Turbo and Supercharger. Links to Turbo Kit and Supercharger manufacturers and dealers.

SCRIPT IS FOR AN INTERACTIVE EXCEL SPREADSHEET FOR USE WITH TURBO EFFICIENCY MAPS (bottom of page)

see also:

LHT Performance -USA

Precision Turbo

Turbo Accessories & Turbo Parts

Full Race

Rotrex                   uk dealer - gmc motorsport -    TTS Performance
Centrifugal supercharger system similar to that of procharger. The rotex website only highlights a very small number of supercharger kits and these tend to be available in certain countries. It appears that the supercharger is small and light enough to be customised for most applications, although this would increase installation time and costs over pre prepared kits. Rotrex seem to supply a lot of their products to the OEM. Good technical information on site including Kolstrup guide as to whether an engine is suitable for supercharging, this takes into consideration bore stroke ratio, compression ratio of engine and boost levels expected. After taking these factors into consideration it is possible to judge whether an engine is suitable for a rotrex supercharger conversion. Kits are available as either as "bolt on" or diy. The diy kits contain the supercharger itself hoses and pipes, valves and by pass systems and ems. Bolt on kits are available for some applications and are available from the respective dealer that developed the kit. Site also contains names of companies who use Rotrex superchargers for their engine upgrades, these include Active Autowerke, HKS, Hartge, Novitec and BMW.

ProCharger                    uk supplier - autocraft salisbury
Manufacturer of centrifugal supercharger kits based in the USA. Similar to Rotrex but ProCharger have a much greater list of bolt on kits which can be seen on their website, although these kits are focused towards American and Japanese cars. Typical install time is listed as 8-10 hours, the same as Rotrex kits. Procharger superchargers utilise their own oils supply so there is no need to tap into a vehicles existing oil supply although the supercharger oil requires changing every 8000 miles due to its specialist construction. Procharger claim their kits can deliver, on average a 50-85% gain ii horsepower and torque, although this may well need to be backed up by a stronger  clutch and almost certainly bigger brakes! Application list includes kits for the Ford Focus and Ford Mustang, Hummer, Pontiac, Corvette and sport compact cars such as the Honda Civic and Acura Integra. A UK Japanese Car Magazine claimed that there is a universal kit available which can be adapted to fit most vehicles which I tend to believe. The UK Importer dealer  quoted a price in the region of 3500 to 4000 pounds for a complete kit including installation and rolling road set up with a universal kit priced at approx 4000 pounds all in, in essence drive in, drive out. SVEs demo car a Honda Civic produced approx 140hp before the conversion and 260 (if my memory serves me correctly!) hp after, with the journalists saying that the power delivery was completely linear. Kits are complete with all required components for the conversion. Site contains PDF of all kits and components.

Turbonetics                    uk dealer - none stated at time of writing
American manufacturer of turbo kits. Turbo conversions for Honda Prelude, Integra, Accord, Civic, 200sx and Nissan 350Z. Kits give at least a 50% increase in horsepower and operate at 8psi.
Turbonetics also supply a huge range of turbo accessories and parts.

Jackson Racing                    uk supplier - abbey motorsport
Supercharger kit manufacturer most famous for its forced induction systems for Honda specifically the
Civic, Civic Type R, Integra, Prelude as well as the Chrysler PT Cruiser, Ford Focus, Mazda
Miata MX5. Jackson racing specialises in supercharger conversion kits. Their site contains a comprehensive and interesting FAQ section. Jackson Racing supercharger kits are Eaton type which may not be as efficient as centrifugal types but the power gains offered are nearly identical to Procharger and Rotrex  while operating at similar psi. The prices of their kits are also cheaper the Ford Focus 2litre Zetec kit comes in at 2795dollars or approx 1550 pounds excluding fitting (depending on exchange rate).

Edelbrock                    uk supplier - none stated at time of writing.
Big name in the states but still to make in Europe. Make a big range of engine tuning accessories as well as manufacturing their own turbo kits. Turbo conversion applications stated as all Honda VTEC engines from 96-00 with a power increase of over 60% at 6-7psi. Claims to be the most "complete turbo kit period" and a recent article in an American Sport Compact tuning magazine backs this up. Incidentally this magazine dynoed the turbo conversion (with G30R Garrett  turbo) and it produced over 350hp on an B Series engine at 12.4psi (Civic Si). Kits include intercoolers and all necessary ancillaries including the air filter. Price quoted at approximately 3500 dollars approx 2050 pounds excluding fitting.

Turbo Technics                    uk dealer - turbo technics
UK Manufacturer of Turbos and Turbo accessories. Also offer turbo reconditioning service under the turbo exchange brand name. Offer supercharger conversion for the Lotus Elise and MGF.

Vortech                   uk dealer - ns racing
Centrifugal supercharger manufacturer. Kits for BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche and VW Volkswagen.

Garrett                   dealer uk - turbo technics               Greece - turbo Hellas
Turbo and turbo accessory manufacturer constructing its own turbo conversion kits. site also features turbo kits designed and manufactured by third parties using it turbos (with links to their websites). Kits by Garret include Honda Civic, Sportrax, VW 2.0L 8 valve, Audi VW 1.8T, Suzuki Hayabusa and Ford Powerstroke. Turbo conversions by 3rd parties  cover a massive range of vehicles, here goes...Honda Integra, Integra GSR, Type R, RSX, Audi A4, A6 and Audi TT, BMW 320, 328 and 325, M3, Z3 and E36, Ford Focus, Accord, CRX, Del Sol, Prelude, Nissan Primera, Infiniti G20, Lexus IS200, GS300, IS300, SC300, Mazda 626, MX5, Protege, Mazda RX7, Mini Cooper, Mitsubishi Galant, Lancer, Mirage, 300gt, VR4, Eclipse, Nissan 200SX, S13, S14, S15, Silvia, Sentra, Maxima, Subaru Impreza 1.8 EJ18, EJ20, EJ22, 2.0, 2.2, WRX, STI, Legacy, Outback Sport, Toyota Corolla, MR2 Turbo, Supra, Tercel, Tundra, VW Beetle, Corrado, Corrado VR6, Golf, GTI, Jetta and Passat. Power increase start at 50%

VF Engineering                    uk dealer - ns racing
American developer and manufacturer of supercharger conversions using Vortech centrifugal
superchargers. Applications: BMW E39, E60, E64, E38, E65, X3, X5, Z3 and Z4, VW Golf MK3, MK4, Jetta, Touareg, R32 and Audi A3, Porsche 911, 997, 996 and Cayenne.

Comptech                    uk dealer - ns racing
Supercharger conversions for Honda Vehicles

Turbo Dynamics
Comprehensive provider of turbos, hybrid turbos and turbo parts and accessories. Site also has detailed information covering all areas of installing and maintaining turbochargers. Information includes lubrication & turbo matching. UK Suppliers of Standard and Hybrid Turbochargers together with many retro fit and performance accessories. Full in house CAD and machine shop and manufacturing facilities.

JGY Customs
One of the most famous Nissan tuners in the USA. Based in Atkins Virginia. Turbo kits for Sentra, Ser, G20, Primera and 240SX. Also supplies used engines SR20DE low port and high port with 10.1 Compression, SR20DET, BB DETs, SR20VE and SR16VE, basically most Nissan Motors. Also lists transmission part, pistons, rods, radiators and everything else you need for your engine swap/turbo conversion.

Impul
Performance part manufacturer specialising in Nissan cars and a bona fide competitor in the Japanese Touring Car Championship.  Nissan 350Z turbo kit, Nissan Micra Supercharger kit CR12DE, CR14DE, HR15DE.

APS
Australian manufacturer of turbo systems. Cars covered include Subaru Impreza - all years and Nissan 350Z

Rev Hard (North Ridge, California)
American manufacturer specialising in turbo kits for Honda - Civic - S2000 - CRX

LOVEFAB
Honda & Nissan turbo kits - S2000, CRX, Civic, NSX, Sentra, B Series, D Series, H Series, K Series

LHT Performance Pinellas Park, FL
Engine swapping is how LHT Performance got started. Our own personal vehicles became guinea pigs for new ideas and new parts. Since those early days, we have perfected the Honda/Acura engine swap to an exact science. It can be done in a day or 2 and be ready to go depending on the type of swap and the engine installed. We can locate engines and will install customer parts along the way with usually no extra charge.

Precision Turbo
Precision Turbo customers (including ones using the latest Boosted Technology turbos) continued to find their way into the Winner's Circle in August in a variety of racing venues. On the weekend of August 18-19, 2007, the historic O'Reilly Raceway Parkway in Indianapolis, Indiana was the spot for the inaugural Indy NHRA Sport Compact Nationals, and it was a stellar weekend for Precision Turbo customers.

Turbo Accessories & Turbo Parts

Full Race
Specialist manufacturer of turbo manifolds for Honda B Series, D Series and K Series motors plus turbo manifolds forNissan 200SX S13, S14, Sentra B13, B14 B15 & Infiniti G20 & Nissan
Primera P10 & P11, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Mitsubishi EVO 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, Toyota MR2,
Supra, Lexus SC300 & VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda 1.8T manifolds

Selecting the appropriate sized turbocharger.

The following information is a brief summary of a chapter in the book "Maximum Boost" by Corky Bell.

The size of the turbo used for a specific car will have a major effect on the effectiveness of the system. There are several factors which need to be taken into consideration when selecting the right sized turbo and all these factors will need to be traded off against one another to come to the optimum solution.

The first step in the turbo selection process is to define what is required of the system, for example is all out power the priority or is good low speed response more important. In general high speed vehicles will need larger turbos than a grocery getter.

To illustrate the effect different priorities have on turbo size selection take the Nissan 300ZX and Porsche 911 Turbo as examples. The two cars are very similar, in size, in weight and engine displacement but the size of the turbos used in the two cars varies dramatically. Porsche have used a large turbo fro three main reasons.

1. When operating at maximum load a large compressor puts less heat into the intake charge.

2. A large turbine creates less back pressure in the manifold which reduces heat even more.

3. The designers wanted a powerful car.

The Nissan designers had an engine that could tolerate heat better i.e. it was water cooled. This meant they were free to use a small turbo which gave good response for near idle. However this response has big negative effects in that it creates massive back pressure and causes high intake charge temperatures. These factors showed that Nissan were not looking to make a powerful car, this is reinforced by the fact that they did not include any intercooling . Looking at the Nissan turbo size the design criteria must have been excellent 0-30mph times and nothing else. Although the Porsche experienced a lot of turbo lag, they were limited by the effectiveness of their engine to cope with heat but at the end of the day the produced a very powerful car. Nissan merely produced a car that sold in big numbers.

General Guidelines

Compressor

A compressor works at its optimum when airflow and boost pressure are at specific levels. To select the most appropriate sized compressor this optimum point has to be in the most useful part of the rev range in which the engine will be used. A turbo which is good at low revs will not be good at high revs, as efficiency reduces so heat increases.

The size of the compressor does not have a huge influence on turbo lag as it is the lightest part of the turbo.

Turbine

The turbines purpose is to drive the compressor, to do this it must spin fast enough to flow the required amount of air. The smaller the turbine the faster it will spin in comparison to a large turbine with the same exhaust gas energy. However smaller turbines create more back pressure which is the evil side of turbo charging and this must be dealt with. Turbine selection must be such that it spins the compressor at the required speed while at the same time keeping back pressure to the absolute minimum.

The article then goes into the specifics of selecting the turbine and compressor by explaining the formulas that go into the calculations. The explanations are very clear and the author makes them very easy to understand. The book also has sections on intercooler selection (type and sizing), lubrication requirements, fueling requirements, ignition requirements, basically all the information that you need to design your turbo system and the book does this in a manner which is both comprehensive and detailed while at the same time being easy and entertaining to read.

Turbo Selection

Spreadsheet Below calculates the 2 figures you need when analysing turbo compressor efficiency maps (links to turbo efficiency maps can be found at the bottom of this page). The 2 numbers you need are Pressure Ratio & Airflow Rate (cfm of lbs/min depending on the map you are looking at). On a turbo efficiency map, Airflow Rate is usually along the bottom (the X Axis) and Pressure Ratio is up the side (the Y Axis). To calculate the figures for you car enter figures into the white boxes. Volumetric efficiency (VE) is usually around 85% (enter 0.85 into the table) - Please note although the figures may tally with the centre island of the efficiency map you should also note the power handling capacity of the turbo you are looking at.

To get the most out of the spreadsheet enter 3 or 4 different figures into the RPM box and plot the points onto a turbo efficiency map to check how to turbo will operate and different engine speeds. Obviously the more power you want the higher up the rpm range you should expect the turbo to start operating (the boost threshold).

To take an extreme example, on an engine which can rev to 10,000rpm and your looking for maximum power the boost threshold for your turbo may be as high as 7,000rpm, in other words you don't expect the turbo to produce any boost below 7,000rpm.

For a good street turbo where your looking for good response but at the same time good power you should probably be looking at a boost threshold of between 3500rpm and 4500rpm. So for the street turbo its not worth entering rpm values of less then 3500rpm into the table below because any turbo which is efficient below the rpm point will be compromised in producing good power at the top of the rev range. So to see where a given turbos efficiency range is (when looking for a street turbo) enter rpm values of 4,000rpm, 5,000rpm, 6,000rpm & 7,000rpm into the table below and plot the corresponding Pressure Ratio and Air Flow Rates onto the desired turbo map. Your looking for these 4 rpm points to be as close as possible to the peak efficiency island of the turbo map as possible.

Links to Garrett turbo efficiency maps

CAPA

RB Racing