So many have nothing but negative to say about the old chain drive blower set ups, well lookie here !! This may be the only production set up like this,,pretty neat I think.. and would like 5 carbs on that GMC ?? Just some neat stuff I found in a very old Howards Cams Catalog ( click on image 3 times for super big picture )
$275? Sign me up! That would be awesome with my 4-71 Cragar/392 hemi setup. If I could ever find one, I'd run one of those in a heart beat. 3 V's are cool, but that is cooler.
I like the chain drive, but you're right, there are plenty of "haters". An open chain drive just LOOKS like it wants to rip your head off. The enclosed chain is just too cool. If top fuel drag bikes run chain final drive, it's safe enough for me. It doesn't take 1000, or even 100, horsepower to spin a 4-71.
It worked well enough for Howard to win the Winternationals with his dragster when there were only two "Nationals" and there would be 50-7- cars running for Top Elimanitor. Like Top Fuel now. Howard was sure a profolicic builder of neet stuff. I had a Howard head (Now Aries) on my GMC. Howard also made his own fuel injection to fit the head. He came up to me, looked at the head and said "You have my head on your car." I said "I beg your pardon? That's my head. I bought it." Howard said "No I mean I made it." Whatever he wanted he made. No worry. Just invent something and make it. Don't think there has been another one .
"It is very important that the chain be tightened each time you take your car out." That part sorta sucks.
Yeah, I saw that too. Guess that kills it for a street car unless chains have gotten better and no strech, etc. Only good for the track I guess. Plus, I caught that the 4-71 was for the Chev. and 6-71 was for the Hemis. So that wouldn't probably work with what I have either. Bummer. Not like I would ever likely be able to lay hands on one anyway. Maybe time to get some cylce parts and cast up my own cover.
nowadays you could adapt a spring loaded chain tesioner. The quality of chains available today, coupled with running it "wet" and a spring loaded tensioner, seems like it would make a VERY reliable, unique, and strong blower drive.
Howard made these for the Chrysler 354, the Chevy 265/283/327, the 345 Olds and the 430 Lincolns. He only made them for a few years because the belt drive moved in. These were really popular in drag boats.
I LOVE mine, but mine is a Hollish, not a Howards. Mine uses a turn buckle for a tenioner. Works like a champ. Todd
I don't get why there's so much animosity toward chain drives. Bikers consider belt drives girly, but rodders don't like chain driven blowers? Come on!
Howard Johansen was a prolific innovator...at the time the chain drive was clearly better than the multiple belt drives or front drives, because it just gave more boost (unless the motor backfired into the blower, the belt drives sometimes gave slack, but the chain did not... Howard also innovated the aluminum connecting rods...not sure if he was the first to make them but he did understand the limits of iron rods....fabricated a clear plastic pan to watch Desoto rods and realized how much they stretched and then broke, and designed aluminum rods to correct the weakness.....and he was always in the shop with a greasy apron .... drove by the old Howard shop on Main St in LA, he was always working......
people have a misconception of what happens when a chain breaks, they think it will act like a weed eater cutting everything in it's path but what happens is that when it's not being stressed it just goes limp and a enclosed with an oil bath would last for ever
The Jalopy Journal
