Thread: Losing the blower - intake advice??

Tweet

Guys,
I've had a Wieand 177 blower on top of my 468 for some time. Because I need a little money and I'm hoping to make the motor a little more "drive-in friendly" for the family, I think I'm going to pull off the blower and the Bill Mitchell Hardcore 870 carb and run something like a dual-plane intake and a vacuum secondary Holley.

Any advice on "detuning" my motor? It has a 286H cam and Merlin oval-port iron heads, which I would like to keep if I can get a good intake/carb combo for them.

Also, my Hooker headers feed into 3.5" exhaust all the way back. That's another story to be addressed after the motor.

Thanks...

What is the compression ratio? If it was built as a blower motor probably around 8.51... Gonna be a real pooch without the blower....

It's a Mark V truck 454, which I believe was around 8.5:1. So I guess you're saying if the blower goes I should take another look at the pistons/head/etc. huh?

How did I know you were going to say that Dave?!?

So then, I'm faced with the choice of tearing down this motor and replacing the pistons (and possibly other items) to bring the comp ratio more in-line with 10-11:1 for street use or selling/trading the entire setup for some different streetable horsepower. Current setup is this:

Mark V 454 block bored to 468
Merlin large oval port heads w/ Manley valves
Weiand 177 Blower - about 3-4 lbs of boost
Comp Cams 286H
Comp Cams 1.7 rockers
Hooker Pro-Comp headers
MSD 7600 Ignition (Coil-per-cylinder, Crank Sensor, Distributor plug, etc.) - which would all need to come off and go into my next motor

Does anyone in the group have suggestions for how to (fairly easily) turn this setup into a normally-aspirated streetable motor? Or, maybe I should put it out on racingjunk.com for a trade for another big block setup?

Thanks...

You have answered a question I have always wondered about, seeing the blower motors at the shows, but never really driven. I am not knocking the combo do not get me wrong I like em just always thought they were a bit much for street driving and general around the town fun, maybe a small block could give you a nice rush ... say 383 fast burn of course. They have a nice bang for the buck and plant you in the seat pretty nicely..

If you sell the block I would think you would have enough funds to fix it up with plenty of enjoyable power, that is a monster motor that someone would like for sure.

No more than what you had for boost,it will be ok. I took my 471 off from my truck for the same reason and it runs good with dished pistons.

I don't see how dumping the blower is going to make your ride more "drive-in friendly".
It's been my experience that you can make a bunch more horsepower/torque with a blower by using a shorter duration cam, less compression etc. Those factors in themselves equate to a more streetable combo.
I merely screwed on a 6-71 to my well built NA 8.5-1 355 and added more power than I can use on the street.
I spin the blower relatively fast but keep rpms down for a great reliable street combo. This thing idles better than it did with a dual plane single carb, doesn't overheat in traffic and is a blast to drive.
They can have my blower when they pry it from my cold dead hands....

Okay guys. Took in what everyone said and ended up putting the motor on RacingJunk today for sale. Decided it was best to let it go as a whole and maybe I'll drop a 383 in her for cruising around. I need SOMETHING to warrant my 12-bolt 4:10s and the TH400 in there.

Thanks again...

At 8.5:1 you could have a decent street motor with a smaller cam... of course you'll be giving up a lot of tq/pwr compared to the blower but you could probably get away with running on regular gas... I'm thinking something with a duration around 218-220* at .050 on around 110* lobe separation will be in the ballpark... give a call to your favorite cam company and see if they can suggest a good cam for your combo.

-Chris

Thanks Chris. I might as well do that while I'm waiting on bites for the sale add just in case...

If you're going with a small block, I'd seriously look at an LS based engine. There is so much more potential than the old style small blocks. You've got great breathing aluminum heads and a roller cam right from the start. Even the little 5.3 makes 285-295 hp in stock form and you can buy them really reasonable. We used to pay big bucks for that stuff back in the day.