1932 Ford 5W Coupe.

I had pair of lace-up Dickie's boots in the mid 90s that had a back section which folded down and then velcro'd back into place. Easy to get on and off, and supremely comfortable. Unfortunately they wore out and I've never seen another pair since.

I put a rolled edge on my exhaust with stainless brake line. I guess std kunifer would also work if it's weldable.

I thought about using brakeline, but I didnt have any in the diameter I wanted.

But what I have is steel, so it should be weldable.


Moving on to the supercharger.

Its a vintage McCulloch, that started out as a VS57.
Variable speed, with a drive pulley that works pretty much the same way as a DAF Variomatic.

But at its 2nd rebuild, I had it modified to a fixed ratio.

Because in a light car with a stickshift and a light flywheel the variable speed adjustment cant keep up with the rapidly changing engine RPM.

In other words, it was running at the wrong speed, most of the time...





Ths blower was on this engine before ( in my '28) , but It now has headers, different carbs ( from a 4BBL Holley to 2 IDF Webers), and AC which changes the offset of the pulley.


So lets start with the pulley.













I made it for the setup on the '28 out of a chunk of aluminum, and had it hard anodized.

Now that the drive pulley was on the engine I could throw on a couple of belts ( wrong length, but it still gave me a pretty good idea).

Things get really tight around the AC pump, the AC pump V-belt, and the lower radiator hose.




So tight that I thought I'd better make a steel pipe to go from the water pump to the rad, to give it the sharp bend it needs to have, and to make sure it doesn't spring a leak if the V-belt would ever touch it at speed.











Putting the blower back on the engine is next.






I'll have to make new mounts.

And also, I'll have to make a new pipe to go from the blower to the carbs.






I'm thinking about putting a intercooler on it as well.

It will make it run more efficient, I have one, and modifying it to work shouldn't be that much more work than a regular straight pipe.

Thanks

The intercooler is going to be a compromise ( if I decide to use it).

It doesn't really fit the era of the rest of the build, so I don't want it to be too visible.

But its free (I already own it), and even from a basic plumbing point of view, it makes sense.

The enginebay temp will be higher than the regular outside air, so in Arizona that means its not exactly cool.

There wont be any ducting guiding the air in and out, so all it will get is a lot of turbulent air (mostly coming off the radiator).


My guess is, at best, it will act mostly as a heatsink.

And that's OK.

It will still be better than not having it at all ( probably...)


Not 100% sure on it, though.

I might still go for a simple tube setup...

ahh yes, that is one rowdy looking machine!!!

Love the look of the blower, if I ever manage to get my hands on a 31 Coupe (dream car) I'd be tempted to pull the running gear from my F150 and have a blown 351 in and around the under bonnet area haha

Thanks guys.


The problem with a centrifugal blower is that the boost is not linear like it is with a Roots blower.

The curve is more progressive, climbing more rapidly as the RPM goes up.

And also, the impeller needs to spin at a pretty high RPM to begin with.

To get the RPM, it had a drive system that is made out of a set of big ball bearing spheres working in the same way as a planetary gear setup.

To even the boost curve somewhat it read the manifold pressure, which was mostly RPM related, and made the driven pulley change diameter ( 2 halves that get closer or farther apart, depending on what it needs to be).

But to be honest, it is all '50s technology, and at the time they had trouble even manufacturing the (if I remember correctly) 5 drive balls at accurately matching diameters and roundness.

And I found that when going through the gears in a light/high power car, the variable speed just couldn't keep up.
( in my '28, the blower was hanging out the side, like it is in my '32, so I could see it move and adjust as I was driving).


It makes a fantastic noise when it is working well, and plenty of power to annihilate the skinny crossply's on my '28.
But it is kind of finicky.
Specially on today's pump gas and a blow through Holley.

This version , with Webers and without its variable speed, will hopefully be easier to live with...


But I'm also planning to try my all aluminum Small Block Chevy race engine in it.
And that one will just get a simple ( ...) system of 4 IDF Webers.

Would a water charge cooler be an option with perhaps its radiator sliding in front of the main radiator?