blowers on the highway

Assumption says some of you run blowers. I do know drive ratio is a concern for on road driving.

Are blowers capable of long distance highway travel at highway speeds? Example 700 mile round trip.

I have seen them in and around town and local roads go 20-30 mile to show or cruzin.

Yes they can be. A lot of factory production gas and Diesel engines have them on them.

Detroit diesels being one of them. Some detroits have both a blower and a turbo.

oop`s clarification

rat rods, street rods, customs, after mkt blowers.

No problem

The 71 series blowers are top notch.
Get a 671 or 871 and it will work flawless.
No worries.

No Problems

Ran a 351 Ford small block, 671 hampton setup. 20,000 or so including a 3000 mile road trip with the family to the F-100 Nat's in Pigon Forge, TN. It's all how you tune it, I ran mine 10 under and 20 degree total advance. Really bad mileage but ran great.

Two kids on the back, bucket seats, belts, videos.[cl

This was at the Cowboy Museum in OK City

I read one time in a car magazine that some hot rodder took the belts off of his blower when traveling to get better gas mileage. Any validity to that ?

Don

donsrods said:

I read one time in a car magazine that some hot rodder took the belts off of his blower when traveling to get better gas mileage. Any validity to that ?

Don

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No. think of an engine tuned to the air fuel mix while boosted and then remove the boost. On top of that add a huge restriction in the air flow path. What you get is a motor that will be horribly inefficient and will probably foul the plugs after about 40 miles. The belt removal idea came from if the car was overheating in traffic or if you tossed a belt then you could still get home.

I have a little Weiand 144 blower on my 350 chevy small block that is my full time family car. I've driven it close to 30,000 miles over the past two years including the full Power Tour in 2013. They are plenty reliable. I've had no problems with the blower itself. Weiand recommends checking the gear oil level every 1000 miles but I've only had to add oil once or twice. If you lose a belt you just lose the power the blower was adding, it still drives just fine.

i have never been real trusting of blowers on the street, i had some school mates killed when one ran away. also have a late buddy that took his off his vette because it had runaway on him more then once.

exador said:

Assumption says some of you run blowers. I do know drive ratio is a concern for on road driving.

Are blowers capable of long distance highway travel at highway speeds? Example 700 mile round trip.

I have seen them in and around town and local roads go 20-30 mile to show or cruzin.

Click to expand...

21willys said:

Yes they can be. A lot of factory production gas and Diesel engines have them on them.

Detroit diesels being one of them. Some detroits have both a blower and a turbo.

Click to expand...

I think the question is not really whether the blower is up to it (which they are, millions of them out there in use every day) but more importantly - is the engine itself up to the task? If you are running high boost, it is working the engine harder and steady high RPM will find the engines weaknesses. Take a cue from the OEMs running blowers, keeping the boost level at 10 PSI or lower. Use high quality engine internals, forged pistons, valvetrain components that are boost worthy, etc.. Slapping a blower on a stock engine that was never meant to run under boost and hitting the highway is a recipe for trouble.