3/31/06

Then again, I could always turbocharge Mr. Wiggly! “Where the hell did that come from?” I hear you asking. I'm not sure, actually. If, for some reason, the header and two-barrel manifold falls through, I was thinking that it wouldn’t be too tough. A box around the one-barrel carburetor wouldn’t have to be very big, there is a ton of room to hang the turbo, and the exhaust manifold has a nice “turbo friendly” design in that it is a log with a centralized exit pointing straight down. No, I won’t do it, but it is a fun thought exercise. If Mr. Wiggly were to get forced induction, it would probably be that first supercharger I bought. Hey now! That has some merit. I'd probably have to get one of those Offenhauser four-barrel manifolds so that the blower tucks closer in to the head though. I might still have to modify the doghouse as well to clear the carburetors, unless I made it so it draws through a DCOE side draft! I was just talking to Kevin about the mounting of the supercharger to the intake. It would be so simple! I'd have to get another aluminum plate and drill seven holes in it, one big one in the middle for the air to pass, two to attach the plate to the manifold and four to attach the supercharger to the plate. I'd port the big hole for better airflow, of course. No I wouldn’t, because I'm not going to do it. I need to stop talking about it right now in fact. Right, we all knew that wouldn’t happen. So I just went in and did some math on that blower. It looks like a 1.5:1 pulley ratio will make about 6 psi and require two 36.12 mm throttles to flow at 5,000 RPM. 1.75:1 pulleys would make 9 psi and require a pair of 39.1 mm throttles. A single 40 mm DCOE should do the trick. Damn, all I need are the front and rear covers for that supercharger and some sort of drive mechanism. I have to go now or I'll talk myself into this being a good idea. I've been playing with horsepower and torque figures for this blown Slant Six. Not knowing what the stock numbers are, I just made a guess. Figuring on 150 horsepower at 5,000 RPM, I got a stock torque guess of 236 foot pounds at 3,333 RPM. I used Corky Bell’s “torque peak is at approximately 2/3 redline” to figure that, by the way. At 9 psi, I got 243 horsepower at 5,000 RPM and 382 foot pounds at 3,333 RPM. Those numbers make a blower look pretty good! Heck, even the 6 psi numbers aren’t bad: 208 horsepower and 328 foot pounds. Oh, un-twist your panties, I'm not going to do it. I'll drive the thing with the one-barrel for quite a while I'm sure. Now here’s what I really should do; I should find another cylinder head and build it up with bigger valves and port match it to the two-barrel manifold and headers. Then it would be a matter of swapping a head when the time came for more power. Well, I know what I'm shopping for next time I'm on e-Bay! I know it sounds counterintuitive, but I think a head swap in the van would be easier than an intake/exhaust swap. Assuming, of course, the intake and exhaust will come off with the head as a unit. If not, then that whole idea is moo. I'm still shopping for a head next time I'm on the internot. Ok, I'm off to the internot. Oh come on, you knew it was about to happen! I'll talk to y’all Monday.