Thread: 8-71 blown 390

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you know they do make offset blowers for ford motors .. this is a normal height blown 427 smallblock ,,

Google up Faron Rhoads on the FE forums or on FB, He has a blown FE and is the distributor man.

you are going to rebuild the blower?????????? have you done that before????

No I haven't rebuilt a blower before but who cares. I already have all the new bearings and seals. Rotors look great. There is no reason not to do it. Its very simple. Thats the problem now days, everyone is scared to do things themselves. Building a motor or fixing the kitchen sink, its all super simple. I do almost all my own work with the exception of machine work because I don't have a lathe or anything like that. But even then I still do as much as I can. I've ported cylinders for my dirt bike many times. Honed cylinders, drilled head stud holes bigger with a simple hand drill instead of a press. And I've built motors before (390, 427, 429, 460, 4G63, 305). Everything doesn't need to be chrome and I don't need to pay somebody who says they're a professional to do something when I can do it just as good, most likely better because I'm doing it myself.


But .. project is going to be slow this month. Buying tires for my dad's truck because he can't afford it and I'm an awesome son like that. But I did order the second predator carb today. Brought the other back from my dad's. When it gets here I'll post a picture or two of the blower with the carbs on it. Looks pretty sick with just one sitting on it right now.

Originally Posted by motox_19

But .. project is going to be slow this month. Buying tires for my dad's truck because he can't afford it and I'm an awesome son like that....

Gotta love it! Awesome son that you are!

The amount of info available on the net is amazing, provided you know enough to sift out the junk from the wanna be's trying to sell themselves as experts. Part of the fun is attacking an issue that you've never done before, figuring out how to do it and then getting it done! Maybe Jerry can give some tips about setting up the blower with new bearings & seals, if there are any "secrets" that he's willing to share.

You can also call Rick Dean blowers as he will tell you what ever you need to know and give you advice too. He's a great guy. I had him rebuild my old 8-71. He had to fix my case so while he had it there I just had him rebuild it. That was very nice of you to get your dad his tires. Kutos to you!

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Well blowers finally done, basically. Painted, new seals and bearings, and triple pinned. And I did get the bearings, seals and triple pins from Mr. Dean. But didn't need any help actually doing it. Its so simple its not funny.
Still have to make a rear cover for it and pick up some bolts for the that and the front covers.

Second predator is still on its way. Cant wait for that to arrive.

But thats my update for now. Next check will probably just be the carb adapter plate because I still have have to get two more tires. Its coming though, just slow ....

Glad it went well.

You mentioned the fear factor... It's there for a reason.

I'm on the third seal kit for my Jacuzzi pump ( wet end ).

Not that the seal kits are that expensive, but if it don't work out, then you've got 200 gallons of water to deal with.

Anyway, I think I have an installation procedure figured out that actually won't damage the seals.

Believe me, it did seem simple, but here I am, 600 gallons of water later.

Wish me luck, and I'll do the same on your blower.

Oh, and kudos on spoiling dad, I'm working on that too.

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Dual predators !!!!

I'll be curious how you like those predators. I've heard they were a godsend and then I've heard they were okay if you were simply "ON or OFF"...

I have run a single predator on a stock 390 in a truck and a 429 in a jet boat. I practiced tuning on the 390. Compared to like a Holley, they are super easy to tune. No jets. Literally only two or three adjustments. I can't remember exactly now as its been some time, I'm going to have to read up on it again. But depending on the carb, you have idle speed, the spring tension on the doors to adjust how much vacuum it takes to open them ( basically high speed mixture I believe), there's a screw on top that adjusts mixture I believe, it works through the float. And there is a cam inside that you can change but it is super rare that it needs changed and I don't remember anything about it. And then for some reason one of mine has a screw on the side but I don't know what it does and nobody could tell me. They also have no vacuum ports but you can drill a hole in the side of the carb and put one in. I did to run vacuum advance and it works fine. It sounds complicated and I wish I could explain it better but right now I can't. But its really super easy, you just have to have lots of patience. For example instead of turning the mixture screw 1/4 turn, you might try 1/8 or 1/16th. They're very sensitive. But throttle response is almost instant. No hesitation, no bog, nothing. Close to fuel injection. Throttle response seemed quicker through out all rpm's, and it ran great up high. I liked it much better then the Holley on the jet boat, but mpg does go down slightly with these carbs.
There were a lot in the early days of drag racing with good results. I have heard that they were banned because they were considered a form of injection. I don't know if this is true but could explain why they didn't take off.
Before Predator, they were made by Kendig and were race only carbs that were 1250 cfm tops compared to Predators 930 cfm.
I like them a lot but I also like being different. Considering this is the first time I'm building a blown motor, I wanted to go with something simple to tune and I have had good experiences, and have also heard that these worked extremely well with blown applications not to mention you can pick one up for around $150 - 200 and make in brand new for another $100.

Besides that, this check I'm going to try and get the other two tires for my dad, so if there's enough left over then I will get the carb adapter plate but if not then it will come next check.

Thanks for your interest so far guys !!!

And good luck to you too Firebird.

Very cool setup, haven't seen many blown FEs. Whenever I see a blower on a truck it brings to mind the scene in one of the old Chuck Norris movies when the bad guys bury Chuck alive in his blown Ram Charger. He fires it up, stomps it to the floor and the truck digs itself out. I think it was in "Lone Wolf McQuade".