3.8 Supercharger

[Bridgett]

Is it possible to adapt the supercharger from the T-Bird 3.8 V6 to a 302?

[65cobra427]

Providing you have lots of $$$ and unlimited facilities.... But Why??? As you stated the T-bird is a v6 and the 302 is a v8... If you want a supercharger for a 302, buy a Vortech... Less than $3k installed...

[Bridgett]

Why, you ask, because I have two Tbirds with 3.8 supers very low mileage .. A simple no or yes and WHY is what I was looking for..

[Bob Putnam]

While I see lots of times people don't answer the question - just push their own philosophy - this was not one of those times, IMHO.

Sometimes (in fact, most of the time) a simple yes or no doesn't really answer the question, and 65Cobra was trying to be helpful.

[Bridgett]

I don't see where he really answered the question. His opinion was to use a Vortech because of the difficutly and the dollars involved. He didn't say why, ie....is it because the manifold to difficult to make or what?
671's were used on all sorts of engines. My father even mounted one on a straight six.
So is a 3.8 blower so different that it just can't physically be done?
Just looking for a little detailed help here.

[Bridgett]

Oh and by the way....I'd hate to just have to throw them away.

[Mr.Fixit]

What condition are your low milage T-birds, unsellable?
If they are sellable, sell them and use the proceeds to buy the parts you want.
Their blowers are kinda small for a 302, they don't make much boost on a 3.8, they will make less on a 5.0, unless you run two of them. Then the fabrication issues (for running two in parallel) would make you want to just bolt on a centrifugal or a 6-71 anyway. If you need to throw them away, send them to me, I'll put one on my 3.8 pontiac, keep the other as a spare.

[Bridgett]

Thanks, thats the kind of info we were looking for. The reason we are not selling the cars is because we're taking the rearends out out for our Cobras. And there are a few people who want the interiors and other items.

[Satanpez]

There is a guy who adapted two of the superchargers to work with either a 302 or 351. He's got a website. (I'm pretty sure a 302)

If you do a search for it, you may find it. I believe it was put into a mustang. I remember stumbling upon it when looking up junkyard turbo mustangs.

The thought has crossed my mind as they're not that hard to come by.

Are you planning EFI or carb, that may make a huge difference.

And how much are you willing to fabricate? Certainly not a bolt on, but it IS doable. (But then again, almost anything is)

-steve in nj-

[rlearp]

I have tried and somewhat done this on a EFI 302. I modeled the BBK kit that used the Eaton blower and mounted the MAF on the intake side of the charger, sucked through, and blew into the throttle body. I had a heck of a time making brackets to hold the blower on the left side (from the front of the car) engine and hold it well. BBK had the same trouble I think and I don't think the kit is made any more.

Mine worked, but needed a lot more engineering time on the brackets to make it livable. I didn't have the facilities to pull it off as well as I would have liked and abandoned it shortly after getting it on and going.

But, it can work and there is enough flow, the Eaton M90 is a good blower but the M112 would be even better for the 5.0L.

I'll see if I have any digital photos.

Ron

[65cobra427]

Sorry, If my answer was a bit tersh but I didn't know that you have 2 excess SC's... But, I still stick with my answer from a simplistic standpoint... If you are scrapping the SC's and they are low mileage, you may get enuf for the 2 of them ( motors & blowers) to buy a new Vortec...

BTW, I have a '90 SC with 57k original miles (bought new in Oct 89) that produces 10lbs of boost with a different pulley, but I don't think it has enuf volume for a 302... Remember, that 302 has about 30% more volume than the 3.8... Also manufacturing the manifold could be a real challenge... IMHO...

[rlearp]

The lbower has enough volume to produce good boost. The blower rev limit based on the compressor map I remember is about 12,000 RPM and you'd have to have a really tiny pulley to get that high. Check the Eaton site for compressor maps and efficieneies to calculate your engine RPM, blower RPM, and best points of efficiency. They used to have the compressor maps available years ago. If in doubt contact Magnesson who can help you out with anything on an Eaton.

As for manifolds, yes, it'd be hard if you tried ot duplicate the SC installation. But I just mounted the thing outboard of the alternator bracket and treated it like a centrifugal blower for that purpse and the same way BBK did it when they sold 5.0L kits with this blower. Get some old issues of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords, you'll find the write ups in there with lots of pictures you can use to duplicate your brackets. That is what I did.

The M90 is 90 cubic inches, or 1.5L of blower. It can produce about 9lbs on a 5L, around 5-6lbs with the normal pulley (and standard crank pulley). But more importantly, it will produce throughout the rev range unlike the Paxtons, Vortechs, etc. All in all, I like the blowers better than the centrifgual types but you'll have to do some homework to mount them up.

Ron

[Bridgett]

Any photos you can get would be great! Thanks for the input on all who answered.