LOL this thread has caused a lot of stupid posts from people....
I could talk all day about the physics of gasoline motors.
Let me put it this way. Lets forget about the results from my experiment for a minute.
Caution: THIS IS A GENERALITY... ok keep reading
Take a stock Naturally aspirated gasoline engine, lets say a 3.0L v6 that gets about 25miles to the gallon on the highway. If you put a turbocharger on the car (including all the nessesary hardware... Intercooler with piping, and assuming you use stock exhaust manifolds, and the motor is kept stock) the car will get better highway MPG (cruising) almost indefinetly. Why? To make a very long and complicated explaination very short, you are increasing the volumetric efficiency of the engine by introducing a turbocharger or supercharger. Theres just no other simple way to explain it.
OK. Before you kiddies have an ADD attack... keep reading (and again, im being very basic here).
Q: But a turbo doesnt spin very much if you are not in boost.
A: You're dumb. A turbo CONSTANTLY spins as soon as you start your engine. What happens when a turbo spins? It increases the flow of air into your engine. And what does that mean? Better volumetric efficiency. Why do you think theres a saying "the power is in the cylinder heads"?. Because its true. Its how WELL your car flows air that influences EVERYTHING. I would have to start talking about the physics of fluids and the physics of combustion for alot of you to understand, and i just dont want to do that.
Blah blah i really dont want to get in to this too much, its a beaten dead horse conversation thats been talked about OVER and OVER and OVER again.
There are so many ways to increase the fuel efficiency of a gasoline engine. You guys want to read about some interesting techniques? Check out these following links.
http://www.somender-singh.com/
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/f ... 1000004eecbccdrcrd/3.html Popular science article.
http://www.mpgresearch.com/index.php
Oh, BTW.... dougie... dont rely on wikipedia anymore. That crap you copied and pasted from wikipedia isnt even totally accurate. The kid that made that wiki is no more knowledgeable that alot of the people on this forum.
Wheel4hummer is correct. More load=more exhaust. In a turbo application, you want to load the car in order to build boost more quickly.
However, more rpm with load= more exhaust overall. So say you are seeing 50% load at 1000rpms, then compare it to 50% load at 3000rpms.... More exhaust will be created at the 3000rpm mark. And you can test it yourself. Another way to look at it... at 3000rpms, apply 50% tps and see how fast the turbo spools. Then do the same thing but apply 100%TPS. vwahla.
Why do you think they offer higher stall torque converters for automatic cars? Not just because you can launch the car closer to or at its peak torque range. In turbo cars it helps because you are able to load the car while increasing the rpm at the same time, enabling you to build boost a lot easier. Theres also a reason why companies that sell turbos also give a specific torque converter specification for that size turbo. The larger the turbo, the larger the converter you are going to need to spool that turbo efficiently and effectively.
My fingers hurt...