" comment. Bull. It adds exhaust backpressure, takes the power right off at the pistons.

Both of them add way more than enough power to make up for it....

 

I think the 71, 92 is the cubic inches per cylinder

 

The reason Detroit ran a Supercharger was very Simple. The OLD Detroits were a 2 Stroke Design and needed a Postive Pressure for Scavenging of Exhaust at ALL TIMES. Think of an Old 6-71 as say an EMD GP-38 expand the motor to 16 clyinders and you have the same design. EMD General Motors Locomotive builder still to today builds a 2 stroke engine with a Supercharger on it however they came up with an overrunning clutch were at 75% power or more it overrunns and becomes a Turbo. They get up to 5000HP out of a 20 Cylinder motor that has 710 Cubic INCHES PER CYLINDER.

 

Turbos produce "free" scavended energy while the supercharger requires power from the crank. That would be my guess as the biggest reason why turbos are main stream in the trucking industry.

Dont get me wrong, superchargers are awesome, and offer some tremendous advantage over turbos. I freaking love hearing an old supercharged 671 or 871 Detroit on an excavator. They sound like their gonna go grenade at any second lol. Just hang her out wide open, and go to work!!!

 

Superchargers by definition use power to make power, turbos are virtually free, extracting waste energy in the exhaust stream and converting it to useful work. Detroit has taken this one step further in the new DD15 adding a turbo that directly uses the expansion of the exhaust to add power right back to the drivetrain, with real noticeable gains to fuel economy.

 

Man o man Sundays at US 30 Dragstrip...Those were the days... Art Arfons Green Monster, Arnie The Farmer Beswick, Chris Karmazines..