Difference between Nitrous Oxide, Turbochargers and Superchargers

Nitrous Oxide:

Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is a rocket fuel that is used as an emergency fuel as street racers. Any combustion engine has a percentage of endurance or in easy terms, what engine can do extra without any modifications.  Nitrous Oxide is recommended to be used in those cars which have endurance of at least 30%. Nitrous Oxide is stored in bottles and is directly sprayed in combustion chamber of engine. This provides more oxygen to the engine and increases the cycle rate combustions and thus increasing the horsepower of the engine. On an average nitrous oxide system (NOS, also Nitrous Oxide manufacturing Company) lasts for 10 seconds. Nitrous Oxide if used in an ill manner can permanently disrupt the engine’s functioning. In current scenario, two types of NOS is available in markets namely WET SHOT NITROUS OXIDE SYSTEM and SOLID SHOT NITROUS OXIDE SYSTEM.

Wet shot Nitrous Oxide System has liquid Nitrous Oxide which directly burns up in combustion chamber releasing oxygen from its lattice immediately while Solid shot Nitrous Oxide System has solid nitrous oxide which is injected into combustion chamber in low proportions. The solid nitrous oxide takes higher time to burn up but power output is lower than the wet shot NOS. So as a verdict we can say for higher power we use Wet shot NOS while for more duration of time we use Solid shot NOS.

NOS is advised to use between 2300 to 3000 rpm and gear ratios depends from car to car. And as a myth that NOS once switched on can’t be turned off, NOS can be configured to have kill switches which will cut the transfer of nitrous oxide to engine due to some emergency.

Turbochargers:

Turbocharger is a device which can be equipped in any car to provide its engine with more oxygen to burn and produce more power. Unlike Nitrous Oxide it doesn’t produce instant horsepower but gives a permanent increase in horsepower of the engine although the increase is not equal in magnitude to the increase produced by NOS. Turbocharger has a turbine inside which is connected to Air-Intake system and other end is connected to engine. The Air-Intake takes the air and delivers it to the turbine, turbine spins because of the air and after attaining a particular rate of revolutions (which can be configured using a computer) starts pushing more air into the engine thus giving more oxygen to engine to burn and produce more power. Normally, every turbocharger is connected to Intercooler system which reduces the temperature of the air and thus further compresses it and the air is then transferred to the engine combustion chamber. One of most important benefit of it over NOS is that it causes minimum damage to the engine and the life of engine is maintained.

Every Turbocharger can be tuned according to one’s personal choice like at what rpm should the input of air should be increased and many like that. In general practice, Diesel cars are pre-equipped with entry-level turbochargers as diesel engines work on principal of combustion due to air compressibility.

Supercharger:

Supercharger function similar to Turbocharger as it brings more air into the combustion chamber of the engine to produce more air to engine to burn and produce energy. But, unlike turbochargers, it doesn’t require air to initialize its air compressibility function. Supercharger is attached to the crankshaft of engine through pulley and as soon as engine starts, the supercharger starts its function i.e. to provide more air to the engine. Similar to Turbochargers, Superchargers can also be configured manually to do various functions. Supercharger also provides less energy to engine when compared to NOS but equal when compared to Turbocharger. Superchargers initialize their function from the very start of the movement of car which is not in case with Turbocharger and like Turbocharger it has no effects on life of engine.