the only way a g***er looks right is with something poking out of the hood..is Blown with carbs or Blown and injected best for a street driven car? what is more reliable,streetable,easiest to work on..for a dummie that knows practically nothing about blowers, just that my g***er restoration project has to have a blower and I want to drive it on the street...
budget and the look you want may dicate part of your questions?.... easiest/cheapest= throw carbs on it. you could always go efi, but there is a little more to learn with that, and its still going to be more costly to set up than carbs.... Garlits makes some nice injector looking carb covers that could maybe give you the injected look, if thats what you lust for, that would still keep things simple.
My memory might have faded, but I don't remember a single blown g***er that used carbs on top of a GMC blower in those days. I am sure there were some, but not that common. Having said that, a mechanical fuel injection setup is usually far from streetable. They really have issues with partial throttle operation. I have seen old fuel injection setups used as throttle bodies for EFI setups, and they are really cool, but the cost is best cl***ified as shocking. So it comes back to the basic question every hotrodder runs into with virtually every project: How much fun can you afford?
Your'e right I think about the carbs on blower, mostly what I remember is injector stacks, I don't have much to go on with my restoration project, all I have is frame rails stickin out with BB motor mounts and some heresay about it used to be 396..don't even have a hood to tell if it was cut for something....
Put carbs on it and drive it. Someone could say it was a 396 but unless you got a motor plate it could have easily been a small block. They'll rest on the same mounts. A lot of g***ers didn't have a damned thing stickin' out of the hood btw.
I visited Jr. Thompson's house/shop this past January on our trip to California. I was speaking to Jr. regarding modifying the barrel valve to run on the street as I was not interested converting the injection to EFI. Well in Jr.'s own words is: the mechancial injection was build to used used in a race enviornment wide open, not to idle too long and was not intended to run part throtle.... However; Jr. will modify the barrel valve to help you out to run a mechanical set up, however; it will be a lot of trial and error. Too make a long story short, run carbs or convert to EFI for the street....
I donno, I think injectors are much easier to tune myself. Carbs have 4 jets, power valve, air bleeds and this and that. Injector just has a barrel valve (once it's set it's done) and one main byp*** jet. You won't need to get crazy with high speed byp*** jets. Now they are tricky to start but once that's down you will love it. Not for a daily driver but I take it that's not your point with a g***er anyway. Blown injected, once you go there there is no going back.
In all actuallity, it is what YOU want to do to have fun!! G***ers back then are like today... Build what you CAN, with what you HAVE!!! I myself DO NOT like the "carb on top" look, unless it is like 2,3, or 4 strombergs / 94's!!! Holleys carters on a blower do nothing for ME, (but thats just me!!!) BUT... I love a mean looking blower, and the style of blower I like the most is an injected 3 ****erfly scoop style... SO with ALL that being said, (and this is where many will probably *****)>>>>this is what I am doing!! Take a blower manifold, or in my case I used an edelbrock performer manifold, then get yourself a used blower case, a junk one would work, and it is cheaper. I got 2 bad ones for $75.00, so with that intake, take a piece of 1/2" aluminum plate, and cut it to fit the out side dimensions of the bottom of the blower, and drill and tap it and put in studs into the aluminum plate to bolt down the case. Next, layout where that plate needs to be bolted to the intake in the stock carb. position, and then cut out the opening for the carb, into the plate. Basically you will be "sandwiching" that plate between the carburator, and intake. Next, cut out any and ALL of the internals of that blower case. What you are doing is removing as much of the interior of the case as needed to fit a carb inside of the case. Now you have a blower mount (the 1/2" plate) on the carb mount of the intake, the carb mounted on the plate and bolted to the intake, and a blower case that bolts onto the plate with a carb inside of it. Thats all the easy part, you then need to make a front pulley snout and machine it to fit bearings and a shaft. What I am in the proccess of doing is taking 3" round aluminum stock and turning it down to fit into the front bearing plate cover, (which also houses the gears) then with a brng. in the front of that snout I will run a hardened shaft from the front pulley mount thru that first brng. then thru the gear, and then thru the bearing in the front plate!Now you have a pulley mount out front, and a gear that makes that "blower whine" but for that second gear you need to devise a way to put IT on a shaft. I plan on maching out a plate to have a brng in it and weld it to the inside of the front cover, then a shaft will be supported in front and rear of that second gear by brngs. also. One thing I haven't taken care of yet is a "lubrication" system for that set of gears?!?!? Another point is you may have to machine down the carb mount on the intake OR shim it up as that plate has to be PARRALLEL to the crank!!!!! Now, next I took a lower pulley and drilled it out to fit my Balancer...easy, then need to make a sliding idler plate for the idler...Easy fab work also. So you now have a front pulley mounted onto that shaft going thru the snout, brngs., and gear, blower whine fromt the gears and a front belt that turns thru the balancer, idler, and top pulley. Next make a rear plate... nothing fancy, OR you can just buy a rear plate out of speedway, it is a Weiand and looks KOOL, but I AM CHEAP!, I just have a flat plate! Next Cut out another plate that will bolt to the top of the blower case, but have the center of it cut out for air to get thru, Then drill and tap it to mount it to the case top AND mount a "bug catcher" to it. One of those cheapie "Mr. Gasket" ones will work, but I found an authentic F/I scoop to use. Now mount it. The next steps are for you creative minds. I will make up a dummy injection set up with fuel block and lines, while also hooking it up to the accelerator linkage, and will run a elec. fuel pump, and run the fuel line to that dummy block and run the other side thu the rear of the case and up to the carb. When I get pics, if you want I will show you, because it is easier to show than explain all the linkage and fuel line ****. Sorry this is SO LONG but it basically explains what I did to have that Fuel Injected blower "look" with out the streetability problems!! I'll be honest I KNOW it is cheating, but I was willing to pay what it cost to get this system working for real, but was talked out of it by SEVERAL people locally (drag racers & hot rod builders) because it would just be to "finicky" to have fun driving it!?!?!?! If someone gets pissed because this is a "fake" way of doing it just let me know and I'll delet ALL of this. If it helps any of you out, then kool, have fun!!! I'm not done with it all yet so don't know if it will work, but I have spent many hours figuring this out and working it out on paper.???????Ken
I don't know why anyone would get pissed about a fake. Heck, sounds like easy pickens for the guy with the real deal when he pairs up against ya. But now that you bring it up. A friend did what you are talking about and I took some photos of it when it was apart. They are on my work puter so I'll post them up tormorrow. He used a real snout though.
Well If he can get that thing to run O.K. next to me, (remember thats why I didn't do it, I WANTED TOO though!!) I bet I'll get to where ever we are going before he has to stop for gas!!!
put a couple carbs on it, they only need a little tweaking to work ok for street use on a blower. I've been running the same old Holley 650s on my blown big block for many years, lotsa miles, I've probably run close to 10,000 gallons of gas thru them since 1990!
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