[Artemis Entreri]

Heh, I bought the book, and have read most of it, minus some of the history parts int he first few chapters. It has given me pretty decent idea of whats going on in a blown engine.

As for why, mainly because at first, reading the different articles of bolting on smaller blowers to mostly stock engines and getting 450-500 hp out of it, I thought it would be an easy way to get big power (~500) and still having a nice driving car. Plus roots blowers are so friken kool looking, dont see many of them around here, especially on cars that are not full restos with a super crazy engine in them.

I started this, definantly under the impression from magazines and online reading that I could take a mild vortec 350 with low compression hyper pistons and drop a 1800$ supercharger on it, and then id have the power I wanted, which is very streetable, and relatively cheap considering the power id be getting.

Could I lower the PSI of the 142 setup? From what I understand it will give me something like 5 on a mild 350 setup.

[T-bucket23]

I did exactly what you are talking about and I have driven the car for 2 seasons with zero issues. You need to be concerned about detonation, its what will destroy your pistons, timing and cooling is critical. I have seen a max of 6 lbs from my 142 with the stock pulleys. Usually it pushes around 3 to 4 on short city street pulls. Like you I also have vortec heads and when I purchased my blower Weiand was the only one making a blower intake for vortec. I think Dyer also has one now.

I would not recomend changin pistons in the car. Pull it have it cleaned and at least honed so the new rings will seat. You are flirting with problems trying to do it in the car, it will be almost impossible to keep things clean enough not to damage something. You wont really save anytime either as you will still need to take the top end off the engine and the pan. All that will really be left is the tranny bolts and motor mounts.

[Artemis Entreri]

At initial start up, when im trying to tune the engine, how is the best way to avoid detonation? Retard the timing, or advance it? Is there anything else I can do to avoid detonation when I first put the engine in and am working out its kinks?

Found these pistons, nice CR, forged, not too expensive either.
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...0&autoview=sku

[T-bucket23]

It shouldnt detonate with out a load on it, so startup should not be a problem as long as you dial it in fairly quickly. Just remember always start all adjustments on the safe side and go from there. If you are concerned, once you put it together leave the blower belt off, start it time it the put the belt on. Yes it will run without the blower connected I have done it.

[camaroman7d]

If you're going to pull the pistons out to re-ring and hoe the engine what sense does it make not to go ahead and put forged pistons in it? It is cheap insurance. At 4-5lbs of boost you can "probably" get by with cast pistons but, one bad tank of gas or missed tune up and you will be tearing the engine down again. You don't have to get crazy on the pistons for that boost range, just buy a decent set of forged pistons. You are 21 and chances are you will want to push it a bit and beat on it, do it right the first time. What if you decide you want to make a little more power or *** a little nitrous? If you have the forged pistons in there already you are good to go. If you were building a street rod (or T-bucket), that would be one thing but, in a heavier car detonation is more likely. Due to more load on the engine.

As far as timing, you can't accurately set it without running the engine. You do not want to run a blown engine retarded or it will run hot. Your timing curve is very important for best performance, blowers like a lot of initial timing I would start at 18* but, you need to limit your total timing, if you run cast pistons I would limit total to 28-30* max. With forged pistons you can go a little more

[T-bucket23]

Here is a better picture of my installation

[Artemis Entreri]

That is the 142? Looks friken sweet. That silver thing down below is the lower supercharger pulley?

How exactly does that go on? Just sits in the crank pulley with a bolt going threw em both?

[T-bucket23]

Yes to both, very simple install. The only problem was the thermostat housing. I could not find one that fit nice under the blower that could be easily removed with the blower installed and still allowed for the radiator hose to be installed properly. There is a MR gasket one that the hose will have plenty of clearance but you have to remove the blower to get to the bolts for removal. I finally ended up buying an offset adapter which bolts to the manifold and moves the thermostat out away from the blower. This was the only real glitch I ran into. This is not really a huge problem as it actually would only be 4 bolts to move the blower out of the way to change the thermostat, I just wanted a better way.

[yknot]

Since you are going to go the supercharger route, why not convert to Electronic Fuel Injection? It's much nicer, easier to adjust, gets better mileage and usually nets better results then a carb.