Old School Cool

[Royce]

I have been helping Tom Drummond  freshen up the 368 Lincoln from his 57 Ranchero..  This is definitely old school with the factory 2x4 intake, VS 57 McCulloch blower, and 57 Continental valve covers. We should be on the R&R dyno some time next week.. Factory rating with the 2x4 was 335 horse . We are hoping to be in the 450 range with the blower.

[rockittsled]

that is cool 

[BruceS]

Royce,
Is it still 368?  Looking forward to seeing those dyno #s and would also like to see that Ranchero!

Bruce

[rcodecj]

Awesome!   
I like the old stuff.
The exhaust sure looks tiny.
 

[Royce]

The engine is a stock stroke .060 over.

Small pipes are for run in purposes, so I don't subject the neighbors to open exhaust  LOL.. Tom has a custom set of headers for the Ranchero

[jayb]

Really cool, Royce.  Is that Paxton one of the ones with the variable pulley ratio?

[Royce]

The blower is a McCulloch VS 57. Yes it is variable speed.. I never had one apart before.. They use vacuum to widen the pulley groove and a spring to close it up.. The vacuum is activated by a switch that closes when a certain throttle opening is reached.. For Dyno purposes it is locked in high boost with a spacer.

[turbohunter]

Wow, variable speed blower.
Never knew, how cool.

[WConley]

Absolutely awesome Royce!!     I love seeing the old stuff making way more power than the original designers ever envisaged.

On a similar note, I was in Ford Engineering when the Modular engines were developed.  The design spec for the short block was 100 HP / liter maximum.  That worked out to 460 HP before rods would start coming out the block.  Material was whittled away from everything, using the best analysis tools, to meet that spec.  Since 460 HP was twice what the 4.6L engine was then putting out, everybody thought that was safe.

Who knew that years later, people would be pulling more than 3X that original power limit out of the design (with supercharging, of course!).  If you had said that to me at the time, I would have walked you down to the teardown room with rows of cracked and windowed blocks from taxicab engines, and laughed my ass off!  The main and rod bearings are so narrow on those things...

[rockittsled]

  Material was whittled away from everything, using the best analysis tools, to meet that spec.  Since 460 HP was twice what the 4.6L engine was then putting out, everybody thought that was safe.

Who knew that years later, people would be pulling more than 3X that original power limit out of the design (with supercharging, of course!).  If you had said that to me at the time, I would have walked you down to the teardown room with rows of cracked and windowed blocks from taxicab engines, and laughed my ass off!  The main and rod bearings are so narrow on those things...

Those statements, combined with your sig at the bottom, has got to put a giggle or two in there also.  Can you imagine what the Ford engineers that came up with the 352, then 5 or 6 years later saw the SOHC being borne of their baby, would think of what is being done with the engine now?

[BH107]

Nice. I'll have to get pictures of a friends 312 that had twin superchargers put on it in a 57 T-Bird in the early 60s. It stayed in the car until a Cammer replaced it in 72, and the engine lived in the corner of the garage ever since.

[Royce]

Here it is idling on my garage floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FilwfQKlwRI&feature=youtu.be

[cjshaker]

That really sounds good, Royce! And it looks even cooler. He should be able to haul plenty of gas now, in the back of that Ranchero

[Royce]

Dyno results are in:   Best part is this thing should run on pump gas, even boosted.

[turbohunter]

Nice
I'm surprised at those torque numbers. Wow.