Text By: Roger C. Johnson and Tim King
We all love normal atmospheric pressure. At 14.7 psi, it’s the perfect arrangement for humans and animals alike. It’s easy and natural to breathe and gives us all the power we need. You can also say the same about the engine in your car. In most cases, modern vehicles come off the assembly line with some form of a naturally aspirated power plant.
The combination works just fine for the vast majority of drivers. But that’s not us.
Since we’re always looking for smart ways to gain more horsepower, one of the best approaches is supercharging. It’s a device designed to grab Mother Nature by the scruff of the neck and shake her silly. Supercharging dramatically ups the ante on the pressure and quantity on your intake charge thereby making significantly more power for an internal combustion engine. Call it “unnatural aspiration”. The concept has been around for 131 years and even helped generate the power for some of history’s greatest prop-driven fighter planes.
As you might imagine, today’s state-of-the-science has brought power adder design to its highest level of sophistication. Supercharger manufacturer TorqStorm is now offering blow-through systems for carbureted and throttle-body fuel injected V8 applications. Their latest rendition consists of complete and fully integrated packages with the potential of generating up to 700 horsepower.
Specifications
The TorqStorm superchargers have a few improvements to help make them one of the best in the business. Their superchargers utilize 6061 billet aluminum gear housings, 3/4″ thick billet aluminum brackets along with a self contained oil supply. This means there’s no need to plumb oil lines to and from your motor, or tapping the oil pan and possibly getting contaminants in there.
This eight-rib system generates 6-8 lbs. of boost. What does that mean? This supercharger can produce up to 400 lb.-ft. of torque at just 2000 RPM’s. An impressive feat, let’s take a look at the process!
Installation
In order to test out their supercharger, TorqStorm reached out to a few companies for help. First was BluePrint engines, who supplied a 383 cubic-inch small-block Chevy specifically set up to handle boost. Pace Performance orchestrated all of this while Walden Automotive actually did the dyno testing.
Once receiving the BluePrint engine, Pace Peformance grabbed a four barrel Demon blow-through carburetor. A large discharge hose connects to the carburetor hat, with a blow-off valve in the middle. From the supercharger, V-band clamps are utilized to ensure a tight fit and precise angle. On the crank, a spacer is installed onto the harmonic balancer. They actually supply two different spacers, for both long and short water pumps to handle both configurations.
Dyno Tests
The proof is in the pudding right? Walden Automotive completed both pre and post pulls on the engine to see exactly how many horses were pushed out of the BluePrint small block.
In normally aspirated form, the 383 small block produced 440 HP and 472 lb.-ft. torque at 5,700 and 4,300 RPM’s respectively. With the supercharger system engaged, that same engine churned out 627 HP and 566 lb.-ft torque at 5,800 and 4,800 RPM respectively.
That’s an increase of 187 horsepower and 94 lb.-ft. of torque! Not bad at all for a few hours worth of work. To see all the applications TorqStorm offers, be sure to hop on their site!
Sources
TorqStorm Superchargers
Grand Rapids, MI
(616) 706-5580
Pace Performance
Boardman, OH
(888) 748-4655
BluePrint Engines
Kearney, NE
(800) 483-4263
Lamar Walden Automotive
Doraville, GA
(770) 449-0315