Essentially, your average diesel loses three per cent of power for every 1, 000 feet it ascends. So imagine taking your ‘home into the likes of the Snowy Mountains- climb 3, 000 feet and you’ve already lost close to 10 per cent of power. As a result your vehicle will be sluggish and will invariably prove incapable of holding fifth gear.

In a non-turbocharged vehicle, because the fuel is delivered by mechanical means via the crankshaft, and because necessity demands the right foot be kept flat to the floor, fuel continues to increase but air volume starts to decrease- hence the black smoke.

But if you could find a way of getting air into the cylinder, you would then burn the fuel that si normally wasted. Which is exactly what a turbocharger does: to force-feeds the engine with pressurised air, thereby allowing more air (and therefore more fuel) to be introduced into the cylinder. And that means more power and higher combustion efficiency.

Bookmark It