Any Supercharger Mavericks/Comets out there?

I just picked up a Thunderbird Super Coupe this weekend, and all I can say is Wow, what a thrill that is!

The supercharger on that 3.8L, puts my 5.0L to shame!

It got me thinking, I know people have done the EFI to the Maverick, and we even have someone on here who has put on a turbo charger on their car. This brings me to the question of the supercharger, has anyone done this as a mod on their Maverick/Comet? I think that it would be a real sleeper of a car!

I am familar with the pros and cons of the turbo and the supercharger, I am more interested in if anyone has done it before on this board.

Thanks!

 

my 70 is supercharged! todd says we need something. i say "super"! then we charge it at the parts store!

 

Thanks Scott, but some how that is not exactly what I had in mind when I posted this thread! LOL

 

hey dave did you get to swapping the 302?

 

Didn't you hear, you must of missed that post, I dropped in the 302 about a month ago!, and I just finished the putting a TKO 5 speed tranny, and my Currie rearend came this past Friday and got that swapped out this weekend! Whew! what a month! A lot of work and money, but I got it all done. The only problem that I ran into was that when I woke up, I realized I dreamt it all! j/k

Seriously, I am working full time, and have a full time college schedule taking automotive classes at the local college, and trying just keep up with everything else, besides my daily driver had to be replace, so that is why I bought the Thunderbird this weekend. These superchargers are more fun than I ever realized! I had thought about driving one of Mavericks as a daily, but I would rather keep them out of salt and snow if I can help it. So, with work and school it keeping me more than busy. Not much time to work on the Mavericks, but I am learning a lot!!!
Thanks for asking!

 

should I.....

ok, don't hate me but........... my wife's car is a supercharged sleeper ....... a 98 buick regal gs ....... 3.8 L w/ eaton twin screw type ....... 240hp ...... it is a blast to drive, only I work at the buick house here and those superchargers are mucho $$$$ to replace and they seem to go out around 80-100 thousand miles ...(ours has 90,000) anyway, they are fun .....
:bananaman :bananaman Robert
ps ... have left several ricers with jaws open at red lights (just don't tell my wife)
pps when this on goes out ..... just remove the belt and engine will still work fine

 

Lonnie,

To be honest I haven't investigated it too much, like I mentioned I picked up this Super Coupe T-Bird, and all I can say it that it's heck of fun car to drive!!!

It got me thinking about the Maverick, the sleeper idea really appeals to me. I had a 5.0L in my old T-Bird, and I thought it was fun, but it pales in comparison to the supercharged 3.8L.

I was thinking, Chandler has a blower on his Maverick, but I am not sure of his setup. Since your an Ohio neighbor, it would great to get to see your setup in person some time. At this point, I don't think I would go with the full size setup like yours, but since you have had other setups, and experience . . . it would great to hook up with you sometime and talk to you about them.

I am glad Comet Dad, spoke up as well, because it just reinforces the sleeper concept. Not much more to say other than, I always under estimated what a difference the supercharger can make. I love it when that boost kicks in! What a thrill! I can see why Lonnie loves his!

 

yes, the 6-71's arent too "sleeperish" at all. Loud, stick through the hood...but they will make great power, from idle. The turbo'd maverick...it was a blast to drive. Cheap set up, too, and I can point you in the right direction. Very stealthy..couldn't tell it wasn't just another stock 302 powered maverick by the sound, but when it spooled up it was a different story. I had one guy tell me at a stop light (in a '01 Vette) that I had a squeaky brake or wheel bearing when I got on it. LOL Tire smoke, easy at any speed, in any gear (70 mph burnouts were a breeze on the freeway...though very dangerous). I like the fact that roots-style blowers make instant power/throttle response, but I still think that the turbo's got it beat as far as being a street setup. Good luck.

 

blowers

I agree w/ Blown 76 the acceleration is a blast. My thinking was if I am going to spend the money I am going to show it off!!! I did look at the smaller blowers 4/71 and the mega blower, they all will wake up any small block, it just depends on what you are wanting to do. I have mine mostly on for show

 

wow

chandler, if the comet looked that good, I wouldn't want to hide it either ......... sleeper is neat, but just raw OOOOMMMPPPHH sticking through the hood ... man that's cool ........Robert
one day maybe.........(dream sequence here)

 

Know you heard the pro and cons but here it is again

Pros…

looks and sounds cool!

lots of power and torque!

roots type easy to install.. easier then any turbo or blow though set up.


Cons...

if your engine compartment is stock (untubed chassis, motor in original place, etc.) you will not be able to run a mech fan. you can run an electric fan only and most likely if you have a decent sized fan it will have to be a pusher! Not to mention that you will not be able to run a fan shroud either or at least a stock one.

the car will run hotter.. so if your car runs hot now I'd change some things ie: the radiator.

if your boosting insane boost you'll have to run high octane! yeah you can run pump gas if you don't take it into boost but what fun is that?

people will think you car is like way, way faster then it might really be. personally I think if you have something sticking out of the hood that damn thing better be hell of fast! It kinda reminds me when I raced this car with a 6-71 blower with duel carbs on it at the track… well let me put it to you this way.. he lost… bad! but you guys are right it will get way more looks with the hood off…. i tried it both ways… hood off and hood on… just depends on what you want to use the car for.

Conclusion

personally if I were to do this all over again i'd use a centrifugal supercharger, but their are pro and cons to that too! turbos are way cool however if you like the nightmare of the pluming and to make one run right i'd intercool it! not to meantion having fun putting an intercooler in front of a maverick. trust me i considered it at one time. turbonetics is one of my accounts and at the time i was going to do it but just don't have the patients to do it. anways i helped a friend put a turbo kit (key word… kit) in a honda and what a freakin nightmare with all the piping…made me never want to do one ever…. but when it ran the damn thing ran great! 400 plus hps to the wheels in a Honda!

Also the way I look at it you can drive anything on the street its just a matter of how long can you drive it on the street without it over heating, fouling out or getting a sore back while sitting in traffic?

Good luck in what you decide to do.

 

I have EFI on my 73 Comet and will if the opertunity occurrs, put a Kenne Bell on it.
I already have a K.B. on my 5L Lincoln.
Doing this to a Comet/Maverick will make it insane to drive on the street by comparison.

 

haa haa too late well let me ask you a bit more questions so maybe i can learn some here cuz i’m always open to new ideas and to hear someone’s opinion. i claim to know nothing but only on what i’ve seen and wrenched on myself. but then again i’ve pissed someone off hear before cuz I miss read something…lol sue me!

my question is what radiator did you use? if it’s the stock one or stock replacement one i’d really like to know how you got it to fit and i would love to see a picture. so when asked the question and what problems i’ve ran into well that was one of them. no way in hell was a mechanical fan was gonna work with the stock replacement radiator on the set up i had.

well when i mean traffic i mean los angeles rush hour traffic on a summer day moving 5 to 15 mph stop and go for a 1-1/2 hour commute. so yeah if I’m driving my car in a sanctioned event then yeah no problem. my definition of overheating is an abnormal temp, in other words if my car runs 160 most of the time and the thing climbs to 200.. to me… that’s overheating. however to most overheating is puking out fluids all over the place. do i think a motor stitting at 200 to 220 for 10 mins is good for the motor even though it ain’t pukein fluid… personally I don’t think so. would I rather be sitting at 160? hell yeah!

you might wanna enlighten me on this one but how much would you need to richen it up to cool it down.. cuz it seem rich enough already. i know it would depend on each app but educate me a bit cuz i would love to know how by richen it up how it would cool it down. this is not a sarcastic question.. i’d really like to know. and would like know how much would it really make a difference? all ears to Fuel mixture 101

wow nice deal… have you ever nailed it for a full ¼ mile? one thing you also must keep in mind is here in cali.. the best you’ll get it 91 octane off the pump (well you can get 100 but at 5.25 a gal I don’t consider that pump gas). also since you were running 19 psi on the stang do you think you would have been able to get a better time with the higher octane? whats your compression on the car with the 671? also were you running some sort of retard system (like an MSD BTM) on it?

ok this one i’m gonna have to put my foot down and say even the best tuned car will foul a plug… if you sitting at the staging lights and say you pull up next to someone with a Warren Johnson attitude your gonna foul out. will the car still run? yeah. would it have ran better if the idiot next to you wasn’t pretending to be Mr. Johnson?…. yeah it probably would. now i will agree with you and say if a car is fouling out a plug cruzing on the”hwy” say from ohio to cali… yeah there’s a problem. so back to my other question if i richen it up to cool it down, how do i keep it from fouling while sitting at a light on wilsihre blvd in downtown LA?

i agree with you that must choose what is right for you…

for me no trailer queens! if the car looks fast it better well be damn fast!

read this months Car Craft I think Mark Radielovic puts it right at the heart! he writes “We’ve all heard the tall tales, the claims, and the boasts coming form some braggart at the car show. He’s the one in the fill-in-the-blank muscle car with lot of chrome, big tires and loud exhaust. He might even have a roll bar and a fire extinguisher. Sure, his car will run in the 10’s but if it could hook up it would surely run in the 9’s. funny thing is that when you get him alone at a light after the car show with your 13-second ride, he wants nothing to do with you… Hmmm….” i don’t want to be one of those guys.

as far as a n/a vs a forced induction? i’d rather have a n/a and kick the pants of a induction car any day! just ask cometgt1974 I’m sure he’d agree. take for example… a maverick getting more attention then that 454 big block chevelle sitting right next to it… the best feeling in the world! a prime example my n/a will run a high 11 and kick my forced induction car back to the ford factory..why? it’s a show car not a race car.

ok i’m finished……… your turn, your move, I sank your battleship lol

 

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bananaman :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman

 

Hold the phone here a little bit.
I have more than 10 years building Briggs race motors from restricted to all out modifieds.
These motors running in the two major sanctioning bodies use straight alky for fuel.
While I don't disagree with most of what was said from the link for Briggs engines, you cannot relate all of it to water cooled gas engines.
For one thing when the outside temp is high and the humidity is very high at the same time, you cannot just cool these engines with more and more fuel. There comes a point where the richness or leaness results in much less combustion so temps will be low either way.
Reason is the alky mixes with the moisture in the air right at the carb. This will lean out the fuel mix and your right back to the heating problem again. Keep increasing jet size and the engine just blubbers from the water condensed at combustion and power goes to hell, cylinder temps can be all over the place and still not run.
Since every one suffers from the same problem at the same time, the individual engine setups that handles it the best are usually the winners.
Auto engine temps are controlled by coolant regulation so the only temps that mean anything are the exhaust temps that result from all the conditions that occurred just before the exhaust cycle.