I have a question.... Simple actually....

What exactly kicks the turbo in.
Or is it always "kicked in" to some degree....

I can feel when its doing its thing,
but is it always doing that 100% of the time,
to some degree.. Is it vacuum triggered?
Does it sit idle until something triggers it??

Looking at some of the pics that someone had on this site somewhere,
its quite an elaborate device. Insane gears, almost like a transmission.
I aways thought they were a lot simpler than that...

Yeah please, educate me on the mini turbos.....

I do know when it seems to be kicked in, you're gone!!!!!


Thanks

 

Turbos are only on when exhaust pressure is high enough to drive it... i.e. "on-boost". The MINIs have a twin scroll design so they are on-boost at pretty low engine speeds... only around 1800rpm before you get lots of torque. Hopefully I am not spreading mis-information with my over simplified explanation

 

Besides the Wikipedia page, I found this page pretty helpful when I was first learning about turbos myself. http://www.streetracersonline.com/ar...urbo/index.php

 

Thanks guys, that really helped to clear things up.....
I never knew about the exhaust being used in this process....

 

BMW are looking at tri-turbos which is neat... I think for the next M3? Two scrolls run by exhaust pressure, and then a third somehow electronically driven for instant boost.