How do you....

[halfracedrift]

How do you tell if a car is turbocharged or not just by listening to the engine? is it possible?

 

[Nightmage82]

dump valve is a dead give away, if the car accelerates and the driver then lets go of the pedal (i.e. when they shift gears) and you hear a PSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH sound, then its turbo for sure. however some cars (like lotus) dont have dump valves on their turbos so its not as easy. if the turbo is worn you will hear a turbine kind of sound whirring away as the revs get higher, but if everything is in good order, ur unlikely to tell the difference from outside. everyone agree?

 

[halfracedrift]

But... lets say.. two cars have identical engines(same car) but then, one has a bolt-on turbo
will you be able to hear the difference, even though the turbo is not that big?

 

[Josh]

If you have two identical motors, and one is turbo... I'm guessing the intake noise would be quite a bit louder on the turbo'ed one than on the non-turbo'ed one. You would probably hear a small whine too.

I have a video of a Maxima that had just had a huge single turbo put on a few days prior to the video, and the turbo was loud just at idle. It sounded like a C5 cargo jet.

 

[Nightmage82]

Originally posted by Josh
It sounded like a C5 cargo jet.

 

[Zrow]

You wouldn't happen to have a link to that video, would you?

 

[Josh]

No. I've had the video for 6-8 months now probably.

At first it's in-car with him going through the first 3 gears, then it cuts to the front of the car with the car on, and the hood open. The camera man backs up about 12 feet, and it's still very audible. Sounded like metal scraping loudly. Didn't sound right, but I doubt anything was wrong.

 

[Shinez]

The turbo's exhaust will be alot quieter....You'll notice one is considerably quiter sound due to the noise dampening/air distortion the turbo causes....Asside from that depending on how loud the car is itself you might be able to hear the turbo spooling up

 

[Shinez]

I've heard some pretty bad turbo sounds myself...I saw a, geo...What are those small coupes, not prism's and not metro's...The "Del Sol" ish kind...Well one of those, and at idle the turbo sounded as if it was beeping it was just a constant "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee".... pretty annoying, but turbo none the less

 

[halfracedrift]

so basically.. things to looks for... are that the engine note is actually more pitched, but a rather quiet sound?

 

[Frustrated Palm]

Some turbo's, like said by some people already, will make a turbine or rotary kind of sound (same goes for superchargers, but they range in loudness. Some are high pitched while others are lower pitched...

 

[Frustrated Palm]

BTW, if you try www.dodge-vipers.com and look at their video's section there is a Video of a Viper with a Supercharger. Compare the sound to ones that dont have one...

 

[Shinez]

All I have to say is as of late, ford has been losing it with their S/C's....Or never really had it..The Lightning stock spool slipped horribly, and so did the stock Cobra one, unless you replaced it with a lightning one, and put a smaller yet worn belt on it...Ford needs to start using Cogs, or some crazy pulley's