On Fri, 28 Jul 2017 09:05:08 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Thu, 27 Jul 2017 23:29:21 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 7/27/2017 11:17 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:



I did a quick look at the Hondas, and the small and mid size cars did
not seem to even offer a v6. Just a 4 and a turbo 4. I don't care for
the turbos on a street car.


Why?
My last car was a 2.0 turbo. I was quite happy with the performance.

Today's turbos are a far cry from the Corvair or Jetfire of the
sixties, or the old SVO Mustang!!! Rven the Saab turbos of rhe
seventies and eighties were very crude by today's standards and were
considered consumeables. Today's turbos should last the life of the
car

I admitt that I do not understand the whole thoughs on the street
turbos. Back in the 1960's many engines had a compression ratio of
about 10:1 or more. Then came the air polution acts and the compression
ratios were droped to well under that. I know there is a practical
limit on the compression ratio for engines.

Wouldn't the turbos on the low compression engines be just about like
going back up on the compression ratio ? Forcing more air into the
engine is all that the turbo does doesn't it ?

My thinking is the turbo is just more junk added to an engine to beat
the polution rules.

All this is for stree cars and not ones ran on the tracks where even
with the high compression ratios are not good enough to produce the
maximum power.

Not checking out the turbos, do they require the higher octain (higher
price ) fuel ?

While not really the case, my thoughts are like one I read years ago in
that there is no subistute for cubic inches.


What turbos do is increase the efficiency of the engine by recouping
some of the waste energy in the exhaust to compress the air going into
the engine. In effect, this increases the "displacement " of the
engine when required for more power under boost, while running a small
low compression engine for economy when extra power is not required.
Many turbo engines do require premium fuel, while some "recommend"
premium fuel.
The old "there is no replacement for displacement" is kinda true -
but a 2.5 liter engine running 1 atmosphere of boost IS a 5 liter
engine - but has the advantage of high compression as well, making it
more efficient than a 5 liter normally aspirated engine.
With doday's sophisticated engine controls, and particularly with
GDI, the octane requirement penalty of high compression is mitigated
to a large degree.