I am looking for any info on a 174 B&M blower, where to buy pulleys upper, lower, idler and brackets and what size pulleys to use? it is going on a 383 SB chevy also any pictures of one in stalled, would greatly be appreciated. Thank you Johnny Z
I was in the same boat needing parts for a B&M 250 supercharger and contacted Holley and these guys were very helpful.. Got me what I needed quick..
Bumping an old thread. I have an anemic low compression stock 305 Q-jet in my heavy ass daily, and a line on a B&M 144. I'm sure it would help the power but will my 14mpg get even worse? I probably ought to get a Vortec something or other but it is reliable and doesn't burn oil.
Well in theory increased cylinder pressure should improve the efficiency of your fuel burn which in turn should increase you mileage. Of course that is just a generality, you know the angle off the dangle is in direct proportion to the heat of the meat sort of deal.
You need a lot of math. Specific fuel consumption has to go up if the amount of air goes up. Increasing air and fuel will definitely increase power. Some of that hp goes into driving the blower. Supercharger boost and fuel economy don't really go hand in hand, however driving most of the time on economic tune with added boost for power can deliver a pretty good out come. GM 3.8 and ford Eco boost for examples but they are computer controlled
Thanks guys. Yeah hard to say, it would seem if volumetric efficiency goes up so should mileage (not counting blower drive loss). Hoping to find some actual use results but I suppose anyone who puts one on doesn't care much about mileage.
Probably your best info would come from those mile high guys that are huffing just to be able to drive. Some of the old guys that started adding blowers in the '80s and '90s have actually seen performance and economy changes to the plus side of the scale.
What's the rest of the package on the heavy ass daily? I had 350 in my HEAVY ass daily, Got 10 mpg average and had plenty of power. Took it up to higher elevations at base of the Rockies and it had no power at all but still about the same mileage. Computer adjusted the fuel curve to match the air density and maintain air fuel ratio. Traded it for a turbo diesel. Now the interesting thing to think about there is that the mileage remained the same with actually less fuel. Logic says mileage should go up but the power went down instead.
Blazer 4x4. 700r4 with lockup, 4:56 with 33" tires. I commute 20 miles to my cabin up a steep dirt road. 305 is out of a '79 Malibu, the 4bbl version. I have an SP2p, Hookers and duals, Q-jet, stock HEI. I guess it does about all you'd expect for what it is but it sure is a dog, no torque at all. Cam unkown. Won't ping no matter how far it's advanced. I've had the heads off, it's .o30 over, dished pistons, 1.88 intakes, 58cc chambers. It seems like an ideal candidate for the 144 blower. Sorry about the off topic, good info for any SBC hopefully.
I love those things !!!! They suck at power and mileage no matter what unless you do drastic stuff. I swapped a 04 Silverado driveline in mine. Completely different vehicle after that, really fell in love with it then
Yeah it sure fits my needs. I wanted the half cab but they all need smog tests, except diesels which they offered for a couple years, and what this one was, so I'm free to mess with it. At some point it will probably get a later drivetrain swap, just hard to do with a good running vehicle and an engine I could work on blindfolded. Speaking of drastic, or perhaps silly, I have a spare Eaton M90 for my Bantam on the shelf, I'm thinking of bolting it on the side where the A/C compressor was and blowing it through the Q-jet, I've already held it up there a couple times and pondered it. Think that would work?
Blowby, I have actual use for a little over 25 years on two different vehicles. I'll start in reverse order. Both vehicles in my avatar have had a 144 on them and I loved them. No math, just an educated guess and a lot of Yankee Enginuity! The '32 has a 385" SBC with Brodix 180 heads, 8.5 c/r, 144 @ 4 1/2 to 5 lbs. boost, a 750 Edelbrock, Comp XE 262 cam, a T-5 and 9" with 3.25 gears. It makes 465HP and 590 ft lbs. It gets 17-19 mpg depending how fast and what altitude I'm at. With a smaller XE 250 cam it got over 20 MPG. I also had a warmed up 350 SBC, no blower, in the bus in the background for 10 years and it got about 6 1/2 to 7 mpg. Put on the 144 @ 2 lbs. boost and it went to 7 1/2 mpg. Woke it right up! I put in a 383 with the 144, 10-1 c/r, and an EX 250, reworked medium duty truck heads and it got on average 7 1/2 mpg with 2 lbs boost, with an all time best of 8.2 mpg. The bus weighs 22,000 and we towed a VW Rabbit. I ran that combo for 11 years with no problems with the blower, but I did break 2 crank snouts. Then I put a 427 T in it and now it gets under 6 mpg pulling a 20 ft. car hauler. YIKES! Maybe I should put a 6-71 on it! All old skool of course! No computers. PM me and I'll tell you more.
Hey Montana, great info thanks! So there's no question about power gains, and in the right combination (maybe something that's working hard just to survive) mileage may even increase. Love to hear more about it. The deal on this 144 fell through but they are out there of course. One nice thing about it, if you sell the vehicle, change engines or whatever the 144 still can be used on something else or sold off.
The thing I like about a street blower, is it just feels like a big motor without all the fuss. It has lots of torque all through the power range and has great street manners unlike a cammed up motor. Plus, it's a good sleeper motor and you get better mileage until you get on it!
I've got it pretty well dialed in thanks to advice from Montana1 on timing and tuning. Definitely helps in the power department but it will be awhile before I can keep my foot out of it long enough to check mileage. I'll report back. Seems to cruise with noticeably easier effort.
1,000 mile report: As 31V and Montana1 mentioned above, the blower has been utterly reliable. Gas mileage has not changed, still 11-13. I'm a little surprised that it hasn't improved because it accelerates so much more effortlessly. Couple other notes: there's a lot written about necessary carb modifications (boost referencing etc.), I just plopped my Q-jet on unchanged and it works fine. I rarely use the secondaries, even with no to light boost it accelerates better, possibly the blower creates turbulence. Under full boost and open secondaries the power increase is alarming. Timing is at 30 degrees plus vacuum advance, no pining on regular gas. Pretty darned satisfied.
So it's all good with no down side and the driving experience is much better. So how are you measuring the boost?
Down sides, hmm. Well you have to take the blower off to get to the thermostat housing. There was no mounting pad on the manifold for a divorced choke housing, I just epoxied it on, it's holding and working. Oddly though it doesn't seem to need as much cold enrichment as before, maybe it's the blower creating turbulence. The belt drive setup is great, no interference with the other belt driven components. At some point I realized there is no pop off valve, I wonder if anyone has had a problem. It only backfired once gently when I was first getting it running. Oh and the drive uses a splined coupler that rattles a bit sometimes at low idle. Others on the 'net have mentioned this. I checked it before install, no visible wear and it's bathed in 90w so hopefully it won't get worse. Thought about putting some locking compound on it but then it wouldn't come apart. I had considered a later Vortec mill, or even LS swap, either would probably give me as much power and much better mileage but I'm rarely getting time to work on my hot rod as it is and this was easy. The other reason was my interest in staying non-computer/electrical/FI. I know it's dinosaur mentality.. Oh, Harbor Freight of all places (which for better or worse is a couple miles away from me) stocks a boost gauge. There's a 1/8" pipe thread port provided on the manifold. https://www.harborfreight.com/2-inch-led-lit-boost-vacuum-gauge-98478.html
I never gave that a thought! But then after a couple a hundred thousand miles of driving one... Once in a while I've had it backfire through the carb when I let off the start button too soon and it kicks back a little. Then it will sneeze and a little smoke will roll out from under the hood. It's never even spit a gasket out. I don't think there is a problem! I think a pop off valve is more of a safety valve for floating and dinging a valve at 7500-8000 RPM and igniting the mixture in the blower, like a T/F car.
Yes, it does create more turbulence. It helps to break up the liquid fuel in the air stream. It also gives you a better vacuum signal to the carburetor for better fuel atomization and better vacuum to the power brake booster. I don't see why more people don't use these wonderful little tire fryers!
Interesting thread and some very good information, especially from Montana1. Back in the mid 80's I installed a B&M 144 on my sbc 350 which I built as a blower engine...(cam, pistons, compression) as per my machinist and B&M's recommendations. The engine ran like a top and I put on thousands of trouble free miles with the exception of a couple of things. I broke the blower belt in the middle of 'No-where' Idaho and luckily had a spare in my parts stuff to carry on. When the belt broke (due to normal wear and tear) the engine continued to run but was definitely choking... The second time it gave me an issue was when the bearing in the idler pulley was on the way out. I had a spare one of those in my parts stuff too. I was in California on a road trip and had a few days to kill and thought it was time to get the blower serviced. I called B&M, sent the unit to them and they turned it around in a couple of days for me. B&M said it was in excellent condition but as a precautionary measure they replaced the bearings and rotor seals. So the moral of my story is; take a few blower spares with you on road trips, and after 20-30K miles if you so desire, have B&M check it out. They are great little blowers, make lots of power and are relatively maintenance free.
There's plenty out there. I wouldn't have plopped down the $2,500 or whatever the new ones cost, not for this beater truck, but there were a couple for sale locally for half that. Guys going the LS route probably. I got lucky, mine had very low miles and needed nothing. Good point on the spare belt and idler, I should get that. Mine s actually a Weiand 142, basically the same but the idler setup is a bit different. My engine is a stock 305, two bolt cast pistons and crank I'm sure. The one or two times I've really put my foot in it I wonder, 'cause it really puts out the beans.
I used to have 4 bolt motors, but I broke a couple of cylinders one time when I was getting things sorted out. Then I needed a block real bad and a guy gave me this 2-bolt block. He's a Ford guy and hated Chevys and wanted to get rid of it. I said OK! So, I put together this 385" 2-bolt motor and it's been the best one yet. It made 465 HP and 599 ft. lbs. at the crank with 4-5 lbs. boost, and now it has about 50,000 miles on it in the '32 Sedan. I do have KB hypereutectic pistons in it. Don't worry about cast pistons, they will take 3-4 lbs. boost OK. Just DO NOT let it ping!
blowby...... I know this is an old thread but I'm considering a 144 B&M on a cast piston, RV cammed 305 Chevy. Do you recall how much boost you ran and what the pulley diameters were? I'm thinking I want to limit boost to about 4-6 Pounds. Hoping it'll run OK on 91 octane non-ethanol gas, but I'm also considering methanol. It's for a drag only car. Thanks for sharing anything you care to pass on Lynn
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