Super or Turbo Charger for MyToy

  • Lol love the memes! Ok... from my understanding. A Supercharger is a safer bet on the engine while the turbo can be more problematic if you do not have a built engine. Would you find that this is accurate information?


    To me... the real question is... Which is more fun? I don't care about top end speed (I have bikes for that) I want more power into the corners and on take off. I like to "slide". In otherwords, i like to bang gears in the SS compared to hitting 75-80 and staying in 5th.


    @rabtech @Rob @WraithSS @Bill Martin

    Been reading through all of these posts, and here's my 20 cents. I too was looking for a SC when I first bought this SS because of previous experiences with both Turbos and Supers. Due to a couple of factors: 1) There were no SC configurations out yet, and 2) (the more important one), Karma was really good to me and I ended up with the Alpha stage 2 setup I have now (don't hate!!!). Anyway, as far as being a "safe bet on the engine", I don't believe a stock engine is in any more or less danger of exploding with a properly installed turbo than it would be with a SC. The qualifier to that is that it's properly installed and you don't go crazy with the boost. There's been several that have blown their engines because they were either experimenting with higher boost levels, or for whatever reason, they pushed too much boost through their engine and it went kaboom!. Short of doing what Rab and MAC (as well as several others now), if you keep the boost down to no more than 9, you're right at the boost level and HP the SC is at. Mine was setup even lower from the get go (6 I believe) because I was not running the ARP head bolts yet so Henry kept the boost low. Still I was pushing 249 hp on the rear wheel. That in itself makes the SS a whole different animal. There's been lots of research and, more importantly, time has passed and everyone's pretty much figured that with a stock engine and easily installed ARP head bolts you're safe at 8-9 even 10 pounds of boost. We're talking HP levels in the low 300's now.....still on the stock engine. So, @Mateo, either one will be a safe bet... again... properly installed.
    As far as the "instant" power is concerned that some are mentioning as a benefit from the SC. While there may be a slight (and I mean very very slight) lag on from the turbo, it is minimal and no where near the lag that I've experience with some of the factory installed stuff on some vehicles. I would venture to say that I have no lag whatsoever. The one benefit that nobody has mentioned about a turbo is gas mileage. Grant it, before anyone says anything, we don't buy these things for their fuel economy, but when you're running cross country with the cruise set at 85, hauling a fully loaded trailer, the difference between 18-19 mpg and 15-16 mpg can mean the difference between making it to your next gas stop or not. These gas tanks are tiny folks and they don't go very long distances. For all you Harley guys out there, it would be the equivalent of going cross country on a sportster with the peanut gas tank. Those of you that are not familiar with west Texas, NM, AZ, CO, etc...don't realize how long some of these stretches between available fuel can be. Especially between Denver and NM border.... there's some stretches there where i'm constantly calculating whether or not i'm going to make my next destination or not. I've done it a hundred times, but I still have that doubt in my head.
    @mytoy, if you've never ridden in a Turbo'd SS, you're welcome to try mine out sometime if we're ever close to each other. I'm sure others will let you do the same, but honestly... I think either will do fine for you. For my taste, I'm sticking with the turbo because of my need for power. I'll be looking to venture close to the 400hp range here soon and with my current Alpha Turbo setup, it's very doable. Just gonna make arrangement to beef up my engine :thumbsup::thumbup: .

  • I'll leave it for those smarter than me to respond to that, but give it some time, I'm sure someone will blow one up here soon if not already. Again. A properly installed turbo and run according to the kit's designer will be as reliable as a supercharger.
    Also, as stated before, many of those early adopters that blew their motors with turbos were toying with higher boost levels than they should have been and would even admit that they were trying to see how much boost the engine would take. We can all thank them for the knowledge gained by their experiments. Even the SC guys :thumbsup: .


    We're talking on a stock engine here folks!! Wanted to clarify that.