Skip to content
Aussieveedubbers

Nitrous? Turbo? Supercharger?

0 likes
Share Share on Facebook Share on X Share on Reddit
Log in to reply

polak Everything is alright with enough Vodka :P

913 posts · joined May 2009 ·

#719066
thought id ask you all about you opinions about induction. i am torn between turbo, nitrous and supercharger. they all have their upsides and they all have their downsides, maybe kicking off a debate on the forum will help me make a decision in which road to take.🤪

im running a 1776 (will eventually go bigger but i wanna see how much i can get out of this motor 1st), for arguments sake, lets assume i already have a suitable bottom end, heads and will have a cam custom ground to suit any of the 3 choices, what are/have been your experiences and which would you choose and why.


VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years

sander288 "Bolt-on Master"

1,404 posts · joined Aug 2008 ·

#719072
turbo would be better and more readily availalbe for VW applications
BMW R65 LS
1967 1300 Deluxe
Swing-axles FTW ❗

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#719075
they all have there pros and cons as u say
ive never played with NOS and probably never will but after building turbo and supercharged vw engines i found heat was a biggest problem with the turbo
the bloke that has my turbo kit now setup an intercooler and is having a bit more luck than me but had to pull the CR down so far that its a dog off boost

Baja Wes V6 Baja Pioneer

3,119 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#719097
I think a supercharger is more suited to a VW motor as it doesn't put such a high heat load into the exhaust ports like a turbo does. Hot exhaust ports will kill VW heads.

Porsche used a different head design on their early engines, with the exhaust valve kicked out on an angle to allow air flow between the intake and exhaust ports in the head. Then when they went turbo they used ceramic liners in the exhaust ports. VW's have none of those features.

Modern design superchargers (belt driven turbo style) are very efficient and not that far off turbos, but they cost big $$$$.
Wes - www.offroadvw.net - 200HP Quad Cam V6 in a VW Baja - with climate control... 🙂
www.taylorcycles.com.au - My DH MTB racing brothers shop.

type3lover in the garage...

796 posts · joined Feb 2005 ·

#719112
I'm no expert mate, but this is what I came up with:
I was going to try a draw through supercharger. When set up properly I think it would be a solid option. The toyota type blowers (which I was going to buy) are a positive displacement arrangement which basically means they push large volumes of air without compressing it (thus heatnig it) significantly. This really helps keep intake temps down. Drawbacks I read about were that many superchargers (the vane type) do not like to have fuel run through them and wear more quickly. Also boost is more limited but at least you have it on tap from idle. Not a great deal of fabrication required to set it up...ask Joel he did it!
I am intrigued by nitrous...is it illegal on the street? Boooo!
Finally I went with turbo efi. Reasons being that everything can be managed and controlled by a computer (ecu) and therefore if programmed correctly you will have precise control of fuel delivery, spark timing and boost for any given engine speed or load (and temperature!). I'm still setting my installation up. Obviously it is only as good as the tuning job. You should definitely also run an intercooler on an aircooled turbocharged engine. Heat is the enemy!! There are heaps of options available for efi depending on what you're after. Lowered compression ratio is a must. I use shims under the cylinders and "semi hemi" stock type 3 heads. My setup is mainly for torque and will be purely a daily driver. 12psig boost and hopefully 160hp should be achievable and be reliable. It's also a 1776 :-)
Centrifugal superchargers (basically a belt driven turbo) are just as Wes said. Efficient but they cost big $$$$!
I'm probably talking crap though...will be keeping an eye on this thread :-) Hope to learn more too!!
.

type3vw Officially Full-On Dubber

343 posts · joined Dec 2005 ·

#719144
mmmm NOS, go nitrous you can make your fuel jet a bit bigger in the fogger to run on a safer side. you can have a well streetable engine on the street as you dont use NOS on the street but bigger power at the track.. thats my 2 cents. cheers

hellbugged 48's and straight cuts

5,080 posts · joined Apr 2003 ·

#719148
intercooled supercharger and EFI

greedy53 Bishop of Volkswagenism

3,062 posts · joined Mar 2006 ·

#719156
supercharged it gives torque from start and dosn't ban on and load up the rods and such.i have build a supercharged 1641 and a 1600 the torque is fantastic .these ran with a 8 lb bost without causing any problems you could potter around with no worries,i used water cooling using the blowers own pressure so you only had water when you needed it and i also ran a trucks gearbox oil cooler with a 12 inch fan,this was more for oil capasity (the more oil the cooler the motor)
so whitch to go as i have used both and supercharging a simple and cost efective fit
good luck
👍👍😂🙅🥷😬🤓

bajachris88 The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 6

6,661 posts · joined Apr 2005 ·

#719256
why not go all 3 three :P 👍

space out the barrels/heads and get urself a comp ratio of 6.5:1 and go nuts lol
(ô_!_/ô) (ô_!_/ô)
69' baja: kombi box, thing spindles, irs, disc front, type 3 rear drums, 2 inch lift kit, 31x10 rears. 👍
New engine in process: 94mm p&bs, 74mm C/w chomol Crank, 35.5x39 SP heads, turbo. Wierd combo, hopeful torque monsta!

Turbo54 Veteran Volks Folk

2,220 posts · joined Jul 2004 ·

#719257
I have had a vortech blower on a commodore motor and after a friend built a turbo one there was no comparison. I would turbo everytime. My vortech was running twice the boost for the same result. This is double stress on components. Sure mine would get off the line harder but once his spooled there was no catching him.

The only way to do this is setup 3 exact motors and see which is best eg. reliable, useable power and outright hp.
Any volenteers?

T54
C'mon kids gather round,
there's a new sensation hitting town,
It's moving straight, low to the ground,
it'll pick you up when your feeling down.

polak Everything is alright with enough Vodka :P

913 posts · joined May 2009 ·

#719259
type3vw wrote:mmmm NOS, go nitrous you can make your fuel jet a bit bigger in the fogger to run on a safer side. you can have a well streetable engine on the street as you dont use NOS on the street but bigger power at the track.. thats my 2 cents. cheers
yeah iv always been a fan of nitrous, i had a wet nos system on my daily driver a few yrs back, still have it so there's most of the cost gone. since it was a new commodore ute, they generally run on the lean side of things, so i ran 1 size up jet on the fuel side and it never missed a beat for 40,000kms and god knows how many bottles of giggle gas.... but with vw motors alot of ppl have been advising me against it, dont know y, i figure if u have all the right internals it shouldnt be a problem... and with turbo and supercharger, there is the bonus of legality and not to mention the power is always there............🤪 i dont know.


VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years

polak Everything is alright with enough Vodka :P

913 posts · joined May 2009 ·

#719260
greedy53 wrote:supercharged it gives torque from start and dosn't ban on and load up the rods and such.i have build a supercharged 1641 and a 1600 the torque is fantastic .these ran with a 8 lb bost without causing any problems you could potter around with no worries,i used water cooling using the blowers own pressure so you only had water when you needed it and i also ran a trucks gearbox oil cooler with a 12 inch fan,this was more for oil capasity (the more oil the cooler the motor)
so whitch to go as i have used both and supercharging a simple and cost efective fit
good luck
cooling not an issue, i struggle to get it past 80C in fairly hot weather lol, i might have used a slightly large oil cooler 😂 with all the braided lines, oil filter, deep sump and cooler i have almost 5ltrs on the dot oil capacity!🤪


VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years

pete wood 23 Windows of Awesome

6,828 posts · joined Jan 2004 ·

#719276
if you welded water jackets round your heads you might be better off with the heat issue. i've seen it done on a few cars now.
"stoopid is stronger than axles"
http://drivingnotpolishing.blogspot.com.au/

Baja Wes V6 Baja Pioneer

3,119 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#719302
My friend had a Sprinter with a 4AGZE. Had a 12lb boost pulley on it (I think). It went pretty hard, really grunted away at almost any rpm.

He then took the supercharger off and put a turbo on. Sure it had more HP and was ultimately faster, but only when the revs were high. It had lost the low end grunt and strong feeling that the supercharger gave.
Wes - www.offroadvw.net - 200HP Quad Cam V6 in a VW Baja - with climate control... 🙂
www.taylorcycles.com.au - My DH MTB racing brothers shop.

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#719316
Look at what VW do. In the 1980s, they chose to fit a supercharger - the VW 'G-lader' - to the Polo, Golf/Jetta and Passat, rather than a turbocharger. They also used a G-lader on the 'Polo Sprint', the one-off test vehicle fitted with a rear-mounted Wasserboxer flat four. The G-charger used orbiting spirals rather than rotating components.

The Mk4 and Mk5 GTIs got a turbo, but it's a high-revving performance engine.

For normal Golfs, VW now fits BOTH a supercharger (for low-down boost) AND a turbocharger (for high-up boost). This is the VW 'twin-charger' - the best of both worlds. It gives 2.0-litre performance from a 1.4-litre engine. A bit hard to adapt to a Beetle engine, though.

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=40001

amazeer Bishop of Volkswagenism

3,029 posts · joined Nov 2005 ·

#719343
I'm struggling to see any advantage to nitrous. You have to keep refilling the bottle, + your mixtures are screwed up, + its illegal.

You must have too much money to waste if you're rebuilding and hotting up a temporary engine. If you're piulling an engine apart to replace a cam you should at least put 94's on. Grab a counterweighted crank and be done with it.

I wouldn't advise even contemplating forced induction without an intercooler. You're throwing horsepower out the window and adding unnecessary heat in the process.

Baja Wes V6 Baja Pioneer

3,119 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#719362
Yeah, I can't see the point of nitrous. Where's the fun of it if you can't give it a squirt at every set of lights without having to refill something.
Wes - www.offroadvw.net - 200HP Quad Cam V6 in a VW Baja - with climate control... 🙂
www.taylorcycles.com.au - My DH MTB racing brothers shop.

coletrickle Wolfsburg Wizard

661 posts · joined Apr 2009 ·

#719369
if it's not going to be registered do what ever,if your going to drive it on the street nitrous would be my choice you can have less of every thing cam compression head work fuel octane etc i would sugest your 1776 with a set of arp bolts and and exhaust and a non stock carb set up.Then have at it with the gas!Say it makes 60 to 90 hp at the wheels a well set up system is safe and you could end up with up to 180 hp at the flick of a switch,and you have got a car that is like jeckyl and hyde!As for it being illegal like i always say who are you a cop😂

volumex Officially Full-On Dubber

389 posts · joined Jul 2005 ·

#719372
I've driven a N/A, turbo and supercharged Fiat/Lancia twin cam and I would take the positive displacement supercharger every time. The supercharger is so much more flexible - the torque is always there.
Centrifugal superchargers are the worst of both worlds - lag at low speeds and the high power draw to spin them.

volumex Officially Full-On Dubber

389 posts · joined Jul 2005 ·

#719374
coletrickle wrote:As for it being illegal like i always say who are you a cop😂
Problem isn't the cops, it is the insurance companies. If you smash into someone/something and you have nitrous - then insurance is not going to pay out. Having to live in squalor for the rest of your life to pay back what could be millions of $$$$ would not be pleasant. Don't think it will never happen to you, as it does happen.

T-34 Officially Full-On Dubber

234 posts · joined Feb 2004 ·

#719383
volumex wrote:
coletrickle wrote:As for it being illegal like i always say who are you a cop😂
Problem isn't the cops, it is the insurance companies. If you smash into someone/something and you have nitrous - then insurance is not going to pay out. Having to live in squalor for the rest of your life to pay back what could be millions of $$$$ would not be pleasant. Don't think it will never happen to you, as it does happen.
If you have nothing - they cannot take it from you 😂

I always fancied trying to get a twin turbo setup working - less lag. Superchargers tend to give better low down torque - turbo's the opposite - using two smaller units should make them spin up faster and bring the useable torque down the rev range.

I've got a massive turbo (0.8 a/r) for my Ghia with a 50 shot of Nos to get the thing spooled up (Nos cuts off when it hits boost). Not got it running yet so have yet to test it out. Not 100% it is streetable without the gas, but I'm hoping that there's not massive amounts of lag (fairly large capacity engine). The gas also helps to cool the charge too.

Someone I know back in the UK was developing a cheap DIY turbo kit - basically it used a garret T03 with a re-jetted Renault 21 carby - worked really well on a stock 1600 twin port (stock cam works really well for forced induction). I think they managed to get their test bug into the 13's in this configuration. Not sure what happened to them - last time I spoke to him he was trying to get the exhausts mass produced. Used to hang out on Shop Talk Forums.

HTH

Mick.
[img]https://www.vdubber.com/media/images/logo.png[/img]

coletrickle Wolfsburg Wizard

661 posts · joined Apr 2009 ·

#719397
dude i live in squalor now😂The point i was trying to make was that the speed limit is 110 max how much low end torque etc do you need the more power you have the more tempted you are to use it so a nice stockish engine that you can turn into a hot rod at off street events disconnect the bottle and drive on the street has got to be pretty hard to beat.For example i drove my brothers 73 dodge dart 440 10.1 650' solid cam pump gas etc to willowbank yesterday on street tyres thru the mufflers it ran 11.49 @119mph its got 500hp atw it's a horrible car to drive at the speed limmit its completly legal but the cops still pull it over to give you a grilling.I think i'm gonna have to ressurect my favorite engine of all time and gas it.

volumex Officially Full-On Dubber

389 posts · joined Jul 2005 ·

#719399
T-34 wrote:
volumex wrote:
coletrickle wrote:As for it being illegal like i always say who are you a cop😂
Problem isn't the cops, it is the insurance companies. If you smash into someone/something and you have nitrous - then insurance is not going to pay out. Having to live in squalor for the rest of your life to pay back what could be millions of $$$$ would not be pleasant. Don't think it will never happen to you, as it does happen.
If you have nothing - they cannot take it from you 😂
They take if from your pay, every pay, until it is all paid back. Nothing funny about it.

coletrickle Wolfsburg Wizard

661 posts · joined Apr 2009 ·

#719402
last to weeks total hrs worked 21 hrs might top 15 hrs this week not a lot to garnish there🙅and if i had to i recon i could live of grid doing cashies. Its not like i havent dissapeared before🥷

Stanley I guess the reward is in the doing of it

4,523 posts · joined Mar 2003 ·

#719450
for ease and the abundance of information available i'd go turbo.
My stock 1641 with little TO2, SU and 6.5:1 compression ran 14's in my fat '70 beetle and was on it's way into the 12's in the current car before it torched a piston.
It was street driven didn't get too hot and the only issue was sooty plugs with the low compression.

with that said i'm now looking at supercharging but this will be for Warwick next year. Current engine with same turbo setup but some new goodies will be fitted this weekend.

Baja Wes V6 Baja Pioneer

3,119 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#719453
If you ever saw Dave Butlers supercharged VW drag car you'll know how awesome a supercharged flat 4 can sound.
Wes - www.offroadvw.net - 200HP Quad Cam V6 in a VW Baja - with climate control... 🙂
www.taylorcycles.com.au - My DH MTB racing brothers shop.

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#719465
This probably doesn't apply to modifying VW engines, but it's interesting anyway.

Unlike car engines, aircraft piston engine output is not determined by the engine capacity (ie bore/stroke). It is determined only by the mass of fuel/air mixture that can be consumed efficiently, which is controlled by the supercharger. So aircraft piston engine designers improve engines in this order:
1. Improve the supercharger
2. Improve the fuel (to delay the onset of detonation)
3. Develop mechanical features in the engine to take advantage of 1 and 2.

Rolls Royce did extensive development work on the 27-litre Merlin V12 during the war, with output being raised from 700 hp in 1939 to nearly 2,300 hp by 1945. This was achieved with two-stage, two-speed superchargers. These gave the Merlin the same power output as the much larger capacity (36-litre) V12 Griffon engine, with similar reliability, and much better performance than the 28-litre Allison V12 (which only had a single stage supercharger, or a turbo supercharger, depending on the aircraft).

This is a lecture about the Merlin, and its supercharger development, given by Rolls Royce engineer A.C. Lovesey in 1945:

http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/merlin-lovesey.pdf

Joel Now containing 100\% E-Wang

9,368 posts · joined Feb 2006 ·

#719466
blowers have that certain cool factor on a vw
but like andrew said turbos are just so much cheaper and easier to get hold of
was always good value at shows the people that thought my bug had A/C 😂, people seem to think that supercharging a vw is impossible for some reason

Agree with Wes, im a boostjunky of any descrription so a turbo spooling sounds nuts but the whine of blower is hard to beat

polak Everything is alright with enough Vodka :P

913 posts · joined May 2009 ·

#719474
amazeer wrote:I'm struggling to see any advantage to nitrous. You have to keep refilling the bottle, + your mixtures are screwed up, + its illegal.

You must have too much money to waste if you're rebuilding and hotting up a temporary engine. If you're piulling an engine apart to replace a cam you should at least put 94's on. Grab a counterweighted crank and be done with it.

I wouldn't advise even contemplating forced induction without an intercooler. You're throwing horsepower out the window and adding unnecessary heat in the process.
having used it before im now quite fond of it, its litterally power on tap and the cheapest and most effective power upgrade, yes its illegal but if u keep to yourself and dont be an idiot with it there is no problem (unless u have an accident and insurance finds out 😠) All 3 systems have their advantages and disadvantages... just have to figure out what suits your car, its purpose and style ur of driving. ahhh! now im even more undecided.... lol maybe i should jus do all three 🤪😂🤪


VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years