Text and Photography by Chirag
Asaravala
Atkins fans put down your steak
filets because we're gonna boost your carbs. Recently
we came across an excellent deal on a 5.0L supercharger
kit. Too good to pass up, we picked it up without any
real plans in mind. Once we got it to the shop we batted
around the idea of installing it on one of our late model
Mustangs. While the idea of quick power gains is always
appealing, we didn't see anything challenging about the
project; afterall the kit is designed for an 87-93 Mustang,
and thousands of such kits have been installed without
much fuss. So the kit sat in the shop, just as it was
brought in, stuffed in an old brown moving box. Until
one day it dawned on us, let's throw this baby on the
carbed 331 stroker in our Project '67 Mustang. The 331
is certainly no slouch in naturally aspirated form, propelling
the coupe to 11.6 at nearly 120mph in the quarter mile.
Yet the idea of making this workhorse of a blower force
air down the throat of a carburetor made us grin like
Dr. Evil. Not to mention that knocking off ten second
ET's and pushing the limits of the stock block has dangerous
appeal. So the decision was made.
The first step was to assess the magnitude of the
project. When installed as intended this kit can be bolted
up in a weekend. However, in our case we planned on at
least six weeks. Of course that is not working straight
through, but rather taking our time mocking everything
up, measuring twice, and cutting only once.
We mentally broke the
project down into several categories; blower mounting,
pulleys, fuel system, and air inlet/outlet. With regards
to mounting the brackets and head unit, we were fairly
confident that getting this kit under the hood would not
be too tough. Afterall, a 5.0L block is no different whether
it is carbureted or fuel injected. We cleared the passenger
side of the block by removing the alternator. We then
preassembled the two brackets (cast aluminum "rear"
piece and the thick steel front half.) The bracket unit
was then bolted to the block. That went so well that we
just had to set the head unit in place. To our surprise
within just an hour we had a clear vision of the beast
we'd be creating.
Mounting the bracket was
easier then expected.
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We placed the head unit in
place just to get a vision.
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We knew that some of the challenges we'd face would be
with the pulley system and alternator relocation. The
single V-belt pulley setup would have to be replaced with
a five-rib serpentine setup in order to use the integrated
Vortech crank pulley. However, this opens up a can of
worms. First off, the early Mustang waterpump is standard
rotation, which means we need to find a ribbed waterpump
pulley (late model Fords use a reverse
rotation waterpump, hence the pulley's belt surface is
smooth, as it is driven with the non-ribbed side of the
belt.) Secondly, early Mustang
Mounting the blower and alternator
established the pulley "constraints" to
which the other pulleys must align.
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waterpumps have a shorter pump
flange offset. In other words, early V-belt pulleys sit
closer to the block than on late model vehicles. It turns
out actually that early 80's LTD's (and other vehicles)
did in-fact come with ribbed waterpump pulleys, but they
used yet a another flange offset dimension. We were faced
with several options. Change waterpumps and find the LTD
pulley, or have a custom waterpump pulley made. Needless
to say this became a mind numbing facet of this project,
which at times left us staring endlessly into the engine
bay, hoping the solution would jump out at us. Finally
it occurred to us that you have to start with the "constraints"
and the one constraint here was the blower pulley. With
the blower bolted in place, the driven pulley position
was fixed. By process of elimination the next pulley that
had to have a fixed position would be the blower drive
pulley, which is part of the integrated crank pulley.
So we bolted that up and checked the 8-rib crank-to-blower
belt alignment. With that looking good, the next pulley
constraint would be the alternator. If we bolt the alternator
to the blower bracket, it has a fixed position and offset.
So with that set, all that remained was the waterpump
pulley. Our solution was clear: take some careful measurements
and order up a customer waterpump pulley. Cost would be
under $50, which is not bad at all for the sort of customization
we are doing. Mounting the alternator hoeverw was not
as simple as it sounds and opened up other issues.
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(Installation mockup.) |
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In
This Article:
We adapt a 5.0L Vortech supercharger kit on to
our 331 stroker equipped 1967 Mustang.
Also See:
High on Carbs
Part II: The
Pressure Mounts |
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We found a used 5.0L Mustang
Vortech S-trim kit in the local classifieds. With a
recently rebuilt headunit, the kit was a bargain for
$1000. |
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Shown is the front side of the
S-trim, with pulley and belt tensioner mounted. The
S-trim with stock pulley should make 8-10psi of boost
- equating to around a 50% power increase. |
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The kit came complete with everything
needed to bolt up to a 5.0L fuel-injected Mustang. However,
our challenge will be adapting it for the carbureted
'67. |
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The cast aluminum bracket and
steel front piece bolted together as they would attach
to the passenger side of the block. |
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We're planning to feed the carburetor
with a carb hat, aka "bonnet" rather than
a full enclosure. This bonnet is the Extreme Velocity
by Superior Airflow. We'll discuss this hat design in
detail in an upcoming article. |
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