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Pratham Goel

Let's Talk Engines: Turbo Charged v/s Naturally Aspirated

The Indian automobile sector is widening day by day and that’s why the manufacturers are

engineering and planning some promising products for the customers. Many companies are

rendering a vehicle with multiple engine options. All of us are aware of gasoline and diesel engines but some new technologies are also introduced like turbo-charged engines. I am here to discuss naturally aspirated engines and turbocharged engines and later we will see which is more promising and compatible.



So firstly discuss some aspects where naturally aspirated engines are better than turbocharged engines. The maintenance is higher in turbochargers because of complex designs and is less reliable than naturally aspirated engines.

No doubt turbochargers give a boost to vehicle power, as it increases the air-flow in the

cylinder by compressing it and increases the air-fuel ratio, but initially, at lower RPMs, we generally face Turbo Lag, this is because exhaust gases aren’t moving as fast as required to spin an impeller that produces boost pressure, but at mid and Higher RPMs lag is overcome. We generally feel this lag because of the smaller engine size and fewer cylinders, I will explain the reason later.



To overcome this turbo lag Twin-Turbo (turbocharge and supercharge), which provides instant boost and are commonly found in supercars or performance cars (high range cars). Engineers find an economic way to minimise this effect by introducing VGT (variable geometry turbo), they have extra fins on the turbine section which maintains the exhaust gases flow which in turn helps in maintaining shaft speed even at lower RPMs by decreasing aerial flow, narrowed nozzle (increasing particle velocity). This is now used in many passenger cars which have turbo variant Naturally aspirated cars uses technologies like vtec, vtvt, vvt, ddis, mpi, crdi and many more which maintains multiple air-fuel ratios according to engine requirement and throttle opening regulated by ECU. That is why no such lag occurs here. Though similar technologies are also used in turbo engines too.













Now let’s flip the coin, now what is attractive about turbochargers, Millage or Fuel efficiency of turbocharged engines is quite impressive. You may have noticed that generally, the turbocharged engines are smaller in size which means fewer cc engines. So the fuel consumption will be less and hence good fuel efficiency. So are we compromising with the power, NO, in fact, they are capable of producing even more horsePower and Torque. A turbo increases the pressure in the cylinder which allows a more explosive bang when a spark plug fires off, allowing more energy flow, which in turn produces more torque and even provide more pull to the vehicle.


Maximum passenger cars offer a 3-cylindered turbo and 4-cylinder NA engine. At initial RPMs, a 3-cylindered turbo is no doubt less powerful than a 4-cylinder NA engine, but within a few minutes this 3-cylindered turbo will be much more powerful and torque than the 4-cylinder NA engine.



Naturally aspirated engines are a good choice for those who want to purchase a longer life vehicle and ready to compromise with power and millage. A turbo charger is no doubt a better choice than a VGT Working Supercharger & Turbocharger it is quite more promising because of more power, more torque, better fuel efficiency which we all expect from a good vehicle. Yes, we may miss a powerful start because of turbo lag, but turbo boost will definitely thrill you.

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