Superchargers

In general terms, a supercharger, which is also known as a blower, is nothing more than an air pump that is driven off the crankshaft of an engine. Superchargers have been used on motor cars for more than 100 years. The German car manufacturer Gottlieb Daimler is credited as the first person to patent a supercharger system for an internal combustion engine. His design was based on the twin-rotor air pump designed by the Americans Philander and Francis Roots in 1859 and patented in 1860. The first production vehicles to use superchargers were built by Mercedes and Bentley in the 1920's. Back in the 1980's, there was probably nothing that shouted 'hot rod' louder than an Chevy with a supercharger sticking through the hood. Supercharging has come a long way since hot rodders stuck inefficient superchargers on their engines and struggled to make 3 pounds of boost. Today you can walk into any tuning shop and order any number of Roots supercharger and centrifugal supercharger kits designed to work specifically with your engine. And with supercharging technology being so advanced, you could easily double the horsepower of a stock engine! That's more horsepower than you would ever need! But it takes a bit of know-how to create serious horsepower and still have a reasonably reliable engine at the end of the day. When you get down to it, it all boils down to air temperature, fuel and ignition timing.

With all the different superchargers available these days, choosing the best supercharger for your particular engine can be a bit of a challenge as no one supercharger can be described as "The best". All superchargers work well, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. What you need is an idea of what you want from the supercharger and an idea of what to expect from each type of supercharger. Especially as different vehicles and different engines may benefit from one type or another so it's important that you know what you're looking for.

There are two types of superchargers that are commonly used on internal combustion engines:

• Centrifugal superchargers, which are very similar to a turbocharger; and
• Positive-displacement superchargers, such as the Roots supercharger

There are also Sliding vane superchargers but these are not widely used on motor cars.

[Source www.custom-car.us]