Identify Item

Looks like small block chevy to me....distrubutor in back, valve covers, 4 pipe exhaust.

But the contraption on top does indeed look like a blower, no idea why it has a starter-looking can mounted to it.
 
I do not know what it is but it looks like a Ford overhead valve 272-292-or 312 engine. The setup with the 3 carbs looks like it has a Ford starter on it. Looks to me that they are using the starter motor for turning the turbo instead of the exhaust. Make sense to anyone.
 
Scott H in Wheaton said:
Looks like small block chevy to me....distrubutor in back, valve covers, 4 pipe exhaust.

But the contraption on top does indeed look like a blower, no idea why it has a starter-looking can mounted to it.
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Scott look at the valve covers. The 2 bolts holding them on. Chevy usually has several 1/4 inch bolts at the base.
 
Definitely a Y block engine. 2 studs on the valve cover is a giveaway. I can't imagine that starter spinning anything real fast, unless it has some geared setup to get it spinning real fast? Just a guess.
 
Probably built by the Treco Co. in Atlanta that built this Dragster-500 supercharger for a flathead in a 1957 ad in Motor Trend. Looks like the Bill Smith collection. Probably worth more than Lawson's whole truck. DD

178650
 
Although that motor looks like a starter, it may in fact just be a fine wire field winding DC electric motor. The supercharger may not have needed the high torque that a heavy wire field starter motor would provide.

They had electric overdrive, why not electric supercharger? It may have overburdened a stock generator with only 35 amps output is probably why you don't see too many of these contraptions floating around.
 
Looking at the ad in PM a major selling feature was the electric drive, allowing boost pressure to be adjusted independent of exhaust velocity. It might end up being one of those ideas that will come back.
 
My first thought was it must not turn much RPM, but then I took a closer look. From where electric motor output seems to be there could be a bevel gear driven shaft with a spur gear on it's lower end. That spur gear may be turning another spur giving possibly a 3 or 4 to one RPM increase at the impeller. Helical spur gearing would help limit the noise.
Just hazarding a guess here, never saw one of these before. Anybody know for sure how they worked?
 
But remember you can't get something for nothing. The power it takes to run the motor on the blower comes from the generator which in turn comes from the engine in the form of increased engine load.
 
Would probably work if wired to a sort of kickdown switch that only kicked it in for short bursts at wide open throttle. Obviously the idea didn't really catch on because if it had they would be used everywhere now. A bit like those turbonique jobs I guess.

Mart.
 
JSeery said:
But remember you can't get something for nothing. The power it takes to run the motor on the blower comes from the generator which in turn comes from the engine in the form of increased engine load.
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Blowers do take power to spin them, but they create way more in return.

Not that many on here care, but just for reference, the 14-71 blower
on a Top Fuel dragster takes almost 600 horse power to spin the
blower, but that 14-71 blower helps the 500 cubic inch alum engine
make between 8.000 and 10,000 horse power burning nitromethane
fuel, that is over 1,000 horses per cylinder, that is a certified fact. :D










.
 
I've maintained helicopters for police departments that have all the bells and whistles from search lights with slaving systems to FLIR systems with down link antennas and DVRs. All this stuff takes a good amount of electrical power to operate. The average light turbine helicopter has a 150 amp starter generator and they will pull all that stuff while running at night with all the lights and whistles on but it pushes the system right up to max allowable power draw consumption. The brushes don't make overhaul time and the armatures & fields average around three 1200-hour overhaul periods before something goes bad. I would imagine that this blower system would likely have the same affect. I would rather be replacing worn out drive belts than replacing generators and drive motors myself. There is a reason that these blowers were not popular in there somewhere. Belt drive blowers have enough problems with out complicating things even more.
 
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