174/177 supercharged small block, where to start?
WOW, just discovered this thread.
Back in the late 90s I wanted a B&M kit but they were unavailable by the time I had the money so I bought a NOS Chev 162 kit and sold the intake and cam kit off to a Chev bloke. Then I went and had a chat to a cluey old bloke with an interest in casting intake manifolds. I gave him the blower and a wad of cash and he cast me an intake and machined up some 8mm Gilmer pulleys (50mm wide) to suit. Basically all I had to do was add a carby and bolt it on.
I put the set up on a low comp 360 that I built up. It was pretty basic, just a set of dished TRW forged pistons with a stock crank and rods and some ARP rod bolts. The heads were mildly ported J-heads with 2.02 inlets and Crane valve springs. The first cam I tried was a baby 218 @ 0.050 generic performance cam and with the pulleys set up for 6psi boost it ran a 12.8 at 106mph on slicks. Changing the pulleys to give it maximum overdrive (well over 100%, I think it was 2.12:1 ratio) we made about 7psi boost and I slid in a split profile cam with more duration on the exhaust. Can't remember the exact specs but it seemed to help and the car ran 12.7 at 108mph on pure 235 street tyres.
The rest of the car was prett basic too. Just an Aussie Charger with a A-999, stock converter and 3.5 geared nine-inch diff. It was pretty damn heavy because I didn't try to lighten it at all. It was a real street and strip machine and never saw a car trailer. I'd cruise it every weekend and race it at the local tracks most weeks just for fun. It would do a 300km roadtrip, race and drive home without even blinking. The blower was ultra reliable and the engine never missed a beat. but I did kill two nine-inch centers and two transmissions (inc a 727).
Then I had a brain fart and figured that if a B&M was this good, a 6/71 would be better and while I'm at it, build a lighter car. The 6/71 car was nowhere near as fun. Sure it had power and looked impressive, but it didn't have the instant bottom end zing of the little blower and you were always on display wherever you went.
I stupidly sold the B&M kit for $3500 (cost me $6000 to put together) and never liked the 6/71 and shortly after sold it too.
If I do it again I'm going to build one based off a 250 Powercharger (or 256 Weiand). The low blowers rule!
and some video
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJGw10PFERU"]Blown charger - YouTube[/ame]
WOW, just discovered this thread.
Back in the late 90s I wanted a B&M kit but they were unavailable by the time I had the money so I bought a NOS Chev 162 kit and sold the intake and cam kit off to a Chev bloke. Then I went and had a chat to a cluey old bloke with an interest in casting intake manifolds. I gave him the blower and a wad of cash and he cast me an intake and machined up some 8mm Gilmer pulleys (50mm wide) to suit. Basically all I had to do was add a carby and bolt it on.
I put the set up on a low comp 360 that I built up. It was pretty basic, just a set of dished TRW forged pistons with a stock crank and rods and some ARP rod bolts. The heads were mildly ported J-heads with 2.02 inlets and Crane valve springs. The first cam I tried was a baby 218 @ 0.050 generic performance cam and with the pulleys set up for 6psi boost it ran a 12.8 at 106mph on slicks. Changing the pulleys to give it maximum overdrive (well over 100%, I think it was 2.12:1 ratio) we made about 7psi boost and I slid in a split profile cam with more duration on the exhaust. Can't remember the exact specs but it seemed to help and the car ran 12.7 at 108mph on pure 235 street tyres.
The rest of the car was prett basic too. Just an Aussie Charger with a A-999, stock converter and 3.5 geared nine-inch diff. It was pretty damn heavy because I didn't try to lighten it at all. It was a real street and strip machine and never saw a car trailer. I'd cruise it every weekend and race it at the local tracks most weeks just for fun. It would do a 300km roadtrip, race and drive home without even blinking. The blower was ultra reliable and the engine never missed a beat. but I did kill two nine-inch centers and two transmissions (inc a 727).
Then I had a brain fart and figured that if a B&M was this good, a 6/71 would be better and while I'm at it, build a lighter car. The 6/71 car was nowhere near as fun. Sure it had power and looked impressive, but it didn't have the instant bottom end zing of the little blower and you were always on display wherever you went.
I stupidly sold the B&M kit for $3500 (cost me $6000 to put together) and never liked the 6/71 and shortly after sold it too.
If I do it again I'm going to build one based off a 250 Powercharger (or 256 Weiand). The low blowers rule!
and some video
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJGw10PFERU"]Blown charger - YouTube[/ame]
