Procharger Question

[CV355]

Until recently, I thought I wanted a 6-71 or 8-71 on top of an FE for a fun street/show car.  Since then, I've been warned away from roots blowers and steered more towards a centrifugal.  I was always a twin-screw EFI guy...

Just curious how many of you have run a centrifugal blower on an FE, and if there is anything major I need to be aware of aside from having a stout engine and low enough CR to handle boost.  I don't really want to see more than ~650hp, though I know the combo is capable of far more.  The car will be 100% street driven, mostly gentle cruises to car shows and dinner with the wife every once in a while.

I'm looking at an F1A-94 Procharger, running at 6psi.  I've read where the P1 and D1 series aren't quite as efficient as the F1A on larger cube engines.  But, the 5.40:1 vs 4.11:1 step up ratio in the F1 vs the P1/D1 does put more torsion on the crank.  Does anyone sell an external crank support for an FE, and is it even really necessary for what I'm planning to do?  (My gut feel is it is not necessary with an 8-rib belt, but I was told to look into it).

[jayb]

I ran a Vortech V7 YSi centrifugal on my 480" FE for a while, ran Drag Week with it in 2007 too.  The engine made 1030 HP on 17 psi boost, but the ribbed belt wouldn't hold the power required so in order to get past 11 pounds of boost I went to a toothed belt.  Biggest issue I had was ducting air to the blower inlet in my Mustang, where the blower was positioned backed the inlet up towards the shock tower, so I had to use an elbow there and that really hurt performance, probably over 100 HP.  I ended up cutting a hole through the inner fenderwell and putting a screen there, plus a block off plate.  I removed the elbow and the block off plate to let air in through the inner fender at the track, and kept them in place on the street.  I also ran a carb, which was a special from CSU Carbs just for blower applications.  It worked better than any other carb I tried, but was extremely sensitive to jetting changes.  I am repurposing that engine for my 68 Shelby, and will be going EFI to eliminate the carb problems.

[Tommy-T]

I ran an 8-71 Hampton blower on my 454 inch FE for over 10 years. The blower itself gave no trouble and I know the current owner has had no trouble with it either.

I did break the crank right after the #1 main cap just the time I sold the car.I was running a sleeved top oiler 427 block and a stock cast 1U 428 crank. If I were to do it again an aftermarket block and steel crank would give great service for many, many years.

For a street/show/cruise car the roots type blower will get you more thumbs up than the under hood type...in my opinion.

[CV355]

Thanks guys!  I have some thinking to do.  Part of me likes the simplicity of keeping it all underhood with an F1A, but you're also right that a roots blower sticking through the hood has a certain "Commanding presence."  Either way, I'm not looking for huge numbers. 

I'll have to take a look at where the centrifugal kits mount up and see what the piping would look like.  I'm trying to avoid cutting any sheet metal- just spend a considerable number of hours welding, grinding, and smoothing out the engine bay... 

[427FeWedge]

This could be something to consider.
http://www.torqstorm.com/kits_single_big-block-ford-FE.html
Looks like it is based on the Powerdyne unit.

Rob

[667Litre]

In the process of installing the Torqstorm centrifugal supercharger kit now.  It’s a very well designed kit with thorough installing instructions, including tips and other information needed in folder it comes with.  My engine isn’t an  ideal setup, but I got a decent deal on the kit and thought I’d try it out at a modest amount of boost, as it also is just a street driven cruiser, etc.  been working and camping too much to complete project, but I’m excited for it.  Swapped over to Ethanol too, man, stuff is expensive. lol

[ROBSREDFORD]

You got any results of Torqstorm?

[HR427]

The procharger will make gobs more power.

[667Litre]

I shelved the Torqstorm project for the summer, I was working 70 hour weeks and then we’re finishing
Our camping season, and I’m helping too many people with side jobs that I won’t be driving it til spring since winter in on it’s way.  I’m pretty close, but no report.  There are several YouTube videos with 390 torqstorms.  I think it’s gonna be awesome, supports a lot of airflow.

[CV355]

So, the recommendation from Procharger right now is an F1C.  I am moving forward with it this winter, but I want to get the car running and engine broken in well this Fall so I am going with a Holley Super Sniper Stealth EFI system.  The Super Stealth requires a 1" unobstructed gap beneath the throttle body assembly, so short of disassembling everything to pull the intake and machine it, they include a 1" 4150 spacer that goes above the webbing to prevent surging.  Does anyone know if a carb hat will still fit under the stock '69 Mustang hood?  Worst case I can design and fab a low-profile carb hat, but if I can avoid it, I will...

[My427stang]

Hate to hijack the thread, but for any of you centrifugal guys, do any of the kits allow a pulley to be located in front of a 3 groove stock pulley?  I am planning a street blower setup soon but want to keep AC and PS on my 70.  I am planning to modify the radiator support to push everything forward, but haven't got a good look at how the lower drive pulley works

[mbrunson427]

In my past life I was a Ford Lightning guy (someday I'll have one again). On those engines Ford found it necessary to run a "caged" lower crank pulley. This is basically a hub that bolts on to the front of the crank and is supported by the engine block to keep supercharger harmonics away from the crank bearings. When daydreaming FE blower builds, I always figure something like this into the equation. I know it's probably overkill, but it's probably $500-$1000 worth of effort that could save the engine from needing to come apart...

Here is a thread from a Lightning page. There are plenty of pictures on that thread that should give you an idea of what the pulley consists of.
https://www.lightningrodder.com/threads/caged-pulley-removal.26848/

[jayb]

Hate to hijack the thread, but for any of you centrifugal guys, do any of the kits allow a pulley to be located in front of a 3 groove stock pulley?  I am planning a street blower setup soon but want to keep AC and PS on my 70.  I am planning to modify the radiator support to push everything forward, but haven't got a good look at how the lower drive pulley works

I don't know of a kit that allows that, Ross, but maybe there's one out there.  I used a two groove pulley with my setup, and ended up making a donut style spacer that bolted between the stock two groove pulley and the supercharger pulley.  Depending on what kind of belt drive you use for the supercharger, you may still be able to get away without moving the radiator support.  On my engine, with the 2" toothed belt setup, it barely fit behind the stock radiator, but of course the supercharger crank pulley was very wide, nearly 3" if I recall correctly.  If you chose to go with a ribbed belt, the supercharger pulley would be narrower, so maybe the 3 groove stock pulley would still allow you to fit without moving the radiator forward.