Decision - Blower vs. Turbo

[Frederic Breitwieser]

> Buddy's not cooperatin,he's afraid I'll make a quicker blown B-engined
> B-body than he....

Actually, don't kill yourself over it. I'll tell you why.  After I
yanked out the 318 last night I looked through the engine compartment
again (fun standing in there, I could almost setup a chair and a BBQ
under the hood!), I started to realize the blower thing is going to be
much more work for prolly less results. Why?

While I'm working (slowly) in a new stroker motor, the peripherals for
turbocharging are already in existance.  I have the flanges, a
wastegate, a plenum, the two turbos, among a variety of other parts. 
So, to go turbocharged, I merely have to bolt it together and tune and
go.

The other advantage I see for turbocharging, specifically twin turbo, is
the way the engine bay is laid out.  While the hood area is a giant box,
the turbos will fit where I made the headers, so there is no cutting
into the hood, bending or notching of frame rails, crossmembers, or
other things.  I'd just have to mount the brake line to the rear wheels
on the outside of the frame rail, rather than the inside, so it doesn't
bake.  With a 6-71 blower, I have a nasty big-ass hole to cut into the
hood.  While that's not a big deal, then everyone will see the blower,
and "Hey dude, wanna race?"  Its the culture here, and I'd rather avoid
that.  I'm building a stump puller not a Vette killer.

The last thing I see, is it appears that the roots blowers pick up their
boost pressure at higher RPMs.  I'd have to fabricate pulleys to get it
up sooner, because I'll never hit 5000 RPM ever with this engine, so the
blower isn't going to make all that much.

By using two slightly undersized turbos and keeping the redline at 4k
RPM, I should have my 10lbs boost fairly quickly, with minimal to no
lag, and it should be a happy motor without detonation.  THis was the
original theory.  However, after playing on the dyno, we got exactly
that - 10lbs boost at 3900 RPM, minimal if any lag, little to no
detonation, and a smooth, reliable engine.  Though ours leaned out and
died.  But that was a human error, not a failure in parts.