Procharger vs Nitrous

Now let’s get started for all those power enthusiasts that are hungry for more power which option is best supercharger or nitrous? Is having that snail shell type power adder the best choice or that 15lb bottle full with compressed gases the best option. Well let’s break down the two choices and see their pros and cons.

So let’s start with the Procharger system. This system cost roughly $5,200 and up depending on upgrades and accessories. This system uses the belt system off the front of the motor to drive a pulley that connects to a gear driven centrifugal supercharger wheel. One nice thing about the Procharger system is they feature a self-lubricated, self-sealed unit that does not require you to run oil lines from the oil pan to the head unit however the units oil does have to be changed every 6000 miles. This pulley design gives instant power with the touch of the pedal and unlike turbos that take time to spool up and create power once spooled there is no turbo lag or extremely hot exhaust gas temperatures.  Prochargers are made to fit a variety of vehicles and with different size Procharger head units the power level range is almost endless. With an estimated 25-45% increase in power with a non-inter-cooled system and a massive 50-85% gain on a inter-cooled system all on stock injectors and stock fuel pump this is system packs a huge punch when trying to add reliable horsepower to any car or ride. More power can be achieve through upgrading the fuel system and fuel injectors and upgrading to a different Procharger head unit. The standard unit supplies roughly 8 psi to the intake with an upgraded unit higher psi can be achieved and thus making more power with the proper amount of fuel.

Now for the nitrous side of things, we’ve all watched the Fast And Furious movies and at the flick of a switch the nitrous bottle gauge moves, nitrous flows through the lines and their thrown back into their seat and the view out the driver and passenger windows becomes a blur. Well this is movie magic but nitrous can be controlled via a switch and it does travel through lines but we don’t see that.  So let’s start with what is nitrous? Well nitrous is a liquid that is stored in a tank that is commonly mounted near the rear of the car. This liquid, when activated travels through a hose or line to the intake of the engine and changes to a gas under atmospheric conditions. Once it enters the engine it changes the normal air into a cooler denser air which therefore contains more oxygen, more oxygen allows for more fuel to be burned creating more power. 10 degrees drop in air temperature has the potential to increase the power by up to 1.5%. Now to the controls, nitrous can be activated by a switch which controls solenoids under the hood which allows the flow of the gas into the engine. Or there is a programmable controller that can be connected to the cars computer system and can open and close the solenoids when it senses a change in the accelerator pedal. Wide open throttle wide open solenoid, thus making more power. Now nitrous is also controlled by the size of the jetting. Jetting is a brass valve or insert that has a hole in the middle of it. It regulates how much nitrous is injected in to the engine.  So many nitrous kits have different horsepower jets; for example +100hp, +150hp, +200hp, etc. This jetting can be changed depending on the power level you’re trying to achieve and also what your car’s engine can handle.  When having bigger jets this uses more nitrous so remember nitrous is not a never ending liquid/gas, the tank has to be refiled depending on the usage and for a nitrous kit costing around $800 for a basic kit, nitrous can tend to be very expensive to the car enthuses with the hunger for power.

To conclude this both power adders can dramatically change the horsepower of the engine. But with a Procharger costing nearly 7 times the cost of a basic nitrous system is the belt driven turbo snail shell forced induction system out way the nitrous bottle and gases at a flick of a switch worth it.