Latham Supercharger Setup for the FE

[jayb]

A friend of mine had a party tonight and one of his guests brought the Latham supercharger setup for an FE pictured below (Sorry for the poor photo quality, but it was the best I could do with my cell phone camera).  I've only seen one of these one other time, back in the '80s at one of the Ford Performance Club of America shows in Columbus, Ohio.  The one I saw also ran the supercharger with V-belts if I recall correctly, and when it ran it sounded like a jet engine.  I guess that the principal of operation of one of these superchargers is similar to a jet turbine.  This setup had the FE-specific intake, the supercharger, four sidedraft Carter carbs, and the drive setup, which looked like about an 8:1 or 10:1 step-up of the crankshaft speed to the supercharger (just a guess on that; I didn't get a chance to measure the pulley diameters).  The carbs were interesting; apparently these sidedraft Carters were used on the early Corvettes with the 6 cylinder engine and they are very valuable.  A stock distributor won't work with the blower in this position, and I was told the original setups used a right angle distributor with this arrangement.  Anybody know for sure on that, or have any pictures of one of these on a running engine?

The whole setup was polished, and I can't think of a cooler looking induction setup for an FE in an early Ford performance car.  It was really great to see one in person.  I'd sure love to have an engine with one of these on the dyno at some point. 

[bartlett]

Thats cooooolllllllll

[kwood]

You go to a lot better parties than I get to go to....

[MeanGene]

Richard (feroadster) has had one of those for a long time, but I don't think he's ever had it running on an engine

[machoneman]

the HAMB has a special Latham section although it doesn't seem to have a whole lot of information. Still, can't see from the SBC pics how the FE could run a ditzy in the normal position.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315062

Gee, I never get to go to parties like that either 

[cammerfe]

About a zillion years ago I was in school in Anderson Indiana. Our club, 'The Escorts', helped run Muncie Dragway. There was a '56 Ford that appeared regularly at the drags that ran a Paxton with not only the four side-drafts but a downdraft on top as well. I agree with the idea of needing a special diz drive. Perhaps a stub body with a crab cap and a crank trigger. And DCOE Webers would easily-enough improve things as well!

KS

[cjshaker]

You go to a lot better parties than I get to go to....

I agree!!

Very cool set-up! I have never seen one in person. Is that massive pulley the crank pulley? Seems it would darn near hit the water pump? Maybe it was designed for eliminating the pump and using direct water flow from an external pump? That would pretty much make it a non-streetable combo, unless some significant steps and engineering were done.

I'd love to see a picture of one assembled on an engine.

[BruceS]

Jay, how does it mount to the manifold and engine?  I see two holes in the manifold and a mounting point also with two holes at the back of the supercharger but what about the front?  Is there some sort of bracketry on the front?  Seems like its a centrifugal type blower as opposed to a roots type because it is so way overdriven!
I vaguely remember as a kid building an AMT kit, maybe a '32 Ford that had a Latham blower option. Does anybody remember that one?   

Bruce

[jayb]

If you look closely at the manifold you will see that there are actually four holes for mounting, two close together at the back of the hole and two a little farther forward, and split apart from the hole, towards the front.  There are four matching holes in the blower.  As far as I know those are the only mounting points.

[TomP]

I've seen a couple manifolds, or perhaps the same one again and again with different owners. Never seen a whole setup on any type of engine.

 There aren't really a roots or screw compressor but more like those than any sort of centrifugal. Looking at the path the mixture has to travel it looks very restrictive.

The 3 bolt big pulley doesn't look like it'd fit an FE, center hole too small. Maybe that is deceiving because it's huge?

[65er]

Man, I wanted one of those things SO bad in the '80's!  Of course, I was making squat and had no chance of owning ANY kind of supercharger at the time, lol

Here's a video of Zach Reynolds' Tobacco King Galaxie.  There is a shot under the hood starting at about 1:10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ebbzZUa40 

As famous as the car is, you might be able to dig up some more detailed pics...

[Heo]

I have never seen one  in person but Pictures and
Exploded wievs. It i an axialflow compressor just
like the compressor in an jet engine.
 It take in the air in front and delivers the charge in the rear.
An axle with a lot of..."wings,blades",whatever to call them. In a tube
Just like the first stage in an jet engine
The "problem" with them is that they never made
one big enough for bigger engines .
Otherwise its a wery good design thats take Little
Power to drive
Thats what i read. I have no personal experiance whit
them

[sumfoo1]

life would be soo much better if friends showed up to my parties with superchargers instead of wine 

[Randy]

Party was fun Ribs were good but the compay was the best, thanks for comming Jay lots of motor heads here just wish it was wormer they would have drove there Hot Rods.

Randy

[KMcCullah]

Is that a Clipper lacing I see on the flat belt? That would be a bad deal with aluminum pulleys. And with what appears to be at least a 4 to 1 ratio that supercharger would be howling.  What a cool looking arrangement though. I would love to see it run.