For lovers of automotive performance, knowing the difference between a turbo and naturally aspirated engine is a concept that everyone should know. So what will be your difference? Why is the turbo so admired in the world of automotive performance?
Continue reading and understand the main differences between turbo and aspirated engines, in addition to understanding how a car can gain up to more than 44% in performance!
How the aspirated engine works
O aspirated engine is one that does not have another device helping to increase engine power. Thus, the air is aspirated by the movement of the piston inside the combustion chamber.
As a rule, valve actuation and combustion depend on the volume of air entering the chamber. As a result, the driver notices an almost linear progression in the vehicle's performance.
The name “aspirated” comes from the fact that, when the piston moves in the cylinder, a lower atmospheric pressure is generated inside the combustion chamber. Thus, the air is aspirated into the cylinder to generate combustion.
In this sense, aspirated models have some advantages:
- Lower production and maintenance costs;
- May cause fewer maintenance problems;
- Small changes can generate power gains (example expansion or sports filter, for example);
- “Cleaner” sound (for those who like something softer).
While it can bring some disadvantages, such as:
- Greater fuel consumption;
- For significant gains in power, specialized modifications are required;
- If you install a turbo kit on an aspirated engine, it may have less torque at low speed and oscillations at idle.
What is a turbo engine
Os turbo engines, as the name suggests, use a turbocharger to take advantage of the exhaust gases, which are wasted by the aspirated engine, to use its energy and compress the atmospheric air.
As a result, an aspirated engine can ingest more air into the combustion chamber, which is essential to extract more power from the engine.
In fact, there is a fixed and variable turbo. In the fixed model, there is no regulation of gas flow pressure or pressure. While the variable turbo controls the dosage of exhaust gases passing through the turbine to regulate the pressure.
How the turbo engine works
The turbo and aspirated engine have the big difference that in the turbo model there is a set of components to use the kinetic energy of the exhaust gases to compress the atmospheric air.
Thus, the turbo is made up of two chambers, known as compressor and turbine. This assembly is then connected to the combustion engine's exhaust manifold.
As a result, the gases leaving the engine pass through the turbine, which uses the energy of the gases to rotate a rotor, which is interconnected between the two chambers. Because they are connected, the compressor rotor also rotates, allowing atmospheric (filtered) air to be pressurized.
The pressurized air then enters the engine's intake system to participate in combustion. In this way, the engine is able to generate more power with each rotation, unlike the naturally aspirated engine which does not have this stage of compressing the air.
What are your advantages
In addition to the obvious gain in power, the turbo engine also brings other benefits:
- Depending on the torque peak, the vehicle saves fuel, as it does not need as much energy to gain and sustain speed;
- Offers more comfort;
- Improves engine response time;
- Allows safer overtaking and restarting, even at low speed;
- Turbo engines emit fewer polluting gases as they use the energy of gases to improve engine efficiency.
So, what is the difference between a turbo and an aspirated engine?
In short, the big difference between a turbo and an aspirated engine is the way in which the air reaches the combustion cylinders. In the aspirated model, the air is “sucked” by atmospheric pressure, while turbo engines use the turbocharger assembly to supply pressurized air using exhaust gases.
In fact, it is worth highlighting that there is no difference if one engine lasts longer than the other. Many people believe that the turbo engine lasts less than the naturally aspirated one, or even that the turbo harms transmission components.
However, we see that a factory turbocharged engine has the same lifespan as an aspirated one, since the entire assembly was designed to receive the turbo. Therefore, a modified aspirated engine will have a shorter useful life, as it depends on several factors, from the quality of the turbo kit applied to the way in which the vehicle was prepared.
In the case of the transmission, the reason is the same: a factory turbo car was completely designed to receive greater torque, therefore, there is no loss in durability.
Does a turbo and aspirated engine make a difference in Remap?
Now that you know the differences between a turbo and naturally aspirated engine, here’s one more: Did you know that the turbo engine has more gains in Remap?
What is remap?
Remap, or reprogramming of the Electronic Injection Center (ECU), is nothing more than changing the control unit's software. As it works as the brain of the vehicle, by changing the parameters of the control tables, it is possible to release more power and torque.
In this article you understand in detail How Remap works Strike Brasil.
Why does the turbo engine benefit more from Remap than the naturally aspirated engines?
Generally speaking, an aspirated engine with our Remap STK improves power and torque by around 10%. On the other hand, factory turbo engines can reach an average of 30% in torque and power gains proven on the dynamometer.
In fact, in some cases, turbo engines can exceed 40%. For example, the BMW 320I Turbo, which comes from the factory with 184 hp, now has 265 hp after Remap Strike Brasil, a gain of 81 hp in power.
Another interesting example is the Golf GTI 2.0 Mk7, which has 220 hp, but after the STK Remap, it reached an incredible 310 hp, an increase of 90 hp!
However, why don't the turbo and aspirated engine have the same gains? As we saw in this text, the aspirated engine is already less powerful and weaker, so software changes have a marginal gain compared to the gains of turbo engines.
Do you want to understand more about the increase in performance with remap? Check out in this article how many horsepower the car gains with a Remap Strike Brasil!
Strike Brasil It's More Than Remap
A Strike Brasil, without a doubt, is the largest automotive performance company in all of Latin America, and has been working increasingly to reach higher levels and expand its operations.
We count on more than 50 units spread across Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Ecuador, in addition to the United States. We have already surpassed the mark of 20 thousand reprogrammed vehicles. If you are interested in the service, talk to our experts via WhatsApp.
