Blower Gurus. Need some motor help

Everywhere I read it says not to use a cast iron harmonic balancer, but my question is can I use a nodular iron balancer since they aren't as brittle as the cast ones. I only plan on pushing 5 psi and mostly under 6000 rpm since my motor isn't a rever..

 

Nodular should be OK.... you can also just run a hub without a balancer. there has always been various opinions on this but it works pretty good either way...

 

At only 5#s boost you aught to be fine. Also, if its a gilmer belt, make sure you tension the belt correctly, all that aluminum can grow quite a bit.

 

Like Krooser said, you can forget the balancer and just run the hub and blower pulley. I've been running mine that way for 16 years with 10lbs of boost. Also was said, you need to watch the belt tension. The aluminumblower and manifold can grow 1/4" or more when at full temp. Gene Mooneyham recomended 1" of slop on the slack side of the belt when cold. Guys who run the belt tight so it whines are just looking to replace the bearings in the blower snout and the belt prematurley, or worse, loosing a belt out on the highway.

 

Thanks Guys I appreciate the help.. G

 

Zoo i actually just spoke with Gary Dyers about this on friday . Now we were talking BBC , im not sure what you are running . But straight from Gary he said that if it is going to be a low boost street car you can run a stock balancer with the vgroove belt adapter and your blower pulley and if you plan on taking it to the track anytime h said to run an sfi damper . He told me there is no need to run a hub on a street car . That is straight from Mr Dyers himself . I wont argue and ill be running an sfi damper as he suggested

 

Thanks Mac.. I ended up buying a nodular iron balancer. Even though it's low boost I just feel better with the upgraded balancer. Thanks for the info.

 

I'm with krooser on this one, I have seen them run both ways and @ 5 psi nodular iron should hold up just fine.

 

With a cast balancer, there is a lot of stress put on it to do something it was not designed to do- drive a supercharger. The other thing of concern is only using one keyway on the crank snout.
It is always better to have your crank snout machined for an 1/8" keyway 180 degrees from your stock one. It really adds strength and reliabillity to any blower drive. My point is just that cast parts do not like stress.
Without these upgrades, if you travel at all with this application, you may wish to keep a spare balancer and related parts with you, just in case.