Turbo? .. better mpg?

[justnobody]

hey whats up, anyway my friends telling me if I get a turbo kit in my car, i'd see better gas mileage on highway use, that true? .. is it much difference? I know I know, even if its true, the price of the kit and the gas savings wouldnt even out till like 140years but still, extra boost sounds nice ..

 

[No_Skillz]

No it's not true. While cruising you won't be boosting, so your motor is basically in N/A mode... same MPG (if not a bit worse due to the added backpressure of the turbo). The only way that your MPG will go up is if you are on the turbo. Semantics play a role, however. For example, WOT with boost for 5 seconds will use more fuel than WOT N/A for 5 seconds. But WOT with boost to speed will be faster and use less fuel than WOT N/A to speed.

 

[knight007]

and you also wanna think about the fact when you go turbo you do fuel mods ie fuel pump fmu. so your dumping more fuel in to compensate for more air. its also about how you drive and how much you stay in boost

 

[bostonhatcher]

Scenario: Driving around town and you accelerate to 40 mph.


N/A: It will take you 4 seconds at WOT but will burn .25 gallons of gas to move a 2800 lbs. car.

Turbo: It will take you 3 seconds at WOT but will burn .60 gallons of gas to move a 2800 lbs. car.


Now why did it burn more gas to move the same weight car with more horsepower but for less time? Because when you're car accelerates faster, your motor "thinks" your car weighs more, causing it to use more energy to get it there.

 

[No_Skillz]

Scenario: Driving around town and you accelerate to 40 mph.


N/A: It will take you 4 seconds at WOT but will burn .25 gallons of gas to move a 2800 lbs. car.

Turbo: It will take you 3 seconds at WOT but will burn .60 gallons of gas to move a 2800 lbs. car.

Where are you getting these numbers from?

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Where are you getting these numbers from?

Yeah? WTF

justnobody, You can get good gas mileage out of a high hp car with good tuning. But say if you were just going to throw a turbo setup on your car... My guess would be your dropping your fuel economy by 50% without any sort of tuning. Most people do. I've seen people boost 30lbs into a fully built race motor, and only put down like 250whp and only get like 7-10mpg. It all depends on how you build your fuel system and how well it is tuned. My friend Sean at Solid Technology had a Honda Prelude H22, Stock block, Full Turbo Setup and a fully staged HONDATA Tune by himself at Solid Tech. He dyno'd at 300whp with mild injectors and still got 28-30mpg! He upgraded his injectors to 450's I belive, Dyno'd at 380whp and lost about 3-5mpg.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

I think your friend gets his facts from truckers or something... he's not completely wrong. You see, turbochargers actually do increase efficiency. They've long been in use in large diesels (i.e. trucks) to make up for their otherwise lack of efficiency.

It's somewhat difficult to explain, but if you think of it as a percentage, fuel efficiency might be better (if properly tuned), but as a whole, fuel consumption will be more than an equivalent N/A.