Are these motors capable of producing 550-600 horsepower on a properly setup 350? Also, right now I have a 4" glasstek hood on my 82 Camaro, could I fit either of these blowers under the hood? I have heard the 177 might not fit...

Thanks.

 

Years ago I ran these blowers on my cars. They were nice because they provided instant boost and power. However, they were not intercooled and required race gas for boost above 12psi. I could uses water/meth. injection to cool the intake charge and run almost 15psi. 500-600 hp, not on these blowers without and injection or race and for sure not with the 144. The 144 is so small that it beats the heck out of the air and almost superheats. Above 9psi these blowers loose efficiency at an exponential rate.

BUT, keep in mind that it was no problem making a third gen go high to mid 11's on 9psi and 93 octain using 3200 stall, t350 and 410 gears.

My engines worked best with a blower camshaft, 8.5 to 1 comp, good heads, and good exhaust.

As for the hood. Yes we did put the 144 blowers on third gen's with a Holley carb and low profile air-cleaner and just a bubble in the hood. The cowl hoods gave much more room.

If you want to be cool, convert it to injection and run a TB off to the side with a cold air intake. This will allow for more boost on pump gas.

Like I said, it has been a while since I have worked with these cars using roost superchargers, but I still do remember quite a bit.

If I can help, e-mail me

BlownTA@valornet.com

 

o ya, one more thing. A good 383 with ported heads, the right cam and a good tune will make in the 500 hp range with the 177. And it will do it on pump fuel.

Wingnut

 

I had a B&M 144 on a 355 in an '89 Firebird.

The 144 definitely won't support that power level. Mine made about 450 hp (flywheel) with TFS heads, 9/1 compression, and a 208/221 cam at 5 psi. I raised the boost to 7 psi and lost power, indicating the blower was already maxed out. I check the intake air temps and it was 200+ deg. F on a 40 degree day.

I had a 2" drop base air cleaner and a Harwood 2 1/2" cowl hood and it cleared by about 0 inches.

I don't think anyone makes a 177 for the SBC, only the BBC. However, they do make a 250, which is the same diameter rotor as a 144, but longer. The 250 has a taller manifold and is 3 inches taller than the 144 and it's longer so it requires a small cap distributor.

In my opinion, there are much simpler/easier/cheaper/more reliable ways to get 450 hp. These days, a well chosen head/cam package will get you there and still idle smooth.

A set of AFR 210's and an Extreme 224/230 cam will get you there for about $1600.

Mike

 

Right now I have a vortec head/XE274 cammed 350 with 10:1 that runs 12.4's on street tires, would have gone in the 12.1X's with a set of slicks judging by my 60 foot times. I am just considering different avenues for the next motor. I would hate to build a roots blown motor and have it run... 12's lol. That would be so embarrassing...

 

Here's what I had:

'89 Firebird, 9/1 355, TFS heads, 208/221 cam, Holley 750, Edelbrock headers, TH700R-4 with 2500 converter, 3.73 gears, B&M 144 at 5 psi boost.
Best ET on slicks: 12.15 at 114 mph.

Next combo:

'89 Firebird, 8.4/1 360, AFR 210 heads, 234/242 cam, Holley 750, SLP headers, TH700R-4 with 3200 converter, 3.73 gears, no power adder.
Best ET on drag radials: 11.96 at 114.5 mph.

Next:

'89 Firebird, 11.5/1 383, AFR 210 heads, 234/242 cam, Holley 750, SLP headers, TH700R-4 with 3200 converter, 3.73 gears, no power adder.
Best ET on drag radials: 11.09 at 122.7 mph.


Notice from combo 1 to combo 2, I dropped the power adder AND the compression ratio and still gained power due to the better heads and cam. The only change in combo 3 was the stroker with more compression.

If you're already in the mid to low 12's, don't bother with a 144.

Mike

 

I appreciate your responses in this thread. I have decided i am going to go 17X or larger, i want it to fit under a 4" cowl hood.

The thing is, I see lightnings and cobras making awesome #'s with roots blowers, and i dont want to mess with tuning a blow through setup with a carb, so i was thinking roots would be the next best thing...

 

I also happen to have a '00 Lightning and my brother just bought an '03 Cobra.

These actually only have 112 ci superchargers, which is somewhat smaller than what I had on my Firebird (144), but it makes 10+ psi boost.

The reason people can make ~415 rwhp with the 5.4 and ~460 rwhp with the 4.6 with bolt-ons is both have good sized water/air intercoolers, which offsets the poor efficiencies of the blowers.

Blower discharge temps are well over 300 degrees F, but the intercooler bring these down closer to 100 deg.

Keep in mind also that people are gaining 100 rwhp by switching to a screw supercharger, indicating how inefficient the Eaton 112 roots blower is.

Don't expect modular motor Ford results unless you manage to stack an intercooler under that blower.

Mike