1968 Camaro Supercharger - Blowin' In A Box

Vortech's own lower crank pulley was tightly bolted to the balancer. We went for the double groove pulley to be able to run the power steering pump and A/C compressor. The alternator, which required fabricating a custom bracket, was destined to run off of the March billet water pump pulley.

This tensioner is supplied with the kit and bolts directly to the top of the mounting bracket. It has a mounting dowel on the back and can only bolt on one way. Being spring-loaded, this idler will keep the 10-rib belt in place nice and tight.

Installing the belt required using a 1/2-inch drive ratchet to pull back on the tensioner. The tensioner will spring back and keep the right amount of tension on the belt at all speeds.

Here's Vortech's carb linkage and fuel lines that are provided for feeding the fuel and actuating the throttle inside the carb box. Not all of these lines are going to be used.

This is the fitting that comes with the kit and is designed to be a bulkhead through the front of the box. It's purpose is to deliver fuel from the outside of the box to the fuel line inside. There is one port on each side of this fitting so that you can run a fuel pressure gauge.When plumbing our fuel system with Russell components, this fitting was replaced with a simple #8 bulkhead.

With the carb sitting in the box, it was time to install the throttle linkage. We started by installing the main shaft and the inner linkage. Leave the bolt on the inner arm loose until further positioning.

On the outside of the box, start by installing the stop for the throttle arm. The hole to the right is for tuning the air/fuel screws on the carb while it is the box. A brass screw-in plug closes the hole.

It is easier to install the adjustable rod with its two small Heim joints while the carb is outside of the box.

Once the carb was back in the box, the rod was installed onto the linkage arm on the inside. Some minor adjustment in length may be necessary and once finished, it is important to tighten both jamb nuts.

The arm on the outside of the box looks just like the one on the inside. This is what it will look like from the outside with the Lokar return spring and throttle/kickdown cables in place. You may need to adjust the stop for the throttle arm once you get the car running.

Since we worked on the carb/box assembly on the bench, we needed to put the whole thing back on the engine. You can do this without removing any of the linkage, and when it is in place tighten all the carb studs to secure both the carb and the box.

When the supercharger is bolted on and the box is in place, it will look something like this. To our delight the top of the carb box just fit under the Classical Resurrection's cowl induction hood without any modifications.

The fuel system was one of those things that went through some metamorphosis. Through it all, we used a variety of fuel fittings and a lot of hard aluminum and stainless steel braided line from Russell Performance. The Russell line of fluid transfer fittings helped us accomplish a fuel system that was completely free of cavitations and dead-on precise.

This high-flow fuel pump was supplied by Product Engineering and offers some of the most beneficial features around. This pump is designed for constant-duty usage and is backed by a hefty warranty. Using our Russell fittings, we plumbed out of the tank and also our return using -8 steel braided line. The hose on the right is the fuel input from the tank. The line next to it is the pump's bypass, which essentially bleeds off excess fuel back to the tank. We used #8 stainless steel flex line to run from the tank to the pump and back.

Using a Russell fuel pressure gauge attached to the Product Engineering four-port boost-reference regulator, we will start by setting the line pressure at about 6 pounds. As the supercharger starts coming on boost the reference line going to the top of the carb box will take a reading and allow more fuel pressure to run to the carb at a rate of 1 pound of fuel pressure for each 1 pound increase in boost.

The fuel line from the regulator runs to a 180-degree fitting that attaches to bulkhead in the box. As you see from this picture, many other things have changed about this car. The amount of effort that has gone into this Camaro has been phenomenal, from the trick MSD ignition to the now functioning A/C, quick ratio power steering and even cruise control. The MSD 6-BTM ignition box also gets a boost reference from the back of the box and can pull timing out of the motor when under boost, all from a dial inside the car. With everything finally in place a day at the dyno is all that is left.

With our ride running smoothly on the Primedia Tech Center Dynojet in-floor chassis dynamometer, carb and engine-tuning guru Bob Vrbancic offered his time and overwhelming experience with supercharged engines for a day to help us get this car somewhat correct. One of the more important aspects was the setting of the boost reference regulator. This gauge was precisely set at 6 pounds and will await until the presence of boost before raising the fuel pressure. Although the engine sounded and ran well during our short stint on the rollers, we weren't able to adequately "play" with the tuning and the results fell a little short of what they should have been. Not to fret, as we plan to take another stab at it with jets and timing light in hand and give you a true number of increased ponies from our long-standing Camaro project.

We're pretty proud to have been able to help Vortech put together this blow-through supercharger package. We have to admit it looks pretty cool under the hood of this F-body. Just wait until we get it up to their dyno. Stay tuned for an update.