The Supercharger: How Does It Work?
Most people think of a large scaled flying beast that can melt rocks by blowing fire when the word dragon is mentioned. A supercharger isn’t exactly a mythical creature, but we do consider it a technological dragon in some regards – one that breathes rather than burns fire. And just as a dragon perched on top of a mountain overlooks the land below, the Roots-style supercharger that is most often utilized on a Silverado sits atop the engine instead of the intake manifold, waiting to feed the aluminum beneath it.
A supercharger is a big air compressor that is driven by a serpentine belt off the crankshaft pulley. Its purpose is to compress the incoming air before sending it to the combustion chamber, which it does via a supercharger. Being pressurized increases the number of oxygen particles in each litre of air, allowing for greater fuel mixing and thus more power output. However, after compression, the intake air does heat up, which is not ideal. The answer to this problem is to direct the air after compressing it to an intercooler where the inlet air can be cooled before reaching the intake manifold and entering the combustion chamber.
What’s great about Roots-style supercharger kits for 4.8L, 5.3L, 6.0L and 6.2L Silverado HD trucks is that they’re all built into one package. The supercharger, intercooler, and intake manifold are all integrated into a single system that sits on top of the cylinder heads like a conventional intake manifold would. The Eaton TVS charger is a twin-screw design with a lobed impeller to distinguish it from other twin-screw chargers with an eight-lobe design. Available in several displacements, the TVS differs from other twin-screw chargers by having an oval impeller pattern (Eaton). The 4-lobe design of TVS chargers enables a more efficient supercharging process that improves volumetric capacity, efficiency, and thermal characteristics while simultaneously producing more horsepower, torque, and even fuel economy.
What are the Benefits of a Supercharger?
The concept of supercharging is to use a small-block engine as a power source. Superchargers are able to significantly improve the horsepower and torque output of that tiny-block found in every Silverado pickup truck. Furthermore, because the supercharger is directly linked to the crankshaft pulley via a belt, it works all the time the engine is running. This ensures that throttle and boost response are always immediate and linear across the whole RPM range, with no lag or delay for the compressor wheel to spool up.
The extra power and torque will make pulling heavy trailers and the like a lot easier, with less throttle movement required. Of course, there’s always the thrilling sensation of mashing the throttle and hurtling forward at a meteoric rate. A supercharged Silverado is quite content to haul as hard as it can or simply cruise around town. When utilizing a supercharger, you must use premium gasoline all the time. Detonation may occur if you don’t maintain it.
What Makes Each Supercharger Kit Different?
Eaton’s TVS technology is found in all of the available Gen IV and Gen V small-block Silverado supercharger systems. That said, there is a difference between aftermarket systems. Each company is responsible for developing their own proprietary intake and intercooler designs, boost management, fuel requirements, and engine calibration.
Some vehicles come with a built-in ECU tune, while others do not. To handle the new air and fuel conditions appropriately, the ECU must be correctly tuned. It’s probable that an incorrect tune (or none at all) would lead to significant damage. Kits that include tuning are ideal for most work and play drivers since they take care of this for you. Purchasing a supercharger system without one is preferable than purchasing one with one if you want to thrash your truck a bit harder and get every last drop of performance out of it.
A bypass system is also worth noting. Some Silverado supercharger systems now come with an integrated bypass system. This bypass circuit will keep any positive pressure build-up at bay when driving in a light load or high vacuum scenario (light throttle cruising, engine at idle or throttle closed while truck decelerating), significantly reducing the parasitic draw of the supercharger when boost isn’t required.
A bypass circuit, such as the one shown in Figure 2, is not to be confused with a wastegate, which regulates boost under load. As required, the supercharger will reach and maintain peak boost. This is an excellent feature that allows you to gain more mileage while maintaining performance.
The supercharger package’s overall performance is determined by a number of different factors, including the supercharger displacement, pulley ratio, fuel delivery, and tuning ability. Each manufacturer has its own method for approaching these issues. Consider it like a rib competition: everyone is grilling ribs, but the way they prepare them and the ingredients used give each dish its own flavor.
Final Words
Getting a supercharger is one of those infrequent win-win situations. You’ll get a large boost without any drawbacks, and you can always remove the blower and revert the engine to its standard form if you become weary of having an incredible truck.
