I was pondering about fitting a supercharger to my pickup wondering if anyone else has done it and or had any luck
FWIW, a small turbo is much easier to do on a flathead and just as HAMB as the supercharger you're showing. I've got a pair of SU carbs off an MG Midget I've been saving for just such an application, cause I saw a photo of a Brit build which looked trick. jack vines
There was a thread on this a while back, some guy built a roadster for the TROG with a Ford tractor engine and Graham supercharger. He was dubious at first , but we encouraged him. In the end he was impressed with the performance, and remarked that he expected the motor to give up at 3000 RPM but it just seemed to keep going faster and faster, which was more or less what I told him to expect. The car gave a good account of itself in the races in spite of being only 130 cu in, probably the smallest motor there. For various technical reasons an old flathead responds very well to supercharging provided the bearings, pistons, rings, valves etc are in top shape to begin with. In other words you have to start with a good, rebuilt motor. A supercharger will just blow up a weak motor faster.
What type of super charger is that up there? Makes for a cool look but I'm not sure if a stock bottom end can handle it.
Any engine in good shape will handle 4 - 5 pounds of boost. When you get up around 7 or higher you need to modify the motor to handle the pressure. But, 4 -5 pounds will give you a 25% or 35% increase in power. McCulloch claimed a 40% increase in rear wheel HP which experts found believable. They used 5 pounds. Kaiser claimed a 27% increase with 4 pounds boost with their McCulloch supercharged flathead six.
I think it is a AMR 500, they are used on many Japanese micro cars. Quite common in Jap motor import places in Australia at least.
The supercharger is a Toyota sc14 all self contained no oil feed needed. Yes that's the boost I was thinking 4 to 5 should make a nice little increase
Here is one that was at the Georgetown Hill Climb. It is a Graham supercharger. The installation was well thought out and nicely done. I'm going to steal some of the ideas. I believe the blower has about a 5 psi output. One disadvantage to a centrifugal blower like this in this kind of application, is it doesn't like sudden RPM changes. Hard on drive components.
I had the graham supercharger on the 41 ford truck banger aka 9n tractor motor. It worked great but like Rusty said my motor was used and the rings didn't last. I didn't have a problem with sudden rpm changes. She wanted all I could give it and had a snappy throttle responce. It was only a 118 cubic inch motor and it took a single 97 carb with no problems. Right now I'm putting a v8 in this car and it will be up for sale. I'm saving the supercharged banger for a future project. I want to build the motor with a cam and some porting to see what I can really get out of it.
So Clark would you say the supercharger worked well with the 4 banger, gave a useful increase in performance for a reasonable cost of time and money? One of the reasons for using a supercharger, is you don't need to do anything else or buy parts like high compression head, cam, dual carbs, manifolds etc that are always expensive, and sometimes hard to get or impossible to get for some motors.
Rusty....shit yeah! When a 118 in motor can beat a 200 inch motor , I would say it helped. Or I could say it was my driving abilities ☺ I was amazed that it worked as well as it did. Look at the 97 carb working fine on that small of a motor when some guys can't get them to work on the bigger A and B motors. Yeah I don't have to go for the cam or extra work but Ive got the bug to see just what that little motor can do
This banger is not mine but might be as it’s for sale currently. Graham supercharged banger. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Blown banger .. worth finding the posts to the engine rebuild. Its epic. A testimony to one mans dogged determination to sort some serious engineering issues . Video is the result of a fantastic effort. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1648051322045952
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