SHO-Z

I am planning on getting one of these on my slk230 supercharger http://www.rpmoutlet.com/lightaspm.htm and fabing up a new center hub. I would like to get my hands on one of the center hubs for the ford and see if I can make it work.

I am going to run the clutch, that is what is neat about this set up. The lighning pulley is for the lower, crank, pulley. I have an exel spread sheet put together calculating lower pulley againt boost levels. I think it is about 3 to one that is required for the 10 psi.

The supercharger is out of a SLK230, and I bought it on Ebay. It is an Eaton M62 with a 1 liter displacement. It is about 12" long overall with 4 thru bolts for mounting. The pulley is larger that any other supercharger I have seen. I found that an after market ford lightning pulley would work and they come from about 8 to 12 psi of boost on a 280 engine. Still would need a center addapter fabed. If you come up with a way to mount one on the other side I would like to see it. Most superchargers I have seen mounted on the spark plug side have been long shafts. With the taped connections on the side of the block for the air conditioner it is just so much simpler You make me feel bad with my 4x4 aluminum plenum compared with what you are having done. I will be fun to see what the final product runs like.

Being down low I should not have to much problem with the heat. This far forward on the engine all of the air would be passing through the radiator anyway and the temp. difference small. According to TonyD, one of the only members that has any really longtime experience with forced induction webers, the pressure in the float bowl need to be higher than the plenum side or the carbs will lean out. I was thinking about get a plenum from him that had a built in way with baffles to achieve this, but I guess the baffles are missing. So being and engineer had to come up with an alternate solution. The line goes from the supercharger to the top of the float bowls. If I find that the pressure is to high I will use the needle valve to bleed some of the pressure off back to the plenum.

The air filter next to the intercooler has a check valve down stream of it. I am mounting the supercharger where the AC unit use to be. Mounting is simpler there, and this is short shaft design on the supercharger so it need be well forward on the engine. I don't have a top so the AC is worth less. I have not figured out the belt routing and where to find one as short as this one will need to be. This is going to be supercharging on demand. Flick the switch and on it will go. I do think this would be neat on a FI engine!

Well I finally figured out how it is going to come together. Still working out the small details, like jetting. I did some calcs on the difference on pressure loss across the ventri between 14.7 psi and 24.7 psi and found that the jets would not need to be that much bigger, but I could be wrong. The supercharger is from an SLK Mercedes with an electric clutch so I can run it when I want to. After what TonyD informed me on having a higher pressure in the float bowls than the carbs I decided the best way is to run a seperate line from the super charger to the float bowls to get the pressure required. I can bleed off some of the pressure with the needle valve if required. The flow loss through the intercooler will take car of the needed pressure differental. I will be running a second air cleaner down stream of the intercooler with a check valve. With about 10 PSI of boost the old 280 engine should get some new life. This is the sketch of about how I hope it will come together.

I have a 260 but I think they are all alike. There are 2 flasher units one for the flashers and one for the turn signals. Mine quit working a while ago, ended up running a new hot wire to it.

What type of boost are you planning on running? There is going to be a large drop in boost when the supercharger goes into bypass. I did a simple look at it using my boost spread sheet. Using 10 PSI of boost from the supercharger as a base line and 10 going to it from the turbo will give you 28 psi to the engine. When you drop the supercharger of you are really going to get power drop. There are other dynamics involved in this and I do not believe to would be the entire 18 PSI change but it would be well over half of it. If you want a real flat power curve you might want to feed the turbo with the supercharger. There will be a point where the supercharger cannot keep up with the turbo’s air demand and a simple flapper valve could open and the super charger not doing any work of compression would be spinning with very little HP loss.

Wouldn’t it be better to use an air cooled intercooler? When you are not in boost your air into the compressor will be over 180 °F or 82 °C using the average engine temperature. With the all of the air going trough the turbo I would guess that is would be over 212 °F of 100 °C, not including the heat of compression of the turbo. There is also pressure loss across the intercooler of that size. I think it would be better to use an air cooled intercooler, especially with the air temps where you live. I have thought of a design like yours after someone else brought it up. I think a parallel system would work better. The compressor would run until a set RPM where the turbo pressure is the same as the supercharger. Using something like a rev limiter to trigger the valve between the 2 systems. A Mercedes SLK supercharger with its electric clutch would work neat on this set up. You would have to do a pressure / RPM graph of the 2 systems to figure the break point The turbo would need discharge its pressure until the trigger point to eliminate exhaust back pressure. A check valve would take care of the supercharger when the turbo is running. It is fun to think of all of the options on a system like you are building. Have fun and do it Safe.

Do you have any pics of the mounting bracket before you mounted the supercharger? I am planning on mounting mine where the AC compressor was, but would like other ideas. I have a concern on finding a serpentine belt short enough for my proposed location. Keep us informed on your progress.

It's going some where so here is a shade tree check. Go to get a test gauge for testing gas piping, and some 1/2 copper fittings to tie into your heater hose, they sell them at Lowes or Home Depot. Install it and fill the cooling system to the top and then pump in air. This way you can check it with the engine cold. I was a pipefitter for years so all of this stuff is still hanging around garage. Another place to look for a coolant leak is the heater valve. Check the passenger inside firewall. The O-ring on the valve breaks down over time.

It sounds like you are new to working on a motor. The engine turns Twice to every turn of the dizzy. Take off of the dizzy cap and look were the rotor is pointed when the timing marks are lined up. Put #1 spark plug there and use your firing order to set the rest. Try to start the engine. If it doesn't start and is firing back through the carb rotate the wires 180° around the dizzy cap. Keep it safe

Your Distributor is 180° out of the timing mark. Move your spark plug wire 180° around the cap and it should start.

From what I have researched if the carbs are tuned right the cause for high HC is weak ignition. I have read that using a multi spark ignition will solve most HC problems. I would go thru the carbs first and then do the ignition.

Unscrew the bottom drain plug and tap it for your connetion. IE no welding required. This is the safest way or use a bulkhead connection still no welding.

I work in Prudhoe Bay as an engineer for a union construction firm. We have not had problems getting welder, downhilll pipeliners. From what I hear from the nounion firms they are keeping there head above water with the welder on hand. Most firm really do not want rod burners directly out of school. You really need to be a pipefitter first and a welder second to survive. The maintinance work on the pipeline is union, DOT certs required. There was some work changing the pumps out that was done nounion by Veco Corp.

They use to say that you are not a pipe welder until you drove 1000 miles to test on a Nuc Power Plant Job. I did that so was a true pipe welder at one time I guess. I know that the "L" designator on SS came from Hanford. The Nuc industy is going to have a hard time starting up building power plants finding welder. The ones that built the last ones are either retired or blind. And the information that they had on the trick of the trade are being lost.

I looked at Summit Racing and they do not have tube end fittings. I am looking for tube end fittings. I need to install 3 of them in the float bowl vents so the need to be 1/8" tube size.

I am fabing my air box for my forced air webers and need to find some 1/4" or 1/8" bulkhead fittings for pressure connections. I would prefer brass not plastic. I know they make them, just can't find a vendor.

I didn't know that they made such an animal! Here is some info on Plasma arc welding, it is a good read. http://www.makinamuhendisi.com/mechanical/mechanical-engineering-archives/376-Plasma-Arc-welding.html

I might be looking at it wrong, but picture 2 has the float bowl vent on it for side drafts and the restrictions on the port would cause a pressure drop and might be what Tony D was talking about in another post for having a higher pressure in the float bowls than the carb throat. It would be interesting to get some pictured of the internals for my supercharged blow through side draft project.

The bellhousing used is out of a ford mini van so here where I would look. I would love for someone do get a SHO z running, but right now there are so many 3.0 V6 out there with all aluminum blocks and equal HP the options there.

I got somewhat started installing a SHO in my Z. Do a search for the whole story. This engine is real tall. I figured that I would need to cut the pan around an 1-1/2 to get ground clearance. The water goes in the bellhousing end of the engine. I do have a couple of pictures of the engine on a bench and the intake sitting on top of my engine. Send me a PM with your email address and I will send you the pics and the wiring spread sheet that I put together. There was a real good website about installing one in a Healey, do a search. Here is my input several years ago. I have just returned the SHO motor to the wrecking yard that I bought if from. After 4 months of waiting, 3 wrong bell housings and no transmission, I have given up on this project. I did receive a full refund on the motor and parts. What Went Right. 1. When I bought the parts, everything from one source, I gave them a full list of everything I needed, including year and model. I kept a copy of this for my reference. 2. I learned a lot about the engine and wiring harness. The SHO is very tall. To install properly the pan depth needs to be shortened about 1-1/2†at least to get around 3†of ground clearance. To install correctly the firewall need to be notched to clear the water outlet and the rear of the air plentum. This will move the motor back enough so the harmonic balancer will not be sitting directly on top of the steering rack. 3. With the right books and patience the wiring harness is not as bad as it looks. 4. When I confronted them that the transmission is a 1994 T5 shown on my list I received my money back even with my modifications to the wiring harness. What Went Wrong. 1. I didn’t wait until all of the parts were in one pile. I accepted them in a piecemeal order. The motor one day the drive shaft, bell housing another. 2. I really should have gotten better dimensions of the engine. Take pictures of a motor out of a car from all directions and take them with you and get ever dimension that you might need marked on the photo. If I had to do it again I would have the wrecking yard initial my list of needed parts. I would have done more research on the dimensions and weight on this motor. I am still planning on some type of conversion for my 260Z convertible but will do more research next time. Lessons Learned

I towed my Z from WA to AZ on a dolly with a 91 4runner and it killed the the toy. It did ok on the flats but put it on a grade and it was overmaxed and overheating. So rule it out especialy in the mile high.