twin turbo, advantages and disadvantages??

[reminisce11]

whats the advantages and disadvantages of twin turbo, and also would a single turbo be better than a twin turbo, vice versa. and i did search for this info before i posted it

this doesnt go to 4 cyl directly, i'm talking about in general, especially with 6 cyl motors like an rb or 2jz.

[wootwoot]

twin turbo set ups are complicated and dont offer much advantage in a small displacement 4 cylinder. they do offer quick spooling which can be accomplished with a properly sized new gt series single turbo though. its just double the stuff to go wrong in my eyes. stay simple and keep it single =)

[reminisce11]

i'm not trying to go twin turbo or anything like that, i was just curious about the advantages and disad. about having one

[wootwoot]

only real advantage is quicker spool and easier plumbing on v engine configurations

[97DubTruck]

twin turbo setups aren't really that complicated. but they are usually matched up to bigger displacement vehicles (even a rotary which is a 2.6 liter when the engine is running.) to prevent lag. supras and rx7s have one turbo spooling the other one while 300zx's have them hit at the same time because of the v6 (two separate manifolds and exhausts.)

anyway single turbos are where MOST twin turbo applications go for big numbers. mostly because 1 large turbo is going to flow more cfm's than two smaller but upgraded ones in most cases. this is why when you see a supra or skyline with single turbo instead of twins its probably wicked fast.

I dont know. That's all i can think of. I know there is more stuff out there and I dont know all the details or whatever but consider that a LIGHT summary.

[coldfire07]

Single turbo gives higher power.
Twin turbos produce a lower boost threshold and have more things that can go wrong.

[wootwoot]

from what i was lead to understand, the supra was not a sequential turbo set up and what you described was not sequential. a sequential turbo set up such as on the 3rd rx-7 has 2 different sized turbos,one being smaller than the other. the smaller turbo is used for lower rpms since it spools practically instantly but because of its incredible small size it can not make power in the upper rpms. because of this at a certrain rpm exhaust gasses are channeled to the larger turbo in a smooth movement allowing it to continue on to redline. this system was ridiculously complicated and there are around 50 short vaccum lines that control this operation. if you ever saw it, you'd be terrified and never ever want to touch it. when it works right it is practically flawless and the transition between turbos can barely be felt since they begin to spool the second turbo before the first is out of its range. mazda LOVES doing crazy hard complicated different things...

[andrave]

the supra is a sequential.. the 1jz from the soarer is not though. The skyline isn't either, they are both parallel.
advantages of twin turbos systems is the opportunity to make higher power, and still maintain a tractable power band. The two highest powered supras and skylines (SP engineering and the veilside one) both use twin garrett gt30 variants. And they are both making over 1000 hp.
another advantage is having a soft fail mode, where one turbo fails but you still get some boost to get you home or finish the race. With a big single turbo, if it blows up you are screwed.
The people that say twin turbos means "twice the stuff to go wrong" are confused... the only difference with a twin turbo is that there are two turbos. If you consider the entire engine bay, you are still going to have injectors, blow offs, intercoolers, management, fuel rails, ignition timing, spark amplification... and the only thing you have two of compared to a single turbo, is the the turbos themselves.

[FRpilot]

The people that say twin turbos means "twice the stuff to go wrong" are confused... the only difference with a twin turbo is that there are two turbos. If you consider the entire engine bay, you are still going to have injectors, blow offs, intercoolers, management, fuel rails, ignition timing, spark amplification... and the only thing you have two of compared to a single turbo, is the the turbos themselves.

to be nitpicky.. two mafs, two air filters, and smics also.. in most cases. lol..

[andrave]

why two mafs? most use one throttle body so you can run one mafs. You can Y them together to the same air filter, too.
setup is only as hard as you make it...
preferably with any turbo car you would have no mafs anyway.

and I've never heard of people having problems with intercoolers (aside from crash damage) but there are only a couple cars that use twin intercoolers... mostly audis or 300zx.
supra, skyline, rx7 all use a single.