Procharger Vs. Supercharger: Is There A Difference, Or Are They The Same?

It's not uncommon these days to encounter reliable cars with turbocharged engines. But before the recent rise of the turbocharger, the preferred method to boost performance was to utilize a supercharger — not to be confused with the superchargers used to restore batteries for electric vehicles. The end result of increasing an engine's power and torque is effectively the same, but how a turbocharger and a supercharger go about achieving those results is quite different.

While turbochargers are in vogue today, there are still those who swear by superchargers. Your choice would then come down to which manufacturer you are going to go with, as you probably are not going to be able to get one directly from the automaker's factory. You could go with companies like Vortech or Whipple, but ProCharger is one of the best companies out there to supercharge your vehicle.

ProCharger is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, establishing itself as one of the top brands in this field. If a supercharger is a supercharger, you might think that all of these brands are created equal, but when it comes to ProCharger, there are reasons why its products have been able to separate themselves from others on the market. Here, we are going to get into how exactly a supercharger operates and whether or not the ones made by ProCharger do enough to separate themselves from your average supercharger. If you are in the market to supercharge your vehicle, perhaps this can act as a bit of a handy guide to let you know if ProCharger is the right company for you.

As was previously mentioned, most car companies today look to turbocharge their vehicles to boost their power and torque. The difference between superchargers and turbochargers may seem slight, but it's an important one. Both devices use compressors to push more air into the combustion chamber to increase the engine displacement. In the case of the turbocharger, it accomplishes this by utilizing a turbine fan and a compressor fan in conjunction with the engine's exhaust. When these fans rotate, they compress the air and bring it back to the engine with pure kinetic motion.

Superchargers, on the other hand, are controlled by the engine. A belt pulley connected to the crankshaft turns the fan to get the compressed air. So, instead of the power being generated by natural motion, it is the actual mechanics that get the supercharger working. Car companies have moved over to turbochargers because they tend to be lighter, and you can get better fuel mileage with them. For those looking for even power with no lag from when you press down on the gas pedal, that is where a supercharger comes into play. You may deal with a loud engine and higher carbon emissions, but you will be getting that power.

[Featured image by Thomas Vogt via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]

On the face of it, a ProCharger supercharger kit does everything you would expect any other centrifugal supercharger to do. When talking about the differences from other brands, some design features allow the ProCharger to function at a higher rate than those made by the competition. The most important of these features is that it doesn't rely on the engine for oil lubrication. Instead, the ProCharger has its own oil, allowing for self-lubrication. When oil has to be shared across the two, you will find yourself getting oil changes far more regularly than you would like, and if you don't do that, the engine and the supercharger could both break down unnecessarily. A ProCharger eliminates that.

Another thing that the ProCharger has built-in that many other superchargers didn't is its own internal cooling system. Superchargers can run hot and heavy, and being able to rely on intercoolers rather than getting supplementary cooling from elsewhere keeps the ProCharger in check. Nowadays, internal cooling is fairly commonplace for superchargers, but ProCharger was the first to do it. Similarly, the ProCharger comes with its own gearbox that can increase the compression ratio. While this would put more wear and tear on the gears in theory, ProCharger built these gearboxes with stronger materials that — along with the self-lubrication — nullify that strain.

ProCharger has supercharger kits are compatible with automobiles made by companies ranging from Ford to Jeep to Toyota and more, and the output increase could be anywhere from 170 to 315 hp more than what you're already getting. How can you go wrong with a supercharger that gives that kind of extra power?