What is a Supercharger?

A Wikipedia definition is: A supercharger is an air compressor used for forced induction of an internal combustion engine. Wow. What does that mean? If you want more power from your accord, read on. Let's take a look at some background information. As you may know both air and fuel are delivered, by various means, to the cylinders of an automobile. Once in the cylinders pistons compress the mixture and then the sparkplug or glow plug on a diesel engine ignites the mixture which pushes down the piston and produces power from the engine.

Putting more fuel alone in the engine may be one way to increase power, but there is a better way. Air contains oxygen, which is what helps the fuel to burn. The supercharger forces more air with more oxygen into the engine, and the fuel system adds more fuel. You therefore get a more powerful explosion or burning in the cylinders and more power is produced with the supercharger. So bottom line, if you want more power from an engine, adding a supercharger is one way to do so.

• A supercharger is typically powered by the engine usually with a drive belt. Some supercharger systems have used a chain or a gear to drive the supercharger.
• There are some potential problems with installing an aftermarket supercharger. If the installation is not done correctly it may shorten engine life. Another potential problem with supercharging is the compression ratio of the engine. Typically a supercharger engine should have a lower compression ratio than a naturally aspired vehicle. The problem is that sometimes the supercharger is added without changing the compression ratio of the pistons. This can lead to major engine damage if the initial engine compression, before the supercharger installation, was too high.

• On the plus side, besides an increase in power, a supercharger application, like adding one to a small car with a small engine, can result in an increase in gasoline mileage. This is even after the increase in fuel use while the supercharger is compressing the air.

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