Technical How can i supercharge my flathead on a budget?

OK it sounds a little crazy, but does anyone have any suggestions on supercharging a flathead for less than 2,000.00?

 

http://grm.racingjunk.com/category/1275/Blowers/post/2134614/Ford-V8-Flathead-GMC-371-Blower.html

 

Im gunna go with, no. But if you got everything for free and you had a machine shop?

 

Speed costs money. How fast can you afford to go? Even if you could get a supercharger setup for $2,000, you will need to beef up the motor to handle it. Get an old GM blower, remove the guts, make a fake drive pulley on the front, mount it on your motor, put the carb on top and it will look like you have a supercharger.

 

You gonna stick your head out the window and make blower whine noises, too?...

 

here are the steps

1. Spend the money for a blower on lottery tickets.

2. cross fingers

 

There's an article in Car Craft this month about using a gas powered leaf blower...

 

Already done this - properly.

You have twp choices.

i. Do it properly, enjoy a job well done and run hard for a long time.
ii. Cheap out, never enjoy it and pick up broken pieces.

If ya cant afford to do it properly, save the $$$ and wait till you can. Superchargers and cheapin out = problems.

Just my 2c

Rat

 

I had one with a 4:71 in the 50s. Not cheap even then. In addition, flatheads have sorry rod bearings. With about 6-7 pounds of boost you can count on speeding a lot of time under the car changing rod and maybe even main bearing. Not the best choice for a blower. And I didn't even touch on the heat problems. Good pistons are available as are radiators. Two grand won't get it.

 

Under 2K? Uhm, nope.

At minimum, you will need to beef up the bottom end, girdle plates and such, then flow the block then the blower, then...

Spend a few books for Joe Abbin's book. Very good information. Includes parts lists, dyno numbers, etc.

I spent, I think, $4500 in machine work alone for my flathead. That was a few years ago.

 

I've been kicking this idea around in my head for a bit. Wondering if building a full house hemi for my 32 or perhaps a blown flathead would be a better option. I know they're not even in the same ball park in terms of HP but I'm on the fence where I want to take it.

I guess if we started talking number I would get a better idea of what's involved in terms of cost and HP.

What kind of streetable HP can you pump out of a blown flathead? What does figure cost? Is there a dollar per HP like a hemi is $40/hp?

That setup on racin' junk is raaaaaddddd!!!!

 

Ok I suppose I should have specified- I am looking for a blower set up or a parts list, The 2000.00 was just for that, not the engine itself. I've seen manifolds, and rebuilt 4-71 blowers, and the 2 together would run like $1000.00. But that's no snout or drive assembly... Gonna look up joe abblin's book though.

 

Build some of the parts by you self

like intake manifold and belt drive to it






This parts have cost me approx $400 and that incude the belt wheels

and a lot of work.

 

JJ

I don't think that it's hi-jacking this thread to again recommend Joe Abbin's latest book. He has spent a lot of time documenting this exact thing. It has examples of several builds with dyno numbers etc. A must for anyone considering doing this.

 

Jeah I have the same delima, I got a 41 truck flattie, a 53 241 dodge hemi and a 354 chrysler hemi... I don't know where to go from here, hell maybe my old 289... atleast it can achieve 300 horses for a reasonable amount of cash....

 

Oh man that looks sweet. Got more build pics?

 

Where can I buy this book?

 

Google "Joe Abbin". It will show you how to get to Joe's web site.

 

Her's some more pics










I hppe you enjoy them

/Stefan

 

Preach it brutha!!!

 

I was about to mention that...lol. Funny thing is, it actually worked - go figure.

 

April fools day?

 

Thanks Pal, that was damn funny...spit my pudding.

 

That has got to be some of the dumbest advice I've seen offered up on this board!

 

Nice work Stefan

 

Nice work Stefan
x2

 

The Eaton M90 that was used on the supercharged Thunderbird 3.8 liter isn't a bad candidate. It's correct for a flathead displacement and has a long snout. The problem is it feeds through the rear instead of the top, so an intake plenhem and carb mounts must be fabricated. I've seen one built up and it doesn't look too bad.
The B&M 177 could be fabbed up to fit as well, mounting it on a flat plate bolted to a 4 barrel manifold (which are available) Less work to make it mount than the Eaton.

Flatman

 

Over here there's plenty of Eaton blowers from BMW Minis - most are brand new with zero miles on them because they're taken off as part of the prep for a one make racing formula. I've seen them go for as little as £250. Would make a good start for a budget set up - no repair costs, no surprises. Probably need to be overdriven.

 

try a toyota MR2 supercharger and fab up a plate mounted on a 4brl flatty intake .

 

You stuff socks in your shorts, don't you?

I know it's not a flattie but I had all of $950 putting the blower on my hemi. Lots of frugal shopping for used stuff. The fact I had forged pistons already and a cam that bled off enough cylinder pressure helped as I really didn't need to go through the engine. A cheap salvage yard 671 rebuilt for $300 (clearanced, timed, tripple pined, etc), ebay snout, swing arm, and carb adapter. Pulleys and idler whittled on my lathe, and a shiney new intake before they got pricey. It doesn't have to be expensive.