how much power does a turbo make
 

So I have been throwing out some thoughts with friends of mine and have been encouraged with the efficiency of my last turbo charged small car. (1992 plymouth laser) It made me wonder how much power is in that turbo when it spools up.

I am not talking about using it to make a super eco mod, I am thinking of using a turbo for a different purpose.

Can anyone tell me basics on how to figure out how much power a turbo is actually producing so I can apply it to something more fun :)

When my smaller turbo was all buy its self my smaller it ran at a peak of about 40hp.
I only ran it at 1/3 of its rated capacity.

There is nothing better a turbo can do than force air into a diesel engine.

It's not the turbo that gives extra power. It's the air forced to the combustion chamber. So it's very simple more air + more fuel (to have decent air to fuel mixture) equals to more power. Actually connecting turbo to the exhaust decrease power of the engine, by restricting exhaust flow. Forced induction gives you more power that turbo is consuming so the overall power is higher than without turbo. Of course when turbo is spinning with the right speed. If not you have turbo lag when engine is weaker than similar naturally aspirated engine.
That's why you can't get straight answer to your question. There's too many variables in the equation. Turbo can easily double the engine's power or triple it, if the engine will handle such power. Most of the engines will handle 20-30% of power increase without other mods. If you plan more power you may need to rebuild your engine with new pistons, connecting rods, maybe even crankshaft. It's cheaper to swap more powerful engine than rebuild old one for more power. But it's a great fun to build one though :)

I would be curious to know how much horsepower a turbo generates at the turbine shaft.

For the OP. A very cool on line tool to use running different turbo scenarios is Matchbot by Borg Warner.
Performance Turbos | TurboDriven.com - BorgWarner Turbo Systems

It has lots of info and gives turbo shaft power also.

Check out the online tutorial or if you have any questions feel free to let me know.

Interesting question... :)

This is not true with diesels. I have not touched the fuel injection rate or amount on my mechanical injected diesel. But after I installed the turbo on my non-turbodiesel I had much more power and +2mpg with the same fuel.

One of the very cool things F1 is doing next year is there new turbo DI V6 engines. The new 2014 F1 engines will have a MGHU (Motor Generator Heat Unit) that will produce electricity for storage and on demand power through a MGU-K unit (120kW max) added to the ICE power unit with the engine at a fuel limited max of 100kg/hr.

These new engines will be more of a N/A DI version with state of art fuel
"spray guided direct injection". So they will have the efficiency of today's N/A engines with the power of a turbo charger. The turbo will not just add power but also will help with engine delta p. I think we will see some of the most advance BSFC to date.

This could be a game changer as far as what it will bring to the OEM level. Just last week Honda said they are going to get involved.

Visit the MatchBot link I provided for the answer.

Yeah, it is true. There is power required to spin the turbo charger, that has to come from the engine. People always think it's just "Waste Gas", but it isn't. There is a load placed on the engine to make the turbo charger spin, if you just let the air blow into the open by not hooking it up to your engines air induction, it would really slow you down. But since it is packing in a lot of air into your engine, the net gain is that it does help, you're MPG increase is due to the turbo allowing you to operate in a better region of the BSFC chart for your engine. This is basic turbo charger stuff.

You don't get something for nothing, but the benefits outweigh the losses in this case. It is understandable for you to think as you do, but it is not accurate.