supercharger or turbo?
I’d say turbo but remember that these engines don’t like boost too much on the stock internals. I’ve not done it to mine but heard of people throwing rods if the stock internals are on more than 7lbs of boost. I’m sure there would be someone here to offer more insight. But I’d go turbo…
I would say SC because it won’t really surge which is REALLY bad, however I understand that our engines are set up more for turbo than SC. They make good torque down low and kinda die off up high. So from my understanding the power we make low will get us up off the line into boost territory, where as SC’s (again this is my potentially flawed understanding) should be used for vehicles whose engines make their power up high and struggle down low.
Again, that may be flawed or at least overly simplified.
I’d say if you’re gonna do it, go turbo.
- Darron
I’d go for a Super Charger.
A Centrifugal Supercharger or a Whipple Supercharger.
Instant Power
Consistency
No erratic power spikes
Less Heat generated
Less space taken up in engine bay
Easier on automatics
I say, if Porsche uses turbos, and high end model Nissans and Toyotas use turbos, there is a good reason why we should turbo also.
Basically SCs are nice but on our car can become costly. Plus a turbo is much more tunable and with the right size turbo, you can also see full boost quickly.
Seems I am the only one that would prefer a SuperCharger. Perhaps some of you might change your mind after you look at this site.
Your not alone Mirror!
When I finally go boost, im doing the supercharger kit.
I’m all for superchargers, more reliable, bottom end torque is all there. However, if a person was to go serious turbo would be the way. As previously mentioned… forged parts are required.
Each has there own pros and cons but what really seperates them is the car they’re going on, It depends on if you want a mean street machine, or a REALLY wild ZX2. either way both will allow you to take on just about any civic… and ain’t that the point?! 
Dude no offense, but the mighty Zetec is not near the same caliper of an engine as any porshe or high end japs. keep porshe aside… the japs that run with turbos have been finely tuned so there are no driveability issues. which is a problem that often ensues after a turbo is installed. The engineering of it all, has been with ALOT of time, money, and errors.
ei: when the newest gen STI came out. most were called back after they started blowing up, meaning someone at Subaru wa going to get there pee-pee slaped for goofing up 
Both turbo and s/c have there advantages and the zetec is desighned better for turbo. all sais i would perfer a s/c there easier on the engine than a turbo and are more reliable in the long run. From what i understand the s/c unit from SEAM should be capable of about 10 to 12 boost w/ just the basic kit the stage 3 kit willl come w/ the internals needed to handle the 20lbs of boost it gives
prefer S/C, but it’s all dependent on which pipedream gets finished when I finally scrape together the money for the kit…I’m starting to think that the S/C is close to impossible for the Z, and impossible for a business to produce in a cost-effective manner. definitely prefer S/C, but most likely end up turbo…
Turbo!!! superchargers take too much power to make power.
Just remember, Superchargers are the weapon of choice in high end dragsters and funny cars.
only because there are rulz on what they can use. they all HAVE to use the same chargers other wise the would be using nitrous and turbos too.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a Turbo decreases the life of an engine faster than that of a Supercharger.
I like turbos, but maybe because all the supercharged cars I’ve own already had low end torque.
nitrous is more likely to decrease the life of a motor then turbo or supercharger. the heat increase is way higher on nitrous then the others.
My 2 cents is on a SC. Turbo seems like it would be good with nitros and some imports and european sports cars run dual stage turbos for both low end and high end power. But on our cars a decent dual screw SC kit would be more reliable, consistant power, less heat. Granted our stock zetecs probably need some upgraded internals to do it right.
But a factory Cobalt SS 2L SC’d stage two (apparently the dealer can install a stage two kit) produces 245HP and 230ftlb of torque and 205hp on stock internals(stageone).
Thats not bad but with proper tuning I think our zetecs can do better.
If you understand both sides of the fence you know it’s a loaded question. It’s like whats better N/A or boosted? If your building a car for a daily driver, auto cross, or windy road carver. where your in and out of gears alot… S/C is what you need. Hands down, no questions asked. no lag and consistant power. If your looking for a vehical to be super fast on the strates, or are on a budget then a turbo may be more to your liking. puond for pound turbos can produce more power cry and whine amout it all you want, but that is the truth. Sorry S/C guys.