The small-block Ford has never been blessed with particularly good cylinder heads in its half-century service life. Even the Boss 302 and 5.0L GT-40 were never impressive in the cylinder head department. The Boss 302 was an excellent racing engine, but it was a real dog on the street because its huge ports didn’t deliver […]

In Chapter 1, we told you about our subject engine, a 1965 289-2V engine removed from Jeff Fischbach’s Mustang convertible. When Mustang Monthly decided to target this engine for a “Budget 289 Build-Up,” they invited us to follow to gather information for this book. The engine had failed coming off of a Los Angeles freeway. […]

It matters little whether you call them blowers, compressors, huffers, windmills, air transfer pumps, wheezers, Jimmys, or anything else. The supercharger in its various forms is almost as synonymous with high-performance enthusiasts as the beloved V-8 engine itself.   This Tech Tip is From the Full Book, HOW TO BUILD SUPERCHARGED & TURBOCHARGED SMALL-BLOCK FORDS. For […]

Regardless of the type of supercharger you use, there are certain operating parameters that must be considered for your setup to work properly. Among them are particulars for each type of supercharger used – those will be detailed in individual chapters of this book dedicated to each ’charger type. However, the more general factors for […]

Any self-respecting Ford enthusiast will be somewhat familiar with centrifugal superchargers. The premise is simple, even if the execution is not. Air molecules have enough mass and weight so that if you build a device to propel them from point A to point B quickly enough, they’ll tend to keep moving in that direction. If […]

Because of its ability to produce an abundance of boost at virtually any engine RPM without any supercharger lag, the twin-screw compressor has become one of the most popular choices for contemporary street supercharging. Former NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car racer Art Whipple was highly instrumental in introducing twin-screw compressor technology to the world […]

  Compression Ratios and Supercharging When matching superchargers to engines, the most important factor to be resolved is the engine’s mechanical compression ratio. Since a supercharger can elevate the volume of air ingested by each cylinder beyond that magical 100 percent VE figure – the compression ratio is much higher than it was prior to […]

In the interest of practicality, we’ll discuss supercharging via a turbocharger compared to a centrifugal supercharger, such as the familiar Paxton or Vortech belt-driven blowers. Rather than being driven with a belt off the crankshaft, a turbocharger’s impeller is mounted on a common shaft with a turbine wheel, which is spun by the exhaust gas. […]

There is one supercharger that outnumbers all the others by a wide margin for a number of good reasons. Automotive giant Eaton Industries developed the Eaton supercharger, with the assistance of veteran supercharger legend Jerry Magnuson. Numerous incarnations of this small but amazingly efficient supercharger have appeared on a wide variety of factory installations, ranging […]

Small-block Ford cooling systems vary depending upon vehicle application. One thing is certain about small-block cooling systems: They were under-capacity right off the assembly line. When you add corrosion and foreign contaminants they only became worse with time. When you consider that Ford had radiators in only two-row core 19-, 20-, 24-, and 26-inch lengths, […]