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Which one is the best power adder? With all that we do here at Muscle Mustangs, more often than not, we run into that inevitable question when it comes to power adders, that being which one is the best. The answer to this question is about as clear as what the Presidential candidates promise us in this years election: your guess is as good as mine. Each type of power adder has its own advantages and disadvantages. Nitrous is generally cheaper initially to install, and can be regulated fairly easy through jet changes and other products such as an RPM window switch and the like. The disadvantage to nitrous is the fact that you have to keep refilling the bottle. When it comes to blowers, the initial investment is much more than that of a nitrous kit, and the supercharger, whether it be of the centrifugal or positive displacement type, uses a bit of power to turn as it is belt driven off of the crankshaft. The advantage to the supercharger is, obviously, it never needs a refill as the power is theoretically always there, and boost can be regulated via a boost controller. It doesn’t shock the tires as hard as nitrous because with the supercharger, the boost level rises with engine speed. Nitrous is on or off depending on whether the wide open throttle switch is activated or not. As for turbos, they are quickly becoming more and more prevalent in the Mustang community. The advantage to the turbo is that is uses energy that already exists. Exhaust gasses from the engine are used to spin the impeller, which ultimately spins the compressor side of the turbo to create boost. The disadvantages with the turbo lie in initial investment, packaging, and air inlet temperatures. Like the supercharger, the initial cost of a turbo kit is much higher than that of a nitrous kit. Packaging is difficult due to exhaust piping that needs to be run, which in a cramped engine bay, can be difficult. Finally, since the turbo utilizes exhaust gasses, which are extremely hot, air inlet temperatures are very high, requiring the use of an intercooler of sorts. This adds another kink to the packaging deal. More and more, we are seeing people use more than one power adder, such as nitrous with a turbo to reduce spool time. We even have a Nitrous Express kit on our project Lightning, the Fridge, which featured a Whipple 2.3-liter blower. We say featured because we made some changes to our beloved SVT hauler, though to see that, you will have to wait impatiently for a future issue of MM&FF to hit the newsstands. While each power adder has its own pros and cons, it just goes to show that there is something for everyone. Which one do you like the best? Let us know, as we always like to hear what everyone is doing. Now if I could only find someone crazy enough to throw a 350 hp shot of juice on a blown Terminator Cobra equipped with twin turbos…
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