We couldn't slap this blower...
We couldn't slap this blower on possibly the ugliest motor on the face of the planet, so we did a little bit of dress up prior to heading to the dyno.
We left off with our 350 test mule in the July issue, when we rebuilt the bottom end with a rotating assembly from Summit Racing and pumped out a driver-friendly 468hp and 443 lb-ft of torque. We were poised to drop this baby into a first- or second-generation hot rod and make a nice daily driver until Trick Flow Specialties suggested we take out the friendly in "driver friendly" and scare the pants off anyone at the wheel. What we're referring to is Trick Flow Specialties' new carbureted, Roots-style supercharger kit that will bolt right up to our budget small-block.
Trick Flow Specialties' supercharger unit is straight from Magnuson Products and features a 122 high-helix rotor package, which is designed to create more power and torque at a lower rpm than any other unit.
At this point, our small-block is equipped with Trick Flow's 445hp top-end kit, complete with 195cc cylinder heads and fully roller valvetrain. The cam measures 0.558/0.558 and 246/254 degrees of duration. Up top pre-supercharger was an Edelbrock Air Gap intake and a Summit Racing 750cfm carburetor.
Our mission was to simply bolt-on the Magnacharger, leaving the bottom end as is, to simulate exactly what the average gearhead would do. Our biggest fear was the Keith Black hypereutectic pistons that were a perfect match for our non-forced air application. After making some calls for advice from the manufacturer, we decided to shove on and run this baby as is and make insane horsepower. Tuning would be the key to keeping it healthy.
We headed over to B&B Automotive Machine in Lynbrook, New York, slapped on a 950cfm carburetor from Proform, put the pedal to the metal after some minor tweaking, and shocked the heck out of us all as the dyno graph appeared on the computer.
What was the outcome? Get this: 570-plus lb-ft of torque from 2,500 rpm all the way up to 4,500 rpm, a gain of approximately 140 lb-ft through the same rpm range. On the street, this motor is going to act like a completely different animal than it ever would have in N/A trim. At the hit of the throttle from a cruising roll, we expect any sort of street tire to absolutely explode or pin your head hard into the back of the headrest.
We spent a great deal of time tuning to ensure we weren't going to hurt our brave 350ci Mouse motor on 93-octane fuel. We examined at least two spark plugs after every single pull, swapped all eight out at one point for a colder set, checked the roller rocker arms, and watched water and oil temperature constantly. We started the day at 22 degrees of timing and ended at 27 degrees as the motor continued to make power up to that point. Check it out.
 First and foremost, we ripped...  First and foremost, we ripped off the stock balancer and broke out the flat black paint to cover up the off-shade of orange. This is a quick and cost-efficient way to dress up your engine. We used quick drying paint so we could quickly tackle some of the other goodies we had prepared. |  Summit Racing sent us a lot...  Summit Racing sent us a lot of chrome, including a set of valve covers, a fuel pump block off, timing chain cover,... |  ...balancer, oil pan, water...  ...balancer, oil pan, water pump, alternator, and a whole lot more... |
 ...Check out superchevy.com...  ...Check out superchevy.com for a web-exclusive look at everything we installed... |  ...to get our engine ready...  ...to get our engine ready for a car show. |  Then it was off to B&B Automotive...  Then it was off to B&B Automotive Machine. Using B&B will give us consistent results, as this is where we did our previous testing. Glenn Briglio has been more than helpful through the entire process. As usual, we were on and off the dyno in no time and they were prepared to try anything to make sure our engine was making power and making it safely. |