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How Does a Turbocharger Work?

You've heard the word "turbo" tossed around a lot, especially by performance car enthusiasts. But all you know isthat it means an engine has more "oomph" to it than normal. But what exactly is going on underneath that hood?

et's open it up and take a look.

It's All About Better Combustion

Before you can truly appreciate what a turbocharger does for an engine, you need to understand the basics ofinternal combustion.

!nternal combustion engines are "breathing" engines. hat is to say, they draw in air and fuel for energy. hisenergy is reali#ed as power when the air$fuel mixture is ignited. %fterward, the waste created by the combustion isexpelled. %ll of this is typically accomplished in four strokes of the pistons.

&hat a turbocharger does is to make the air$fuel mixture more combustible by fitting more air into the engine'schambers which, in turn, creates more power and torue when the piston is forced downward by the resultingexplosion. !t accomplishes this task by condensing, or compressing, the air molecules so that the air the enginedraws in is denser. (ow, how it does that is the real story here.

A Tale Of Two Wheels

% turbocharger is basically an air pump. )ot exhaust gases leaving the engine after combustion are routed directlyto the turbine wheel side of the turbocharger to make it rotate. hat turbine wheel is connected by a shaft to acompressor wheel. %s the turbine wheel spins faster and faster, it causes the compressor wheel to also spinuickly. he rotation of the compressor wheel pulls in ambient air and compresses it before pumping it into theengine's chambers.

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%s you may have guessed, the compressed air leaving the compressor wheel housing is very hot as a result of

both compression and friction. *o what's needed is a way to cool that air down before it enters the chambers.hat's where a charge$air cooler +or "heat exchanger" comes in. !t reduces the temperature of the compressed

air so that it is denser when it enters the chamber +heat causes things to expand, as we all learned in scienceclass. he charge$air cooler also helps to keep the temperature down in the combustion chamber. %ll together,

the engine, turbocharger and charge$air cooler form what is known as a "charge$air system".

*ome systems also include a tip turbine fan which draws air across the charge$air cooler to further reduce thetemperature of the compressed air generated by the turbocharger.

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Not As as! As It "ooks

he basic principal behind turbocharging is fairly simple, but a turbocharger is a very complex piece of machinery.

(ot only must the components within the turbocharger itself be precisely coordinated, but the turbocharger and

the engine it services must also be exactly matched. !f they're not, engine inefficiency and even damage can bethe results. hat's why it's important to follow correct installation, operating and preventative maintenanceprocedures.