Supercharging a 1957 283 Chevy

I have a 1957 283 in a 1931 Ford that I want to redo. What about using the '57 block & heads with some port work, good crank, rods, pistons, head gaskets & blower cam and a 4-71 pumping 5-6 lbs of boost? The boost should make it breathe pretty well. I'd like it to make 400 H.P. without becoming a bag of cool paperweights. Think it could work?
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It can be done. One thing to consider is the static compression of the motor with those heads. Im not sure exactly what it is, but it needs to be low enough so that the 5-6 lbs of boost won't be too much.
I put a 6-71 on a '58 283 with great luck, and honestly, i didn't build it for the blower so i didn't have all the "right" parts in it. I picked the blower up after i built the mill, so it was an afterthought.
It still ran great and i never had a single problem...that was a 5-6 lb boost set up.

There's a lot of threads on blown small cubic inch engines on here with some good advice that may give you some feedback too.


Tony

 

Thanks, Tony
Did it make decent power?

 

I had a 471 on my 283 and ran it one to one - made 8-9-10 psi and I have the cast 283 crank - cast stock pistons - and used 882 76cc heads to get the compression down. I also used Summit #1102 camshaft. It runs AWESOME.

here is a video http://youtu.be/IZgs_-RJrZc

 

It was better than decent for a street car, it hauled ass..I'm doing another for my current 32, only this one's a small journal 327 and i'll built it FOR the blower..it should haul the goods and be reliable too.

Tudor's description is a LOT like what i had..like real close

Tony

 

I had a '57 283 with a McCulloch blower.

Ran really good...

But the Blower didn't last, the "expert" that rebuilt it screwed up ( the paxton guy in Ca)

And the engine had lots of blow by and crank case pressure because the machine shop put some rings upside down on the pistons ( local shop right after it went under new ownership )

Without those two blunders I might still be running that engine today.
But the blow by fumes made me nauseous, and the blower died with a blood curdling death squeal.


I found the problems when I went for my Plan B,
A 327 with the same heads & cam, and slightly lower boost to get to about the same HP as the 283 had...

With the help of a better blower guy ( john Erb )
And a better engine guy ( my buddy Fred Williams)

 

I picked up a 61 283 at a garage sale last year, the guy told me was built for supercharger I figured was worth gamble. Ran numbers 57 corvette forged crank flat top pistons and sig erson tq20 cam. Could this have been built for a blower. Sorry to hijack your post

 

In 1955, ol' Zora Arkus-Duntov put a 4-53 GMC blower on a 265 to see how tough the new engine was. I think it put out well over 300 HP and ran like forever! That was a stone cold stock engine, too, I believe. Somewhere I have the Hot Rod mag with the article in it.

 

You will have to under drive it about 10% to get it down to 5-6 PSI but it will work nice do you have the blower and intake? 471 intakes for sbc are not easy to come by. I would also recommend a MSD BTM box it will make life alot easier.

 

Nope, I have an old TR1 tunnel ram that I was gonna run but I love the idea of the supercharger if I could make it work well. I guess I could slow down a 6-71 enuff to work but it seems like a 4-71 would be a better match & have a neat look too.

 

I'll second that it ran AWESOME! 8 hour road trip without problems...that thing ruled

 

I've got a bds plate that will mount a 471 on a 671 intake if you can't find a 471 intake.

 

Can I get 4 97's to work on a 4-71 or would they be a nightmare? I love the looks of'em but I want the car to run well.

 

I dont see why not, Im sure its been done before. Seems like somebody was making top plates for this recently maybe Vintage Speed?

 

Thinking about putting a McCulloch V57 on a 327... Is there mounting brackets that someone already makes or do I need to have some made?

 

I may have one.

I'll check.

Or, if you want, I'll sell you the complete setup off my engine.
Bracket, idler, freshly rebuilt blower, modified and dialed in carb, carb bonnet, pulleys, cam & followers, and all the tubes and hoses.

 

Thanks, I think all I need is bracket,idler...yours bolts to front of head that has accessory holes?? I have the carb hat for 2x4s and have a nice supercharger... Thanks and please let me know.

 

I'll go look for it today, and I'll P/M you.