A while back at a swap meet I picked up a Whipple style supercharger of unknown origin. I have visions of juicing up a flathead v8 or a stovebolt 6. This thing has a serpentine belt drive pulley and was originally set up for a throttle body and I think probably tuned port injection. I do not have the throttle body. I have the idea that I could mount a side draft carb to the throttle body flange and run it that way. I have the tools and skills to make a manifold and a carb mount. I would be looking for 4 or 5 psi. Is my ignorance leading me to dangerous ground? What considerations am I missing? Is this a goofy idea?
Although somewhat vague about your engine choice, you sounded kinda convincing while you were laying out your ideas. Now you're not sure? Probably best to study up a bit on forced induction to minimize your ignorance and avoid any of that dangerous ground. When you say Whipple style, are you referring to one of several size OEM Eaton blowers as used on recent OT Ford's, GM's, Mercedes, Jaguar, and such? They were good blowers for the engines they came on, but might not be a good choice for a traditional engine. I've seen some Eatons sitting on flatheads, but they sure don't have the authentic look of a SCOT or 4-71 Jimmy.
Draw through supercharging is easy-peasy!! Make an intake, make your carb flange, make a blower drive, bolt crap together. You won't need to boost reference the carb because it wont be under pressure but you want to keep it fed. The only thing I'd be concerned with is blower speeds. I'm not sure how fast what you got was designed to spin but that is determined by pulley sizes. I scattered a modified self oiled VS57 Kaiser McCulloch because I spun it too fast. I was making 8 psi though!! Figure out a safe blower speed and you should be golden!
Thanks. Best guess is this is an Eaton from a Jag? but I have not found one quite like it. Anyway, el Scotto, you have somewhat reassured me that it is OK to use it as a draw-through. So I will. Duck and cover when you see the flash...
I didn't intend to sound discouraging...and I agree with el Scotto that it's not that hard if you have the fab skills and aren't scared of trying. A lot of people, including a retard like me, have cobbled together a unique blower setup, without relying on kits for popular engines....heck, that's how the earlier rodder's like Navarro did it. But you may need to boost reference your carb, depending on what you end up with...especially if your chosen carb has a power enrichment device like the power valve in Holley's. With a blower sucking on it all the time, even during engine deceleration, a draw-thru carb will see higher vacuum all the time, no matter what the engine is doing, so a vacuum operated power enrichment device will not work properly without referencing the pressures in intake manifold. There are multiple ways to go for solutions, but that's trying to cross a bridge you haven't gotten to yet. Get out there a build it. You'll appreciate the effort when you feel it in the seat of your pants.
The Whipple kits that were used on trucks back in 90's were draw-through TBI and work fine. I have one on my 92 Chevy dually with a 454, draws through the stock TBI, but with a boost referenced fuel pressure regulator. Makes about 5 psi is all, but on otherwise stock engine it is still definite improvement. It is a high helix rotor design and sucks air/fuel in the back and compresses through the blower with outlet at bottom front. At least for my design it uses an adapter to bolt to stock intake. It probably spins about 4x crank speed, it has pretty small pulley relative to crank, and runs serpentine belt. My 454 has such a small factory cam that even with the blower it runs out of breathing at 5000 rpm. But stock truck was weezing to get to 4000 rpm. The blower works great for what I intended it for, towing trailers. I can pull most hills in OD without even kicking down. I originally thought about an 8-71, but the Whipple is all under hood and also is smog legal. So I went the easy route......
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