Supercharging a 2l diesel

May 31, 2022
4
0
Anyone heard of someone taking a supercharger from a cupra to put on another engine, more specific a 2l turbo diesel (tdi). Wondered if it was a thing and if it could be done
Cheers
 

BigJase88

Jase
Apr 20, 2008
3,767
1,069
Nope

Better going big turbo / hybrid turbo

Lots of tuning potential. Head over to darkside developments and have a look at their turbo kits.

However it is very expensive and from experience if you want a faster car then go out and buy one.

Tuned cars can become unreliable money pits whereas a stock motor with bigger power is a better bet imo.

If you fancy a fast diesel i would look at bmw / audi 3l tdi offerings.
 

SuperV8

Active Member
May 30, 2019
1,344
594
Anyone heard of someone taking a supercharger from a cupra to put on another engine, more specific a 2l turbo diesel (tdi). Wondered if it was a thing and if it could be done
Cheers
Cupra has a Turbo - not a supercharger. Superchargers are mechanically driven from a belt - Turbo's are driven from exhaust gas pressure.
You could in theory bolt on a supercharger to a diesel - from a Merc/JLR/Mini depending on your air flow requirements? - but really why would you - expensive/difficult/packaging issues - when you can easily just bolt on a bigger turbo.
Petrol turbo's aren't really suited to diesels - different flow characteristics.
Better off just getting a bigger diesel turbo - but as mentioned will get expensive, so if you want a fast diesel just get a BMW 3.0 or Audi 3.0
 
May 31, 2022
4
0
Cupra has a Turbo - not a supercharger. Superchargers are mechanically driven from a belt - Turbo's are driven from exhaust gas pressure.
You could in theory bolt on a supercharger to a diesel - from a Merc/JLR/Mini depending on your air flow requirements? - but really why would you - expensive/difficult/packaging issues - when you can easily just bolt on a bigger turbo.
Petrol turbo's aren't really suited to diesels - different flow characteristics.
Better off just getting a bigger diesel turbo - but as mentioned will get expensive, so if you want a fast diesel just get a BMW 3.0 or Audi 3.0
My bad then, there was one on eBay selling under the name of Cupra supercharger. Must be just for a VW, I’ll keep what you’ve said in mind. Was more for the idea of it than it becoming a possibility
 
May 31, 2022
4
0
Nope

Better going big turbo / hybrid turbo

Lots of tuning potential. Head over to darkside developments and have a look at their turbo kits.

However it is very expensive and from experience if you want a faster car then go out and buy one.

Tuned cars can become unreliable money pits whereas a stock motor with bigger power is a better bet imo.

If you fancy a fast diesel i would look at bmw / audi 3l tdi offerings.
Yeah I’ve been pointed in the direction of hybrid turbo, just came across a supercharger from a cupra on eBay. Looked at dark side a while ago and they are very expensive, only got so far with my 6j at the minute. Possibly considering getting another vehicle but i fall in and out of doing something too it when I have the money
 

BigJase88

Jase
Apr 20, 2008
3,767
1,069
Yeah I’ve been pointed in the direction of hybrid turbo, just came across a supercharger from a cupra on eBay. Looked at dark side a while ago and they are very expensive, only got so far with my 6j at the minute. Possibly considering getting another vehicle but i fall in and out of doing something too it when I have the money
You could take a punt on an ebay hybrid turbo


The supercharger from a cupra may of been a 1.4 tsi ibiza cupra as they ran a supercharger and a turbo
 

MoToJoJo

Active Member
Mar 25, 2014
784
600
Northants
Can it be done? Yes, forced induction is forced induction.

Probably easiest way is to fit it where the air con compressor is. You'd have to get a custom exhaust manifold made up (or gut the stock turbo... although that doesn't make a lot of sense unless your turbo is toast). Then it's a matter of getting the ECU remapped to work with it.

Is it worth it? Well, you'd be doing a fair bit of path finding, matching supercharger to engine requirements etc. It's unlikely the Cupra supercharger would shift anywhere near enough air to satisfy the TDI so it'd likely need to be a new custom one.

Beyond that... it's a fun experiment but up to you if it's worth it.

Oh, as for buying a faster TDI, I agree with what's been said because whilst places like Darkside will sell you everything to make power, the small print says that their favourite mods (EGR delete, cat delete, DPF delete) are for offroad use only because the mods are technically illegal. And without those mods, it limits the power possible
 
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Crossthreaded

Active Member
Apr 16, 2019
539
150
I've been interested in supercharging ever since I attended my first Santa Pod meeting back in the '60s. Fiddled about with shorrocks on small Fords and got part way to doing one on an A series mini but ran out of money. The thing I really like about superchargers compared to turbos is that a supercharger suffers almost no lag when you nail the throttle. Downside is it "eats" horsepower to drive it unlike the turbo which uses "free" exhaust gasses. Installation of a supercharger is much more problematic as they tend to be bigger and you've got all the mounting brackets, crankshft pulley modification, belt tensioning pulley and drive belt etc to configure.

Nothing quite like the whine of a nice big "Jimmy" sitting on top of a V8 though and when you add in a bit of rough idling and blower surge for background noise, well, sheer heaven! How about this one:
 

SuperV8

Active Member
May 30, 2019
1,344
594
I've been interested in supercharging ever since I attended my first Santa Pod meeting back in the '60s. Fiddled about with shorrocks on small Fords and got part way to doing one on an A series mini but ran out of money. The thing I really like about superchargers compared to turbos is that a supercharger suffers almost no lag when you nail the throttle. Downside is it "eats" horsepower to drive it unlike the turbo which uses "free" exhaust gasses. Installation of a supercharger is much more problematic as they tend to be bigger and you've got all the mounting brackets, crankshft pulley modification, belt tensioning pulley and drive belt etc to configure.
I know you put "free" in exclamation marks ;) but I find it amazing how many people on youtube videos by 'automotive enthusiasts' often claiming that turbo charges are using free energy!
Compressing air require a large amount of energy, 'because physics'... - In a turbo this large amount of pneumatic energy comes from the pistons which ultimately absorbs power from the crank, where as superchargers are mechanically coupled (usually via a belt) to the crank which again absorbs power from the crank. Just easier to measure the power absorbed by a supercharger so when you hear several HP it sounds/feels quite a lot! A turbo will be using similar HP levels!

As you get bigger & bigger superchargers the belt drives start getting very difficult to transmit the required power - turbo's don't have this limitation.
I'm using a centrifugal supercharger on my V8 - which is basically a gear driven turbo, which is a 'simple' bolt on addition if you keep the power goals sensible! If I was starting from scratch it would have been much simpler/cheaper to use a couple turbos BUT I already had a nice/expensive stainless exhaust system which I didn't want to cut up!
 

Crossthreaded

Active Member
Apr 16, 2019
539
150
I know you put "free" in exclamation marks ;) but I find it amazing how many people on youtube videos by 'automotive enthusiasts' often claiming that turbo charges are using free energy!
Absolutely, No free lunch here! About 10 years ago I was over visiting my daughter and her family in Southern Maryland and my son in law, knowing I am interested in any form of motor sport - he didn't know I was interested in Drag Racing at that time - Asked if I'd like to spend the day at Budds Creek watching some Drag Racing. https://ism3.infinityprosports.com/...ebuilder/sites/201601/www/en/track/map-facts/ It was a moderate sized meeting with a variety of very different machines racing and I got into conversation with a mechanic from one of the "Funny Cars" running that day. They had just switched from running a big "jimmy" (GMC blower) mechanically driven from the crankshaft - much like the one in that video I posted - to running twin turbos (one on each bank of cylinders. Their engine was making quite a bit more power once it got up on the turbos but they were having problems launching off the line. Trouble with a turbo is it doesn't really start to blow until the engine is under load so you can sit and rev it all you like but when you drop the clutch and try to make it take off it just bogs down. We had an absolutely fascinating conversation about all the strategies they were trying, over fueling to try to spin the turbo up was spectacular with lots of backfires and flames. Here's a few pictures taken on the day. One of the really great things about most meetings is you can wander around the pits and speak to the people involved with the cars, very like speed hilclimbing and I've always found everyone very friendly and willing to talk about their cars - as long as they are not giving away any "secrets"!

Maryland spring 2012 05-05-2012 15-28-07 2048x1536 12-05-2012 16-35-30 2048x1536.JPG

Maryland spring 2012 05-05-2012 15-28-07 2048x1536 12-05-2012 16-47-07 2048x1536.JPG

Maryland spring 2012 05-05-2012 15-28-07 2048x1536 12-05-2012 19-03-44 2048x1536.JPG

Maryland spring 2012 05-05-2012 15-28-07 2048x1536 12-05-2012 20-13-13 2048x1536.JPG

They also have a "Junior Dragster" class for the kids. This is very serious stuff if a liitle underwhelming to watch after the "Big Boys" have been out to play but engineering wise it's fascinating. Here's the power unit in one:

Maryland spring 2012 05-05-2012 15-28-07 2048x1536 12-05-2012 19-51-59 2048x1536.JPG

Based I believe on Briggs and Stratton designs the engines are absolute works of art and, from the way these little cars go, obviously produce a lot more power than any lawnmower engine I've ever seen. I found them especially interesting because I worked with horticultural machines for the last 15 years of my working life and I couldn't tell you how many of these wee side valve (or "Flathead" or "L head" as our cousins across the pond call them) engines I've had in pieces.

I was very amused to see the last pump on the refueling island:

Maryland spring 2012 05-05-2012 15-28-07 2048x1536 12-05-2012 19-32-08 2048x1536.JPG

Not too many of these around at your average motorway filling station! - The "Fuelers" run on Methanol mixed with Nitro Methane and produce obscene amounts of horse power from 8 litre plus engines. 11,000 horse power doing the quarter mile in just under 4 seconds from a standing start with terminal speeds around 330 mph. In fact they cut the distance from a quarter mile to 1000 ft (300 ft less than the quarter mile) some years ago because speeds etc were getting too dangerous.

If you've never witnessed some "serious" drag racing I can strongly recommend it. The smells of the exotic fuels, the very different looking vehicles and the acceleration, speeds and sheer violence of the big engined cars is quite something to behold.
 
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SuperV8

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May 30, 2019
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They had just switched from running a big "jimmy" (GMC blower) mechanically driven from the crankshaft - much like the one in that video I posted - to running twin turbos (one on each bank of cylinders. Their engine was making quite a bit more power once it got up on the turbos but they were having problems launching off the line. Trouble with a turbo is it doesn't really start to blow until the engine is under load so you can sit and rev it all you like but when you drop the clutch and try to make it take off it just bogs down. We had an absolutely fascinating conversation about all the strategies they were trying, over fueling to try to spin the turbo up was spectacular with lots of backfires and flames.

Yes, sounds like Anti-Lag used by the old rally cars - sounds spectacular but don't expect the turbos to last too long!

Agree you have to see/feel top fuel cars in person - amazing, making the ground shake!
 
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Crossthreaded

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Apr 16, 2019
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Yes, sounds like Anti-Lag used by the old rally cars - sounds spectacular but don't expect the turbos to last too long!

Agree you have to see/feel top fuel cars in person - amazing, making the ground shake!
Agreed. It's not just the sight and sounds. If you are near the start line you can actually feel the compressive effect of the open exhaust on your body. It's an amazing experience. I remember the first meetings I attended at Santa Pod, standing at the side of the fire up lane as they pushed the cars with another push vehicle to get them started. They would push them with the engines turning over until the oil pressure had built up, then enable the ignition system and the engine would, hopefully, start. Most of the V8s ran "Zoomies" - exhaust pipes which exited to the side with the ends up turned, many still do, it's a popular configuration. As the car went past you would be treated to a light "rain" of neat methanol/nitro fuel as they went past, followed a few moments later by your eyes weeping prolifically from it all! Most now start with a detachable electric motor so you don't see push staring so much now. If you're interested google

If you're interested in British drag racing history a chap called Nick Pettitt has done some very interesting compilations on you tube - just search "British Drag Racing 60/s/70's" For more up to date stuff just search Santa Pod. By the way, I've no vested interest in this other than being an enthusiast - maybe you could guess that though?
 
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