The turbo: making other-wise wasted energy work for your engine.

The fuel that an internal combustion engine burns requires air to complete the combustion cycle. Once the air/fuel ratio reaches a certain point, the addition of more fuel will not produce more power, only black smoke or unburned fuel into the atmosphere.

A turbocharger is an exhaust-driven compressor which forces more air and fuel into the engine than the engine would normally draw in by itself. A turbocharger is composed of a housing containing two separate air passages. Exhaust gasses pass through the so-called hot air passage, and intake air passes through the so-called cold air passage. Inside the turbocharger are two wheels containing pinwheel-like fins. The cold side wheel is called the compressor wheel, the hot side wheel is called the turbine wheel. Exhaust gasses leaving the exhaust manifold pass through the hot side, while intake air from the air box passes through the cold side. The exhaust gasses cause the turbine wheel to spin. The spinning turbine wheel causes the compressor wheel to spin, thus compressing the air passing through the cold side. In this way, a turbocharger increases the volume of air being forced into the engine and compresses the air, allowing more fuel to be delivered to produce more horsepower from a given size engine.

A turbocharged engine may have power output increased by as much as 40% or more when compared with the same engine without a turbocharger. Turbocharged engines, or any engine, that operates at high specific power output requires fine tuning, and engine components and systems that can survive in this demanding environment. Care must be taken to use exactly the right turbocharger and engine fuel settings. Failure to do this can result in the engine overheating. In other words, you can't just slap any old turbocharger on an engine.

There are a number of benefits to be gained by turbocharging. Because the turbocharger delivers more air to the engine, combustion of the fuel is more complete, cleaner, and takes place within the engine cylinders. The positive air pressure (above atmospheric pressure) that is maintained in the engine intake manifold benefits the engine in several ways. During engine valve overlap, clean air is pushed across the combustion chamber removing all remaining gases and also cooling the cylinder heads, pistons, and valves.

Turbochargers may also be used to altitude compensate a non-turbocharged engine. An engine and turbocharger are matched and/or controlled to maintain sea level atmospheric pressure at altitude, whereas normal engine will lose horsepower with altitude gain.

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