Restomod Racing

When I decided I wanted more power, I started to look around.  The options were, nitrous oxide, supercharger, turbocharger or staying naturally aspirated. I decided to install a supercharger.  The reason was it would be simpler to install than a turbo system and I wouldn’t have to worry about filling the nitorus bottle.  If you look at my engine compartment, you would know why a turbo would be more challenging than going with a supercharger.  The first consideration was not to butcher the car to install a power adder.  If ultimate power was my goal, I would have gone with a turbo.  As you know, my engine is not setup for boost due to its 12.4:1 compression.  I figured I could get around this by using 117+ octane racing gas and limiting my boost to about 18 psi.  When on the streets, I run on my main tank of 92 octane premium gas (I have dual tanks).

 Since the decision was to go with a supercharger,  I had to make a choice of which one.  My choices where Paxton, Vortech, Procharger etc.   I pretty much narrowed it down to Paxton and Vortech because they make a basic kit with the supercharger, brackets, discharger tube and oil feed line. That’s all I would really need since I have a carbureted engine.  The late model Mustang fuel injected kit comes with  other stuff that would be wasted.  I decided go with the Renegade kit from Paxton or Vortech.  I was told that Paxton has the driver mounted supercharger that would work on a 351W without any modifications to the brackets, so I went with it (not completely true). Here is a list of the additional things I had to get to complete the installation.

• Paxton Renegade kit.
• Paxton enclosure + Fuel lines for inside enclosure, Throttle linkage for enclosure, discharge tube adaptor for enclosure and a few miscellaneous plugs. You would have thought all this would be included with a $750 enclosure.  Add around $350 more for these items. If I had this to do over, I would have gone with an EV Bonnet instead of the enclosure. More power for 1/4 the cost.
• Air diffuser (Flame arrestor filter used on marine engines, suppose to reduce turbulence in the enclosure, another $130).  
• Fuel Pump (Aeromotive A1000) 10 gauge wire for wiring the fuel pump + 30 amp relay
• Pressure regulator (Boost sensitive - Aeromotive)
• Vortech Mondo BOV
• Vortech Mondo BOV flange
• 5/8″ Aluminum fuel line (Feed line) - You can use braided line but it costly.
• 1/2″ Aluminum fuel line (Return line)
• Flare fittings (many depending upon your fuel system design.
• This will add a few hundred dollars) 3.5″ to 3″ Reducer coupling (enclosure to discharge tube. another $50)
• 57″ - 8 rib belt (another $38)
• Spacer between dampner and crank pulley (At least I needed one, maybe you’ll be luckier. Additional $80)
• MSD 6BTM unit
• Air filter
• 5/8″ barbed adapter to screw into oil pan. (For oil return line. Additional $8) Return oil hose

Be prepared to invest at least another $1000 on top of the basic supercharger kit. May be more depending on the kit. I believe the supercharger kits for the late model fuel injected cars has most of the stuff needed in the kit, so they are luckier than us. With that said, lets get into installing the supercharger

First step is to disconnect your battery. I usually remove the negative cable first then the positive. Start by removing all of the accessories from the front of the engine. This will make the installation of the supercharger a lot easier. It may even help to remove the fan shroud or electric fan if that is what you have.

Now that the accessories have been removed from the engine, it is time to assemble the supercharger’s brackets. It may look confusing, but be patient.  You can do it!

I started by assembling the brackets on a table. Look closely to the diagram. Follow the lines from the bracket to the corresponding bolts.  Each part has a number next to it. Look at the lower right hand corner and the part number has a description. It may say that the bolt is a 3/8″ by 4 inches long.  So take your time and you will not have a problem.  Remember that one or two bolts have to be installed on the engine bracket (flat plate to right) before installing the second bracket (middle plate).  The bolt goes through the far right plate and into the triangular bracket. The triangular bracket mounts to the head.

This is a copy of the supercharger bracket assembly diagram.
It is intimidating looking, but it really isn’t that bad.

Take a look at the two pictures above. The one on the left shows
how the bracket looked as received in the kit. The picture on the left shows
how it looked after I cut it. The drawing above is my recall of the way I cut
it, but the illustration is fairly accurate.

Now that I have everything bolted to my engine, it was time to install the belt. The belt included in the kit is 56″. As it turned out, it was too short for the 351W setup.  I called Paxton but they said they had no idea what size would fit.  Using the string method (wrapped string around the pulleys in the same manner as the belt would fit, then measured the length of the string ) I figured I needed a 59.5″ belt.  As luck would have it, I could not locate one, I tried a 60.5″ belt, but it could not be tighten enough.  The closest size belt I could find was 57.5″ long. In order to utilize the belt, I had to reset the locations of the idler pullies so I could re-route the belt.  I went through many belt sizes and routing paths until I started using the one I use now.

Due to the lack of space between the supercharger and the shock tower, I had to find an air filter that was no more than 2 inches high.  I found that the Edelbrock 1000 series filter fit the bill.  I had to narrow down the 5-1/8″ carb opening to 4 inches.  I hate to say it, but it was one ugly looking piece when I was done. It’s a good thing it can’t be seen once its on the car.

These are the tools I used to set up the oil return line.  I used a carpenters pry bar to punch a hole in the oil pan.  There are various sizes and I used the 16 inch one.  Once I punched the hole in the oil pan (see photo below for hole location), I used a 3/8″ - 18 Pipe tap to cut the threads for the return line nipple.  You will use a 1/2″ hose as your return line from the Supercharger to the nipple you just threaded into the oil pan.  Do not try to use a smaller hose as your return line. Remember that your return oil is gravity pulled and the in line is pressurized.  If the oil can’t flow easily back into the pan, it’s going into your intake.

Here’s a picture of the oil feed line setup. The brass T replaces
the oil sending unit the end of the extension bar.  Screw the T into the end
of the extension bar.  Then screw the sending unit into one end of the T and
the oil feed nipple is screwed into the remaining end of the T.

One would think that the supercharger would make the car run hotter.  That’s what I had expected. Well my car now runs around 185 deg vs 200+ deg before the supercharger install (103 outside temp).  I believe the reason for this may be that I had replaced my old radiator cap with a new one.  Pressure makes a big difference in the cooling system.  All in all it has taken me a month to get to where I am now. That’s the problem with installing generic stuff in your car.  Too many little things that must be done to make the system work.  Too bad they didn’t make a Novi 2000 Carbed kit for early Mustangs.  I decided to switch from the factory 3.75″ blower pulley to a 3.00″ blower pulley.  The 3.00″ blower pulley + direct belt path = 57″ belt.  What I found out was that proper belt adjustment is subjective.  Everyone has their own opinion.  What it boils down to is that the belt has to be very tight, but not tight enough to break the blower snout.  I was advised by X2C to make it tight enough to make noise when you tap it.  Sounds like plucking a guitar string.  Also when you twist the belt by hand, it should twist between a quarter to a half turn.  What ever method you use, in the end, it shouldn’t slip.  Make sure you do not have belt dust on your engine.  If you do, or you see small black balls of rubber, your belt is still slipping.  I turned the adjusting bolt until the two idler pulleys almost touched.  That seems to be the right tension.  I can put the car in drive, hold the breaks and hit the accelerator for a second and get around 4 psi.  As mentioned earlier,the direct routing method needs a 56.5″ belt to work.  I am currently using a 57″ belt and the factory routing method.  I had to make a tool to allow me to move the lower idler pulley far enough down which put enough tension on the belt that I didn’t have to tighten the upper pulley more than 1/4 of the way down.

Lets discuss the carburetor. I decided to use a 750 Mighty Demon.  Looking at the various web sites I found that there are a number of modifications that need to be done.  It is better to have a professional do the carb, but I chose to do it myself. Here is a list of what I did.

Install smaller high speed air bleeds. Increase the primary (5 sizes) and secondary jets by 7sizes.  I drilled out the PVCR holes to .092″ and removed the anti backfire valve. You can find a great article on how to modify your carb at http://www.hangar18fabrication.com/blowthru.

I ordered some high speed air bleed blanks. As it turned out, they came with .028″ holes already in them.   I left them as is.  The stock air bleeds are .039″. My primary jets went from 75 to 80 and my secondary went from 83 to 90 jets.

SEALING THE SHAFTS

One modification that must be done to the carb when using a bonnet (aka hat) is to seal the carb shafts.  You have 2 options.  One is to air seal the shafts, the other is to O-ring the shafts.  Air sealing the shaft requires you to drill a hole on the bottom of the base plate leading to the shaft hole (red dots in photo of carb plate).  You will need to run a groove around the intake manifold as shown in the manifold picture.  The groove must line up with the holes in the carb plate.  The red line shows where the groove or channel are located.  You then hook up a source to feed the clean air from the bonnet to the channel.   This allows fresh air to be pushed into the shaft area keeping the air/fuel mixture from escaping.

I decided to use the O-ring method. There are other options you can use to make the grooves, but I used a mill/lathe machine.  This is not necessary as I have heard of people using a drill press along with a dremel tool.  Unfortunately as I was cutting the groove for my O-ring, one of my shafts suddenly collapsed and broke.  After mulling over a few options, I decided to make my own shaft.   I went to my local hardware store and bought a 3/8″ x 36″ rod.  I cut it to lenght and away I went on a 6 hour journey.

This is a picture of my Lathe/Mill. I used it to make my replacement
shaft and to then put the grooves in my Mighty Demon’s shafts.

Here is a shot of the replacement shaft in the making. I am
creating the flat area for the throttle blades. I have to say it was quite an experience.

Here is the finished product.  You can see the O-rings on each side of the throttle blade grooves.   The shafts measured at .374″.  You want to make sure that the O-rings don’t keep the throttle shafts from moving freely.  I wanted to make the grooves deep enough so the O-rings are .003″ to .005″ larger than the shaft.  In other words, the O-rings should measure .377″ to .379″.  Once the carb was assembled, all ran well.  I did note that with the seals, my car ran a little richer at idle.  I was able to use the idle mixture screws to cure the problem.

This is the under side of the EV hat and the 1″ Spacer.   The red arrows point to where I had to create a tiny clearance on the hat.  This is allows clearance ot the air tubes. That little 1/4″ brass fitting on the right of the spacer is for my fuel regulator.  I’m using direct pressure.

In this picture, if you look closely you can see that the spacer is in place on the carb.  The red arrows show the air tubes just barely sticking out of the holes in the spacer.  There are 4 holes so you can place the spacer in various positions.  Be careful, the spacer has an inlet side.  Line it up with the EV hat inlet.

Let’s discuss the issue of my engine not being set up with a supercharger in mind.  I had originally designed my car for naturally aspirated running.  Then I got the idea of using nitrous, but as you may already know, I never used it.  So here I have an engine with 12.4:1 compression and you know everyone says to run between 8:1 and 9:1.  This would be a realistic goal if I were using pump gasoline of the 92 octane variety to race my car.  Since I plan on using racing fuel (F&L Racing Fuel -The S/T rated at 118 octane), the compression ratio does not stand in my way. I will use any octane required to run the 12.4:1 with 10 psi of boost.  I spoke to Bob Lambeck here in Northridge and he said that he knew of guys melting down pistons with 9:1 compression and 10 psi.  Boy he had me worried.  I then spoke to a VP Racing fuels Rep. and he told me I could run an effective compression ratio of 21:1 to 23:1 with their C16 (117 octane).  To be on the safe side they said that I could either step up the their C26 (119 octane) or their VP Import racing fuel (120 octane).  I was going to use the C16, but I found Manning Fuels (North Hollywood) who sells F&L Racing Fuel.  I decided to use F&L’s S/T Racing fuel (118 octane), run the carb fat and use the 6 BTM to pull some timing out.  Here is F&L Racing Fuel’s advertisement for the S/T Racing fuel:The ultimate performer in ultra high compression, turbo and supercharged engines.  Specifically designed to handle compression ratios to 18:1 and 35 lbs. of boost. An excellent high performance fuel with a high R+M/2, 118 octane rating. Primarily used for Drag Racing but can be used for other types of racing.Note: F&L costs less than VP and is said to be as good.

NOVI 2000 SPECIFICATIONS

Max. Speed: 55000 RPM (In other words do NOT spin the Novi 2000 beyond this RPM!) Boost: 27 psi Air Flow: 1700 cfm Internal ratio: 3.54 Lets see how this applies to my setup.  Since I want to limit the Novi 2000 to 55000 rpm, I can only rev my engine to 5826 rpm.   If I multiply the internal ratio of the Novi by the ratio of my crank pulley/supercharger pulley I can determine the over all ratio. So my crank pulley is 8″ in diameter and my supercharger pulley is 3″ in diameter.  I can divide the 8 by 3 and I get 2.666. So my ratio is 2.666:1.  Multiply the 2.666 x 3.54 = 9.4376. The overall ratio is 9.44:1.  Now I divide 55000 by 9.44 and I get 5826.  Looks like I should change my supercharger pulley to a larger one.

LOWER IDLER PULLEY

 ADJUSTER

This is a shot of the adjuster in action.  You have to look carefully to see it.  In this shot the adjuster was not painted so it blends in with the surrounding.  The upper yellow arrow points to the vertical arm that attaches under the upper idler pulley.  The lower yellow arrow points to the horizontal arm that attaches to the crank pulley.  The two arms keeps the lower pulley where you want it in relation to the holes on the bracket.  Look at the lower bracket, you notice that the bolt is sticking out.  What I am doing is putting tension on the belt at the same time aligning the lower idler pulley with the mounting hole that I choose. There are 4 to choose from.   I used the 3rd one which put a lot of tension on the belt. It put so much tension that the belt was already sounding like a guitar string before I put any pressure on from the upper adjustable idler pulley.

This is a shot from a different angle. This is an overhead shot.  The upper arm is hidden by the upper idler pulley.  The yellow arrow points to the horizontal arm that is pressing against the crank pulley.  Now you see why I finally decided to use the factory belt path.  This combined with a 57″ belt allows me ample adjustability.  By the way, this was the 4th and final pulley adjuster I came up with.  The others didn’t work!

FUEL SYSTEM

I used an Aeromotive 1000 fuel pump with the corresponding fuel pressure regulator.  The fuel pressure regulator is of the boost referenced version.  This will allow a 1:1 ratio of boost to additional fuel pressure.  If the boost is 5 psi then the fuel pressure will increase by 5 psi.  The 5/8″ aluminum fuel line runs from my 3 gal fuel cell to the carb.  I have a 1/2″ fuel return line from the fuel pressure regulator to the fuel cell.

I actually have a dual fuel system.  The one mentioned above is for racing and the fuel tank is for normal driving.  My stock fuel tank has an electric fuel pump that pushes 92 octane unleaded fuel to the carb.  How do I have 2 fuel lines going to the carb you ask?  Well I simply placed one way valves in each fuel system.  So by turning on the respective fuel pump, I can run either system.  This is all done on the fly!