All diesel-powered trucks have turbos, will not necessarily. You may find one here or there depending on the engine size and definitely if you have an 8.2 liter or above. A turbo charger is a turbine driven and forced induction device that will essentially increase an internal combustion engine’s power output by forcing extra compressed air into the combustion chamber. That’s what a turbo is in a nutshell.
A turbo or even a twin turbo setup can provide a reduction in any wag of power. It helps to produce power faster an increase is running of a smooth engine in the functionality of it.
Many people may hear the power that a turbo can give off referred to as “free power” because it does not require the engine’s power to drive it. Keep reading to find out even more useful information about turbos including what they really are and how they work.
What Are Turbos?
A turbo charger is basically fitted to a vehicles engine and is designed to improve your engine’s overall efficiency and increase its performance. a turbo can have significant advantages besides what was already mentioned.
Many people oftentimes have that moment when they think of random questions and one of those random questions that you may or may not have thought about is: what exactly are turbos? A turbo or turbocharger in a semi-truck is meant to compress more air that flows into the engine cylinder. Basically, think about it like this, whenever air is compressed, the oxygen molecules are generally packed closer together.
The increase in the air could mean that more fuel can be added for the same size engine. Yes, that was a mouthful.
One way to understand what turbos actually do is to know that it is essentially forcing more air into an engine. It’s allowing it to burn more gas which will, in turn, increase the vehicle horsepower. The turbo is critical to the output of power efficiency in any diesel engine.
There is actually nothing too special about a turbo on a semi-truck. As a matter of fact, many modern semis trucks don’t even run superchargers. Turbos however are designed to last a lifetime of a vehicle or in turns 150,000 miles. This range can obviously fluctuate depending on how much the vehicle is used, and what it’s used for as well as the original build quality of the part itself. Keep reading to find out more about turbochargers that you didn’t know you wanted to know.
Do All Semi Trucks Have Turbos?
It’s safe to say that all diesel-powered tractors/trucks may have turbos, especially across different-sized engines. It is important to know that all diesels don’t have turbo but lots of newer vehicles will; it would mainly depend on the usage of the vehicle/ industry that it works within. Naturally, aspirated diesel engines don’t possess the power that’s needed to match the demand in today’s vehicles.
A turbocharger assembly can cost anywhere between $1800 in $2200 for a semi-truck. The boost that a turbo can give is often reached by using the exhaust flow from the engine testing a turbine and then spin the air pump. The turbine in the turbocharger can often spin up to 150,000 RPM. If you don’t know how significant that is, it typically means that it can spin faster than most car engines.
The term naturally aspirated engine has been thrown around a few times and mainly pertains to certain types of cars or trucks but it’s still important to know what they are. A naturally aspirated engine is just an internal combustion engine where
The air intake depends completely on atmospheric pressure. The difference is that it does not have any forced induction through a turbocharger.
How Much Power Does Turbo Add?
Over a naturally aspirated engine, a turbo can increase power output from 15 to 25% or more even with only six to 8 pounds of boost pressure. This obviously fluctuates among turbos for different vehicles but that is the general idea. Adding a turbo to with vehicle’s engine is an efficient and highly effective way to increase its power. It works with the exhaust system and allows you to gain a significant amount of horsepower.
How Does It Work?
A few main sections make up a turbocharger; the compressor and the turbine. The turbine consists of the housing and the turbine wheel and the housing is what guides the exhaust gas into the wheel. When the turbine wheel is turning, the gas is able to exit the housing through an exhaust outlet area. The idea is about the same when it comes to the compressor which is made up of two parts as well; the compressor wheel and the housing.
Without going into detail, the compressor housing is what converts the low pressure and high-velocity air stream into being exact opposite pressure in the air stream through a diffusion process.
All of the technical terms associated with turbos within semi-trucks and turbochargers can become overwhelming so just know this; the compressed air given off by the compressor is pushed into the truck’s engine which is what allows the engine to burn off more fuel and produce more power.
Conclusion
Saying it that way was fairly simple in comparison to trying to explain all of the steps in regard to functionality. If you are adventurous and curious about the specifics and even the schematics of the turbocharger and how it works please click here.