Yes, a "swamp" meet. It was a muddy mess. 4 wheel drive trucks were getting stuck on flat ground. Turnout was very weak. However, someone brought in a 241 Dodge Red Ram Hemi with a Latham supercharger loosely attached to it. I have only seen one other of these beasts in my life. I can remember drooling over the pictures of them back when I was in Jr. High. Someone else got the Dodge, but I scored the Latham. It was manufactured in '61, and originally installed on a Nailhead Buick in Topeka, KS. It was removed, and installed on the side of a straight 8 Buick after that. As far as I know, it has been sitting since the '60's. It turns over glass smooth. The Carter sidedraft carbs are sticky in movement, but do move. This thing was about $795 new back in the day. What do ya think of this old exotic crap? Hmmm, I just picked up an old build '34 channeled coupe.....hmmm, Nailhead? Olds? Hemi? Y block? Caddy? Even a belly button chevy would be OK with this on top. I guess now I need to search the 'net for more info. The guy said only about 600 were made. I don't know about that, this one has a higher serial number than that. I also know all serial numbering does not start at one. Any experts on here? Thanks, BobW
Definitely a score! Looks like the competition model.As I recall there were two models and the difference was in the number of rotor blade assemblies inside.I believe they were 7 and 9 rotor models.Also it has the 4 Carter YF carbs instead of just two. I had a friend who had one on a stroker small block back in the early 1960's.The biggest problem he had was the carburetors floats would stick and it was difficult to get the belt to track properly.The adjustment was to loosen the bolts holding down the blower and move the back either left or right to keep the belt from riding on the pulley flange and wearing it out. He made up some small aluminum blocks with long Allen screws in them that were bolted to the manifold and allowed almost micrometer adjustments. Those things were so finely balanced that I remember breaking a belt once and I swear that thing kept spinning for almost 10 minutes! They didn't draw much horsepower either to run;about as much as a power steering pump.
I reached up and spun that snout this morning it was super smooth and effortless. Then I had a brief daydream of putting it on a flathead... and kept walking. Nice score.
You're welcome, I owned it for 20 yrs and never got around to use it. I will look around for the other part. thanks
How much boost do these things make? I recall that they were sort of modular, they could stack any number of stages that they wanted, so there were shortys for MGs and Volkswagens and long ones for bigger engines. I also recall reading that they were inefficient since axial flow compressors need to be built with much larger stages in front than in back. They tend to wind up looking like Marilyn Monroe's torso. with curved taper shape. Look at a P&W JT3D/J57 jet engine. I hope these photos do not offend the tender sensibilities of any....just explaining the shape axial flow compressors theoretically should have. I'm not saying the Latham doesn't work, just wondering how well it works as opposed to a Roots blower, i.e. a 6-71 or similar.
Get a hold of Richard, aka Movin/On here on the HAMB He runs the Latham Registry, and has lotsa info on them
There you go...............the power of the HAMB is just incredible. Awesome blower, and whatever you need to know about it! Helluva Awesome Message Board
You're right, in a way, but it depends on how much compression you're trying to get. I suppose you could make a multi-stage (the J57 was the first successful two-shaft turbojet, the low-pressure breast-compressor driven independently from the high-pressure tummy-compressor) axial compressor, but for the limited output pressures you're trying to achieve with most superchargers it might not be worth the effort. Modern high-bypass turbofans have three times the pressure ratio through the compressor and flow much more air around the hot core than through it, was going to make a Kate Upton analogy but she's not as top-heavy as something like a CF6: The other Latham thread talks about 33000RPM peak blower speed and drive-belt durability and availability problems. I'm surprised no one ever tried something like a 3:1 planetary gearset on the input shaft to be able to use a more conventional belt. Certainly anything that could be done materials/design-wise (molded composite rotors...?) to reduce the rotating inertia of the rotor stack would probably be a good thing. It'd be an interesting exercise to find out how much HP it takes to drive one at 30K RPM working against, say, 8PSI of exhaust pressure.
I think unclescooby knows quite a bit about them. They are acrtally building a modern lathem unit now, it is updated but looks the same on the outside. Not at any of us would be interested as they have no historical value. The company has been bought and sold sever times over the years and has quite a manufacturing history.
Nice Score !!!! Pretty sure the Latham serial numbers started @ 1000. The Latham Literature I've got shows that the normal 4 carb version with put out 750 CFM at 15# boost but that's sales literature. I think the max Cubes it will provide a some adequate HP increase is about a 302 SBF or a SBC. The Dodge RedRam was a good choice for one as would be an Olds or a Nailhead. Mine is going on a mild 390 FE in a 31 A Roadster. I've got mine strictly for it's historic value and limited number of sightings on a driving car. Mine is still about 2 years out from the build but I've got all the parts.
I saw it too. I am a strictly 671 GMC guy but thought it looked cool. Nice score. Glad you got your dream bower !
Great score! Be careful when you rebuild the carbs. The standard Corvair kit for YH's available at your FLAPS has the incorrect fuel valve a.k.a. needle and seat, and an incorrect throttle body gasket. The bowl cover gasket and pump diaphragm are correct (at least they are now, for awhile the diaphragm was also wrong). Jon.
As I recall the one my friend had on his car ran at 5.5 times crankshaft speed which works out to around 33k.I believe his was putting out around 10-12 psi boost at max speed.Their greatest feature was the fact that it took very little hp(about 10-15)to drive them.Weigh this against a GMC 6-71 which puts out more boost but takes 125-150 hp to drive.Back when they were built the only other alternatives were Paxton-McCulloch which weren't capable of that much boost;GMC 4-71 with more hp output but more hp to operate;plus hood clearance problems and multi-V belt drives which were complicated.You very rarely saw 6-71's on the street as they were mostly competition oriented and the ones you did see usually had chain drives as Gilmer type belts weren't all that common. The Italmeccania(S.Co.T.) was available but somewhat rare. In my opinion what killed off the Latham was it's relatively high cost and the problems with belt tracking.The Carter sidedrafts also had a tendency to be very touchy in operation.I have a feeling that on my friends it may have been what someone else said earlier in regard to the rebuild kits for the Corvair.He had a lot of problems with fuel spillage out the air horn.
From the Latham Registry Thread photos here on HAMB If you don't want to worry about YH Carbs just make up mounts for downdraft carbs to fit the plenum or make your own setup. All you have to do is get the proper air/fuel mix to the inlet. or enough atomized fuel to the outlet.
Congrats on your 'find'.......I could only afford a picture of it & I had my almost 4 year old son with me & we were COVERED in mud. Chris
Congrats on the rare find. Yours appears to have the v-belt drive which does not have the same tracking problems as the earlier flat belt. BTW, the one on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-LATHAM-SUPERCHARGER-for-BUICK-NAILHEAD-ENGINE-COMPLETE-HOTROD-RATROD-/140968984725?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item20d2680095&vxp=mtr is the earlier flat belt drive. Here's the last and largest Latham ever built, now on a Packard V8. It uses a ribbed belt drive. jack vines
The v belt drive was added later, perhaps when it was used on the Buick straight 8? It has a huge drive pulley, about 5-6" deep, that is also v belt and home brewed. It was made in '61, so it came with a flat belt. I think the owner decided to do the 3 v belts for reliability. I also have a Drouin supercharger for a Honda CB 750, that uses very thin flat belts.
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