3 Steps To Become a Turbocompressor Expert

A turbo compressor is one of the most known and used type of compressed exhaust engine’s. Many people have a turbo compressor in their car yet never get to know the main mechanism behind the process. Because of an abundant amount of information found on the internet it’s hard to understand the essential principle, which is complicated when not explained simple enough. It took me sometime as well to figure out how it works, and no matter how long I would dissemble or assemble the compressor in my workshop, I only fully understood its mechanism by reading many articles. I was disappointed however by the amount of low quality articles that made me more confused about how the turbo compressor works.

This article will attempt to explain a turbo engine as simple as possible to understand its principle.

Step 1 : Let us Take A Look At a Cross Section Design Of a Turbo Compressor

The turbo compressor is built on 2 fundamental components, the compressorwheel that compresses the intake air (Blue stream on figure) and the turbinewheel that converts exhaust gas available energy to mechanical energy:

                                   Cross sectional image of the turbage compressor

turbo compressor

Both turbine and compressorwheel are connected through the main driving shaft which compresses intake air (blue stream). 

  • That’s basicly how simple a turbo compressor is! 

Its essential to study the image above which is the best picture on the net for explaining its principe. In addition, this youtube movie visualy demonstrates how the turbo compressor is built:

Once this simple principle is known, we can advance to the next subheading and go more into detail:

Step 2: Detailed Components of a Turbo Compressor

Only look at this section if you have completely understand Step 1. As explained in step 1, the main driving shaft compresses the intake air (Fig. 1) Since turbo compressors run on very high rounds per minute (2000 rpm) there are high pressure loads on the use materials. When pressure gets to high the pressure can be reduced using the wastegate. The wastegate is mounted on the Turbine wheel. When the turbo pressure reaches a critical value the wastegate opens and exhaust gasses are blocked so the turbo stops rotating the shaft and turbopressure diminishes.

The following figure shows a detailed figure about the turbo compressor:

                                        Detailed component list of the turbo compressor

  1. Airfilter
  2. Compressor wheel turbo
  3. Intercooler
  4. Intake collector
  5. Intake valve
  6. Outlet valve
  7. Outlet collector
  8. Turbinewheel turbo
  9. Outlet pipe
  10. Wastegate


Step 3 : Practical Things to Know When Driving a Turbo Compressed Engine

If you are riding a turbo compressed engine its beneficial to understand that one of the disadvanteges is that the turbo needs some time to build up pressure when the gas pedal is pressed. Big trucks use larger turbo’s and experience the ‘turbo-lag’ phenomena. With low engine speed is a low turbo pressure wich slows down acceleration speed of your vehicle. Large trucks with a turbo compressed engine therefore need to accelerate slowly in order to prevent damage and cavitation to the turbo compressor.

When the turbo pressure rises the driver experience a ‘turboboost’ and the engine drastically increases in horse power.

  • Accelerate slowly when driving a vehicle with turbo compressor and change gears at the right rpm’s in order to save the longevity of your motor

Another disadvantage of turbo compressor is the frequent detoriation of the blow off valves that remove compressed air between turbo and engine. With a vent-to-atmosphere air is released to the environment and the driver hears the famous ‘pssssshtttt’ noise, because of this a too rich fuel is created and uncombusted exhaust gasses damage the turbo compressor.