Hi everyone! I think that many of you have such choiсe and so I faced it too. As far as I think about tuning my engine I have two ways - either leave it atmospheric (and there are two ways of tune) or put a turbocharger in it, making it's very powerful and torque.
So, it is difficult for me to decide, and some of you may face such dilemma. That's why I write this post - to describe the both systems - atmo and turbo and list all pros and contra.
Let me to begin with describing a usual atmospheric engine, which is placed under the hood of almost all cars. May be it will sound strange, but an atmospheric engine is an internal combustion engine without a supercharger. As we know all engines use not pure or solid fuel, but a mix of petrol and air in a ratio of 1 to 14. The mix is prepared by a carburetor or injector, depending on the engine type. In atmospheric engine an air is absorbed in intake due to low pressure of latter.
If we speak about turbo engine, an air gets in intake under high pressure charged by special turbine. However the construction of such engine is much more difficult than just atmo engine and uses additional parts. For example:
The turbocharged engine has a turbocharger (which consists of a rotor, a compressor, bearings, special seals), the turbine of a special case and a pair of paddle wheels connected by the shaft, the valve which removes excess pressure and intercooler.
Here we go with a pro and contra of the both.
Atmo pros:
1.It has much bigger resource - you may go much further wihout rebuilding it and don't think about overhaul ;-)
2. It's not so demanding to the fuel quality.
3. It has much easier structure and due to that - higher repairability.
4. [so, I let you to continue pros in the comments BELOW and I'll post them here ;-)]
Atmo contras:
1. It is slow! You'll get much more torque and power from a turbo engine.
2. Hmm' it's very contraversial - but it uses much more fuel.
3. Less power from more capacity. In some countries it means additional money (I mean taxes).
4. [And here atmo-haters may list all minuses in the comments BELOW V]
And here we go with turbocharged engines!)
Pros:
1. More power from less capacity. Power raises for about 40% !
2. It uses less fuel (of course if you don't push a pedal to the metal)
3. It becomes more popular
4. Your engine looks as satans gut >=)) Ahahhhaa!!
5. [Add your ideas in the comments BELOW]
Contras:
1. Has much less repairability and very expensive in service/maintanance.
2. Turbo-lag is what all turbo-owners hate...
3. If you upgrade your engine from atmo to turbo it will cost much more money than you just tune your atmo engine.
4. You must have enough skills to ride a turbo-car!
5. [Atmo-lovers, it's your time to attack in the comments BELOW]
Finally, speaking about me - I think that I'll put a new atmo engine in my car, but I'm still dreaming about turbo engine, so I think my next car will have it (Toyota with 1jz-gte or Turbo Subaru with 4WD).
