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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sakuraguy" data-source="post: 989138" data-attributes="member: 6441">SUPERCHARGERA supercharger (also known as a blower, a positive displacement pump or a centrifugal pumper) is a gas compressor used to pump air into the cylinders of an internal combustion engine. The additional mass of oxygen that is forced into the cylinders allows the engine to burn more fuel, which improves the volumetric efficiency of the engine and makes it more powerful. A supercharger is powered mechanically by belt- or chain-drive from the engine's crankshaft. It is similar in purpose to the closely related turbocharger, but a turbocharger is powered by the flow of the engine's exhaust gases driving a turbine. Superchargers may absorb as much as a third of the total crankshaft power of the engine, and in many applications are less efficient than turbochargers. In applications where a massive amount of power is more important than any other consideration, such as top-fuel dragsters and vehicles used in tractor pulling competitions, superchargers are extremely common.In cars, the device is used to increase the "effective displacement" and volumetric efficiency of an engine, and is often referred to as a blower. By pushing the air into the cylinders, it is as if the engine had larger valves and cylinders, resulting in a "larger" engine that weighs less. Turbochargers are more commonly used in this role because they use otherwise "wasted" heat energy instead of using up power from the crank, but the supercharger reacts more quickly to power application and thus outaccelerates a car with the same amount of boost being provided by a turbo.In 1900 Gottlieb Daimler (of Daimler-Benz / Daimler-Chrysler fame) became the first person to patent a forced-induction system for internal combustion engines. His first superchargers were based on a twin-rotor air-pump design first patented by American Francis Roots in 1860. This design is the basis for the modern Roots type supercharger.It wasn't long after its invention before the supercharger was applied to custom racing cars, with the first supercharged production vehicles being built by Mercedes and Bentley in the 1920s. Since then superchargers (as well as turbochargers) have been widely applied to racing and production cars, although their complexity and cost has largely relegated the supercharger to the world of pricey performance cars.Boosting has made something of a comeback in recent years due largely to the increased quality of the alloys and machining of modern engines. Boosting used to be an effective way to dramatically shorten an engine's life but, today, there is considerable overdesign possible with modern materials and boosting is no longer a serious reliability concern. For this reason boosting is commonly used in smaller cars, where the added weight of the supercharger is smaller than the weight of a larger engine delivering the same amount of power. This also results in better gas mileage, as mileage is often a function of the overall weight of the car and that is based, to some degree, on the weight of the engine.There are three commonly used types used in today's automotive world: Roots type supercharger (of which the Eaton is a variant), twin-screw type supercharger, and Centrifugal type supercharger.For example, GM cars use the Eaton-type supercharger in the Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, Chevrolet Impala SS, Pontiac Bonneville SSEi, Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, and Buick Regal GS. These cars use the venerable GM Series II, or newer Series III 3.8 L V6.</blockquote>